I initially was extremely dissapointed by the lack of an HD in the Wii, but now it looks like a major selling point to me. I don't need to worry about patches, or incomplete games with additional "episodes" to complete the product.
Wow, you've just sold me a Wii*.
Having the full game is very important to me. The people who actually buy games (rather than aquire them) do so because of some in built desire to collect. You see it in Record buffs, and movie buffs. It's a strong desire (in geeky men at least), and it effects me too; I'm proud of my gamecube collection, knowing that I can dip in at anytime. It's something to treasure (hence why backwards compatibility is so important).
If you start shipping games that get constant extra content to buy with micro-transactions then I know that unless I buy everything my collection isn't complete - and to be truely honest - that kills the desire to collect these games. When I'm browsing the shops and see a game on sale (at a reasonable price), I will pick it up on a wim - I know the total cost of ownership. But if micro-payments become the norm - like how sony and microsoft hope - then I will look at the same game and wonder how much it will cost to get everything I want from the game, and most likely end up walking by.
(* or at least put the final nail in the coffin of my wallet.)
It should start episodic, and it should be cheap. First episode is $10. Second is $10. Third is $10....
I totally agree with you, If you doing something, do it totally.
1) Advertising in your game? = Make the game free
2) Episodic content? = Do from the start with the same price throughout.
3) Pay up front? = You get the whole game.
Do anything of these, and if your game looks good, I'm on board. But MIX any of the above together and you lose me and my money.
I'm not spending £50 on a game full stop. And then if you expect me to drop another couple of quid to get horse armour then you are sadly mistaken. I know people will say "But you don't have to buy it if you don't want to." And they are right, but I do want it, but I don't want them drip feeding my wallet. as I play the game I will wonder about the parts I'm missing, whether it's unbalancing my game or spoiling it. And that puts me off buying the game in the first place.
I want to come home after a day at work and now I have the full game sitting on my shelf for whenever I want to play it.
So far it seems nintendo are sticking with 3) and 3) alone - and as long as they do - I will stick with them.
"to the minor's morbid interest in violence." If the title meets these "criteria" the game could be ordered to be pulled from store shelves.
So they've incriminated most of the game playing populace and pulling games completely instead of just rating games inappropriate for minors? They may as well have mass burningd of the games in the street.
This is a perfect example of generation X. Like Rap, Rock and Roll, Cinema those who were born before it, don't understand it and fear it - so try and ban it. It's only when those people die off that the medium can be excepted as an art form.
Just give the game an 18 certificate (or a restricted or whatever you use in the US for movies) and move on. It's so simple it's untrue.
The only things that are decent are things that add to the game, such as actual restaraunts in Crazy Taxi, or EA's use of actual songs for their soundtracks (in Burnout for example).
Just nitpicking - but did you play the first burnout? It had a beautiful adaptive soundtrack that would increase in BPM, number of instruments and intensity as you went faster or as time ran out. It was completely adaptive to what was happening as it was being composed on the fly, and made the game far more intense and enjoyable - in my opinion.
By comparison the later generic MTV drivel adds nothing to the game and only takes away from it. Again in my opinion.
At the very least a good compromise would be to hire the latest MTV starlets to compose a progressive adaptive instrumental to serve the same purpose as the songs in burnout 1 - but that would require a lot of work, talent - and more importantly (and tragically) those type of songs wouldn't fit on an album anywhere and so not lead to "horizontal sales" - so not being worth while.
PS I will defiantly be basing my purchasing decisions on ads. Even if it means me giving up on future gens and filling out a back catalogue of current ad free games.
Disclaimer - this post includes angry fucking retoric, and swearing with an english slant
I hate the way that these advertising arseholes have found an untapped niche, where people relax away from the fucking stressful world and realised they can rape it of it's innocence and beauty in exchange for a quick buck. It isn't ok and it isn't right.
The marketing dickshits are currently at step 2 of their plan. The stage where they tell us all we are ok with what they want to do - to soften us up for when they fuck over our games. I would bet a large amount of money these are rigged surveys. Or at least the ones that give you options like:
If games contained advertising then would you:
a) stop buying games altogether
b) Buy more games than ever before.
If you saw a product advertised in a game then would you:
a) Buy it
b)Kill yourself
And don't just think you can just play nice fantasy and sci-fi games that avoid this advertising. You won't. Those games will dramaticcally fall in production when the industry realises that without the advertising revune these projects ar emuch less rewarding.
Oh and I know how games with no loading screens are really important to you. But your fucked. They will have no incentive to decrease load times when they use them as billboards. If anything they will increase.
Give me the game or free and I haven't a problem with ads. But if I buy the fucking thing with my own fucking money then I bought the right to have a few beautiful hours of my life sans adverts for fucking once. (like how slashdot works). There is no in between. If your business can't support those revenue models there is something fundamentally wrong with what you are doin and no amount of advertising will save you.
There haven't been many games announced for the Wii by 3rd parties. Red Steel, Madden, Super Monkey Ball, and Sponebob are all I can think of off the top of my head. There will be more, but not at launch (we're not even sure about the above).
The top off your head isn't the best place to decidie things like that. This is the official upcoming games list announaced at E3 As you can see they have a lot of support. 77 games announced before launch is amazing compared to the gamecube. (FYI: These aren't launch titles but are the first announced - they plan to have 20 titles at launch.) Disclaimer from the Nintendo press site - someone was kind enough to post their login details on a forum I use. These are copied and pasted from a pdf - hence the formatting problems - I'll bold the developers but I cant be bothered to arrange them:
Tony Hawk's Downhill JamTM
MarvelTM: Ultimate Alliance Activision
Call of Duty® 3
AQ Interactive Boxing Action
Atari Dragon Ball Z Budokai: Tenkaichi 2
Atlus Trauma Center: Second Opinion
BANPRESTO Family Action Game
Disney's Chicken Little: Ace in Action
Buena Vista Games
Disney's Meet the Robinsons
CapcomResident Evil series
SIMPLE series
D3Publisher
Original Action Game
Eidos Title TBD
Madden NFL '07
Electronic Arts
Medal of Honor Airborne
EPOCH Title TBD
From Software Action Game
Genki Title TBD
BOMBERMAN LAND
HUDSON SOFT
Flight Game
JALECO Title TBD
KOEI Sengoku Action
Elebits
Konami Digital Entertainment
Soccer Game
Majesco Bust-A-Move Revolution
BOKUJO MONOGATARI
Heroes
KAWA NO NUSHITSURI Marvelous Interactive
Original Simulation
Mastiff Mr. D. Goes to Town (working title)
The Ant Bully
Midway Games
Happy Feet
New Vertical Scroll Shooting Game
MILESTONE
New Action Game
Character Action Game
MTO
SAN-X All-star Revolution
FINAL FURLONG
Mobile Suit GUNDAM
SD GUNDAM G BREAKER
DIGIMON
ONE PIECE UNLIMITED ADVENTURE
New Action Game
New RPG
TAMAGOTCHI
NAMCO BANDAI Games
Title TBD
Natsume (developed by Marvelous) Harvest Moon
Disaster: Day of CrisisTM
Excite TruckTM
Fire EmblemTM
Metroid® Prime 3: Corruption
Project H.A.M.M.E.R. TM
Super Mario® Galaxy
The Legend of Zelda®: Twilight Princess
WarioWareTM: Smooth Moves
Nintendo
Wii Sports
Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz
SEGA
SONIC WILD FIRE
SNK Metal Slug Anthology
Necro-Nesia
Spike
Jawa
CODENAME: FINAL FANTASY® CRYSTAL
CHRONICLES: Crystal BearersTM
SQUARE ENIX
DRAGON QUEST SWORDSTM: The Masked
Queen and the Tower of MirrorsTM
Turn IT around!!
Let's go by train!
TAITO
Cooking Mama -Cooking with International
Friends-
TECMO Super Swing Golf PANGYA
The Game Factory Title TBD
Avatar: The Last Airbender
SpongeBob SquarePants:
Creature from the Krusty Krab THQ
Disney/Pixar Cars
Action Game
TOMY
Battle Action
Open Season
Rayman Raving Rabbids Ubisoft
RED STEEL
Vivendi Universal Games Title TBD
Great points, but with one (tiny) flaw in your argument. Your talking about Mouse vs Wii, and the original poster was talking about wii versus joypad. The reason Halo was "Meh" on the PC was because it was designed with the slower joypad in mind. With the mouse it's a lot easier to have enemies above and below you, which isn't the case with a joypad.
People are excited by the Wii because the remote offers the ability to almost match, match or supass the speed, accuracy and crucially fun that a mouse and keyboard offers - whilst still allowing you to still sit on your sofa.
Thats a big deal to people - but obviously till we play the games (and maybe not till the 2nd generation games) we wont know how well they've done at this.
But as snake oil goes, at least this one is different - and thats always good.
I think thats the best outcome, let us get bored, adn problem's over.
If I ran nintendo's marketing I would have a really edgy rude literal piss take of the name teaser tv adverts.to get peoples attention - and then let it die out. If they acknowledge the urine gags first in the advertising I only think it will help the system.
We are a tiny subset of their audience to be honest, and a silly name will get them in everything from FHM to the Guardian - so it can only help them to be honest.
wonder if they'll continue to manufacture the current Nintendo DS and offer it at a lower price than the Lite, or if they'll discontinue the current DS?
If I recall correctly (contractions be damned), I remember an article where they said they would faze out the old DS over the next year or so. And to be honest that makes perfect sense. The SP and Micro occupy different spaces, one for portability and one for a more comfortable experience and larger screen (they both use the same screen tech now). But the original DS doesn't hold enough cards over the Lite to remain in production.
I've had a Lite for about a fortnight now, and passed my old DS onto my girlfriend (which actually means I finally have one to play thanks to her obsession with nintendogs, and harvest moon (GBA)), and trust me when I say it is worth an upgrade.
I never had a problem with my DS but the revelation in screen quality is as big a jump as the GBA to SP transition to me now I look back. With the DS there is banding of uneven brightness across the screen but even playing on the lowest setting of the lite the picture is so much stronger, more uniform and greater contrast. I literally played the whole of Kirby Canvas Curse again on the Lite because the better screen made it look so much better. Where as before I just thought of it having bog standard platformer graphics, upon replaying it I noticed the beautiful details of the backgrounds and was blown away. It is literally as good as any of the new "glossy" laptop screens,if not better and shows no lag or ghosting which I've noticed on GTA: LCS on the PSP (but that may be just that game - I don't want a flame war.).
The only flaw is that gba games stick out of the bottom, this is more annoying than you think it will be - and has cut down the amount of gba games I play as I cant be bothered to take them separately when I travel.
I know a lot of people are worried about there big hands on a small console, but don't worry if anything it much more comfortable than the DS in my opinion, and allows you to reach your thumb over to the screen to control games like Metriod Hunters and Mario 64. I would still wait till you can get one in your hands and try it, but my big hands much prefer it.
Most games these days try really hard to be like movies, and provide "cinematic experiences." As Game developers believe this is a route to respect for this new art form. They are, of course, wrong (in my opinion at least). And fail because for true success in an art form you have to eventually abandon the traits of older more established ones.
So making a film based on a flawed attempt at making a film is two steps away from making a film. And that is a Bad Idea.
Of course the 360 was too cheap. Look at what they went for on eBay.
Microsoft obviously failed to find the appropriate point on the supply/demand curve for the market.
Come on people, although this is true don't say it! Whats next? Shall we write articles pointing out we would still buy the new zeldas if they slapped another tenner on the price?
That said, they wouldn't be setting a precedent if they did raise clockspeed. Anybody remember the addon for the N64 that added more graphics memory? It enabled some games to run at higher framerates, with more detail. How is that any different from higher clockspeed in the 360? You have your "normal" mode that the game is targetted at, then you have your "enhanced" mode where more CPU power enables some more detail or features. That is no different than what Nintendo did with the N64.
Except it's completely different. Going out and buying a new memory upgrade that sits in you N64 is an option open to everyone (Except it fragments your audience because not everyone wanted to drop £30 on one). But with the 360 to get the better graphics you would need a new Xbox. Even Microsoft aren't that stupid to treat their early adopters like that.
I write music that can't be (read: you wouldn't want to) performed.
Do artists like me just "not exist" in this imaginary world, or do we all go get day jobs instead?
good point - though I would argue that your music is also quite a niche and because of that would be quite sustainable in other ways. From your sig I asume your talking about electronica - and that falls into the clubbing culture that is a different kettle of fish, I admit. But, like the poster stays above - most electronica can be transformed by a live performance, where the talented creater shifts his pace and style in response to the dancers. At least that's whats happened at the best nights I've been at at.
An extremely substantial percentage of people who listen to music do NOT go to live venues.
I guess thats about right too. But I argued about creating a gig culture, not that one already exists. How many people playing on the radio ever play near you. I'm not saying they should, or could, play gig's everywhere - but I do believe it should be there primary vocation - not going on tv to push themselves.
Most bands will never make it as a profitable venture. I'd like to know exactly how all of this digital music advertising is going to get the bands enough scratch to pay the bills generated by the rental of larger venues.
I think it's well known that most bands currently don't make it as a profitable venture, with a very very small minority being very very successful, and everyone else going bust. I'm arguing there are more good bands than succesful ones this current market can support.
Really, the only way most bands will ever play a stadium or concert hall is by having financial backing from some wealthy third party.
I never suggested that this way of music production would be able to support those venues, though there would still be the very few insanely successful bands that would, but the business model would be more based around "the long tail."
And if all you ever do is play bars, well... the life and scope of your band is limited.
I think this is what reveals your true feelings about the subject - you like it how it currently is. I like the idea of my kids growing up with weekly small intimate gigs, not in bars, but not in big venues. WIth role models they meet, and see and can judge. Not watch on television.
Most bands can't even afford the cost of professional recording. And despite what some guys with a $500 card and Cubase would have you believe, you need really good equipment and a talented recording engineer to make a really good demo. I've got $2500 in microphones in my little home studio.
I understand totally - and know the difference it can make. But with a greater number of low to medium level succesful bands I believe a market to hire and use these facilities would be created putting them within the reach of "the bar giggers."
I don't want to see music become free, unless the artists who made it choose it to be.
I couldn't agree more, I want the artists to want it to be free.
Music in the digital age can be copied and will be copied. That doesn't have to be a bad thing, In a way it acts like radio. How much stuff do you "aquire" only to never get "into" or appreciate.
This is how the record industry, wait, music industry should be. The digital music is the advert to get you to go to the live gigs Where they make their money.
People complain endlessly about the lack of things for teenagers to do, and a gigging culture would benefit that endlessly.
This would have the benefit of solving most of our problems with "pop" today. You can't sing live? You can't make any money. On the plus side you can rapidly cut down on the people and skills you need to smooth you recorded sounds waves into something presentable, in your "adverts."
Music will not die. You can kill a record industry, but you cant kill a music industry. It's whether people except that maybe being a successful musician shouldn't mean that you earn more money than a brain surgeon.
The powerhouses try to tell us that if piracy kills them that will be the end of music full stop. And that would be a Bad Thing. But it wouldn't be the end, and a world with free music and constantly gigging artists, could even be better.
Disclaimer: THis is paraphrased from a previous comment on the subject, but I'm leaving soon, and don't have time to write a new one - I hope it still makes sense, and I realise it's a shitty thing to do. Karmna whoring and all.
We've enjoyed a medium near enough free from advertising. And it is our duty to preserve this. If I pay £40 (and next gen £50) to buy a game, I buy the freedom from ads. You can put them in, but then you must make the game free. There is no middle ground. An XBOX 360 game full of ads won't cost less than some fantasy game that doesn't have them. If you think it will, I am sorry but you are fooling yourself. All it does is succeed in making genres that are not "advertising friendly" less financially viable.
Just because american TV lost the battle to product placement (as the UK might, if the EU stops product placement being illegal), that doesn't mean it's ok for games to lose too. Because this is what this is - Product Placement.
And most importantly I think it's fair to say most people who play games on slashdot want games to be seen as art. Want them to be acknowledged as a new , creative and meaningful media. And how can that happen if the people making the game have no fucking respect for their own creations.
To quote the late, great, Bill Hicks:
"Here's the deal, folks. You do a commercial - you're off the artistic roll call, forever. End of story. Okay? You're another whore at the captialist gang bang and if you do a commercial, there's a price on your head. Everything you say is suspect and every word that comes out of your mouth is now like a turd falling into my drink." - Bill Hicks
Re:comments from a non-gamer... awesome
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Going To Boot Camp
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Thanks for the comments, that's interesting, and the biggest selling point to vista to date.
And yes, I'm a console gamer. I've got a DS, a Gamecube, and when it arrives this week a dreamcast. I sit in front of a pc all day, and when I get home a comfy chair in front of a TV is far more appealing.
Re:comments from a non-gamer... awesome
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Has this idiot never played FarCry before? Of course it starts out at a default, low resolution. And of course you can set it higher, if you want.
Whilst this has nothing to do with the whole windows/os x debate, I didn't want to let this slide.
I gave up on PC games because of this. I want to sit down and play a game. Not sit down and spend hours fiddling with graphic settings. I hated it when I thought I had got Morrowind running fine, then I would hit a "busy" place, or scene or battle, and it would slow right down, and I would have to go back to the settings page.
It's a constant nag in your head. "Is this giving me the optimum experience, should I reduce the quality in exchange for frame rate". And it's not fun for me.
I know people like to tinker. Hell I use Linux daily, and I understand that joy. But fiddling with settings kill's the "imersion" for me. Imagine what Ocarina of Time would have been like if the first time you walked out onto the field of Hyrule, instead of thoughts on the wonderful possibilites stretching out infront of you, the first thing that popped into your head was "Frame rate's taken a hit, lets reduce settings again."
If a game company can't automatically work out what settings your game should be running at - then they've failed at their job.
(P.S. If anybody replies that I just need a better computer, then well done, you have a massive e-penis.)
The Revolution (like the 360) uses normal sized DVD disks. It's front loading slot also accepts the "mini" DVD gamecube disks. There is no word if these disks are read differently to normal DVDs (reading from outside to inside etc). An internal attachment will be available to purchase to enable the play back of DVDs. This feature is not as standard as nintendo argued most people have DVD players so they would only be wasting money on the license.
It should be noted this is the first time a slot loading drive can except mini disks (mac owners will understand that this is impressive at least!).
I hear stories like this all the time, and from my friends with PSP's they say the same things (hmmm, anecdotal), but when I go into any GAME/Virgin/HMV etc the PSP UMD section outstrips the entire DS section. A console with comparable success*. This was particularly annoying when I was walking to every shop in town desperate for a Nintedogs Mulitpack, which had sold out everywhere.
It makes me wonder how much Sony (and now MS with the 360) are paying to make their brands look popular.
And I don't think it's untrue when I say that a sizeable amount of the hate for Nintendo comes from the way these shops are set up.
* Most evidence suggests the DS far outstrips the PSP in sales, but I avoided saying that because that's not the point I'm trying to make.
Spot on Mister. It kind of breaks down like this (in my experience):
Fun, cool, bright, happy games please" - Pokemon, Mario, Katamari D, Sonic, Nintendogs, Zelda, Animal Crossing, Eye Toy. The Sims. Games for presents.
12 - 18 == "Dude, I don't want no kiddie shit, I'm not buying a DS/Rev it has numbers which are smaller than this other consoles numbers!" - GTA, EA games, Juiced, Need for Speed, Pimp my Noun.Generic FPS N+1, Final Fantasy Semester - whilst scraping money together for a game, and pirating like mad.
16 - 20 == "Dude, this is Old School!" - GTA, Resident Evil N+1, PoP: 1,2,3, Sonic, Mario, Shoot em ups and only the Good RPGs.
20+ == " Fuck my life is busy, stressful and tense, so fun, cool, bright, happy games please!" - Pokemon, Mario, Katamari D, Sonic, Nintendogs, GTA, Resident Evil 4, PoP: Sands of Time, Zelda, (RPG's are too long now.). I've got money, so I'll buy games (but only good ones).
As a 24yr old, I feel Nintendo are the only company that care about making games I would like, rather than the 12-18 brand of player. And now I BUY those games because I can afford to, and because they deserve it.
John Epstein
Double Fusion -
"TV advertising is increasingly viewed with concern because of commercial skipping and lack of engagement. Games are the most powerful advertising medium that exists today."
TFA links to an article within which he says:
"Don't tell me you'd stop playing Grand Theft Auto if you saw a Gap ad instead of some generic fake brand."
Yes I would. GTA has satirical adverts. They criticise the media, the insulting way they treat the public, and make an good social comment which improve the game no end. This is what sets it apart from EA rip offs.
We've enjoyed a medium near enough free from advertising. And it is our duty to preserve this. If I pay £40 (and next gen £50) to buy a game, I buy the freedom from ads. You can put them in, but then you must make the game free. There is no middle ground. An XBOX 360 game full of ads won't cost less than some fantasy game that doesn't have them. If you think it will, I am sorry but you are fooling yourself. All it does is succeed in making genres that are not "advertising friendly" less financially viable.
Just because american TV lost the battle to product placement (as the UK might, if the EU stops product placement being illegal), that doesn't mean it's ok for games to lose too. Because this is what this is - Product Placement.
And most importantly, I think it's fair to say most people who play games on slashdot want games to be seen as art. Want them to be acknowledged as a new , creative and meaningful media. And how can that happen if the people making the game have no fucking respect for their own creations.
To quote the late, great, Bill Hicks:
"Here's the deal, folks. You do a commercial - you're off the artistic roll call, forever. End of story. Okay? You're another whore at the captialist gang bang and if you do a commercial, there's a price on your head. Everything you say is suspect and every word that comes out of your mouth is now like a turd falling into my drink." - Bill Hicks
Slashdot Mirror
Wow, you've just sold me a Wii*.
Having the full game is very important to me. The people who actually buy games (rather than aquire them) do so because of some in built desire to collect. You see it in Record buffs, and movie buffs. It's a strong desire (in geeky men at least), and it effects me too; I'm proud of my gamecube collection, knowing that I can dip in at anytime. It's something to treasure (hence why backwards compatibility is so important).
If you start shipping games that get constant extra content to buy with micro-transactions then I know that unless I buy everything my collection isn't complete - and to be truely honest - that kills the desire to collect these games. When I'm browsing the shops and see a game on sale (at a reasonable price), I will pick it up on a wim - I know the total cost of ownership. But if micro-payments become the norm - like how sony and microsoft hope - then I will look at the same game and wonder how much it will cost to get everything I want from the game, and most likely end up walking by.
(* or at least put the final nail in the coffin of my wallet.)
I totally agree with you, If you doing something, do it totally.
1) Advertising in your game? = Make the game free
2) Episodic content? = Do from the start with the same price throughout.
3) Pay up front? = You get the whole game.
Do anything of these, and if your game looks good, I'm on board. But MIX any of the above together and you lose me and my money.
I'm not spending £50 on a game full stop. And then if you expect me to drop another couple of quid to get horse armour then you are sadly mistaken. I know people will say "But you don't have to buy it if you don't want to." And they are right, but I do want it, but I don't want them drip feeding my wallet. as I play the game I will wonder about the parts I'm missing, whether it's unbalancing my game or spoiling it. And that puts me off buying the game in the first place.
I want to come home after a day at work and now I have the full game sitting on my shelf for whenever I want to play it.
So far it seems nintendo are sticking with 3) and 3) alone - and as long as they do - I will stick with them.
"to the minor's morbid interest in violence." If the title meets these "criteria" the game could be ordered to be pulled from store shelves.
So they've incriminated most of the game playing populace and pulling games completely instead of just rating games inappropriate for minors? They may as well have mass burningd of the games in the street.
This is a perfect example of generation X. Like Rap, Rock and Roll, Cinema those who were born before it, don't understand it and fear it - so try and ban it. It's only when those people die off that the medium can be excepted as an art form.
Just give the game an 18 certificate (or a restricted or whatever you use in the US for movies) and move on. It's so simple it's untrue.
Just nitpicking - but did you play the first burnout? It had a beautiful adaptive soundtrack that would increase in BPM, number of instruments and intensity as you went faster or as time ran out. It was completely adaptive to what was happening as it was being composed on the fly, and made the game far more intense and enjoyable - in my opinion.
By comparison the later generic MTV drivel adds nothing to the game and only takes away from it. Again in my opinion.
At the very least a good compromise would be to hire the latest MTV starlets to compose a progressive adaptive instrumental to serve the same purpose as the songs in burnout 1 - but that would require a lot of work, talent - and more importantly (and tragically) those type of songs wouldn't fit on an album anywhere and so not lead to "horizontal sales" - so not being worth while.
PS I will defiantly be basing my purchasing decisions on ads. Even if it means me giving up on future gens and filling out a back catalogue of current ad free games.
I hate the way that these advertising arseholes have found an untapped niche, where people relax away from the fucking stressful world and realised they can rape it of it's innocence and beauty in exchange for a quick buck. It isn't ok and it isn't right.
The marketing dickshits are currently at step 2 of their plan. The stage where they tell us all we are ok with what they want to do - to soften us up for when they fuck over our games. I would bet a large amount of money these are rigged surveys. Or at least the ones that give you options like:
If games contained advertising then would you:
a) stop buying games altogether
b) Buy more games than ever before.
If you saw a product advertised in a game then would you:
a) Buy it
b)Kill yourself
And don't just think you can just play nice fantasy and sci-fi games that avoid this advertising. You won't. Those games will dramaticcally fall in production when the industry realises that without the advertising revune these projects ar emuch less rewarding.
Oh and I know how games with no loading screens are really important to you. But your fucked. They will have no incentive to decrease load times when they use them as billboards. If anything they will increase.
Give me the game or free and I haven't a problem with ads. But if I buy the fucking thing with my own fucking money then I bought the right to have a few beautiful hours of my life sans adverts for fucking once. (like how slashdot works). There is no in between. If your business can't support those revenue models there is something fundamentally wrong with what you are doin and no amount of advertising will save you.
Tony Hawk's Downhill JamTM MarvelTM: Ultimate Alliance Activision Call of Duty® 3 AQ Interactive Boxing Action
Atari Dragon Ball Z Budokai: Tenkaichi 2
Atlus Trauma Center: Second Opinion
BANPRESTO Family Action Game Disney's Chicken Little: Ace in Action
Buena Vista Games Disney's Meet the Robinsons
Capcom Resident Evil series SIMPLE series
D3Publisher Original Action Game
Eidos Title TBD Madden NFL '07
Electronic Arts Medal of Honor Airborne
EPOCH Title TBD From Software Action Game Genki Title TBD BOMBERMAN LAND
HUDSON SOFT Flight Game
JALECO Title TBD KOEI Sengoku Action Elebits
Konami Digital Entertainment Soccer Game Majesco Bust-A-Move Revolution BOKUJO MONOGATARI Heroes KAWA NO NUSHITSURI Marvelous Interactive Original Simulation Mastiff Mr. D. Goes to Town (working title) The Ant Bully
Midway Games Happy Feet New Vertical Scroll Shooting Game
MILESTONE New Action Game Character Action Game MTO SAN-X All-star Revolution FINAL FURLONG Mobile Suit GUNDAM SD GUNDAM G BREAKER DIGIMON ONE PIECE UNLIMITED ADVENTURE New Action Game New RPG TAMAGOTCHI
NAMCO BANDAI Games Title TBD
Natsume (developed by Marvelous) Harvest Moon Disaster: Day of CrisisTM Excite TruckTM Fire EmblemTM Metroid® Prime 3: Corruption Project H.A.M.M.E.R. TM Super Mario® Galaxy The Legend of Zelda®: Twilight Princess WarioWareTM: Smooth Moves
Nintendo Wii Sports Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz
SEGA SONIC WILD FIRE
SNK Metal Slug Anthology Necro-Nesia Spike Jawa CODENAME: FINAL FANTASY® CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: Crystal BearersTM
SQUARE ENIX DRAGON QUEST SWORDSTM: The Masked Queen and the Tower of MirrorsTM Turn IT around!! Let's go by train!
TAITO Cooking Mama -Cooking with International Friends-
TECMO Super Swing Golf PANGYA The Game Factory Title TBD Avatar: The Last Airbender SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab THQ Disney/Pixar Cars Action Game
TOMY Battle Action Open Season Rayman Raving Rabbids Ubisoft RED STEEL Vivendi Universal Games Title TBD
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Title TBD
People are excited by the Wii because the remote offers the ability to almost match, match or supass the speed, accuracy and crucially fun that a mouse and keyboard offers - whilst still allowing you to still sit on your sofa.
Thats a big deal to people - but obviously till we play the games (and maybe not till the 2nd generation games) we wont know how well they've done at this.
But as snake oil goes, at least this one is different - and thats always good.
(Except Loco Roco - that looks awesome!)
If I ran nintendo's marketing I would have a really edgy rude literal piss take of the name teaser tv adverts.to get peoples attention - and then let it die out. If they acknowledge the urine gags first in the advertising I only think it will help the system.
We are a tiny subset of their audience to be honest, and a silly name will get them in everything from FHM to the Guardian - so it can only help them to be honest.
If I recall correctly (contractions be damned), I remember an article where they said they would faze out the old DS over the next year or so. And to be honest that makes perfect sense. The SP and Micro occupy different spaces, one for portability and one for a more comfortable experience and larger screen (they both use the same screen tech now). But the original DS doesn't hold enough cards over the Lite to remain in production.
I've had a Lite for about a fortnight now, and passed my old DS onto my girlfriend (which actually means I finally have one to play thanks to her obsession with nintendogs, and harvest moon (GBA)), and trust me when I say it is worth an upgrade.
I never had a problem with my DS but the revelation in screen quality is as big a jump as the GBA to SP transition to me now I look back. With the DS there is banding of uneven brightness across the screen but even playing on the lowest setting of the lite the picture is so much stronger, more uniform and greater contrast. I literally played the whole of Kirby Canvas Curse again on the Lite because the better screen made it look so much better. Where as before I just thought of it having bog standard platformer graphics, upon replaying it I noticed the beautiful details of the backgrounds and was blown away. It is literally as good as any of the new "glossy" laptop screens,if not better and shows no lag or ghosting which I've noticed on GTA: LCS on the PSP (but that may be just that game - I don't want a flame war.).
The only flaw is that gba games stick out of the bottom, this is more annoying than you think it will be - and has cut down the amount of gba games I play as I cant be bothered to take them separately when I travel.
I know a lot of people are worried about there big hands on a small console, but don't worry if anything it much more comfortable than the DS in my opinion, and allows you to reach your thumb over to the screen to control games like Metriod Hunters and Mario 64. I would still wait till you can get one in your hands and try it, but my big hands much prefer it.
So making a film based on a flawed attempt at making a film is two steps away from making a film. And that is a Bad Idea.
Microsoft obviously failed to find the appropriate point on the supply/demand curve for the market.
Come on people, although this is true don't say it! Whats next? Shall we write articles pointing out we would still buy the new zeldas if they slapped another tenner on the price?
Except it's completely different. Going out and buying a new memory upgrade that sits in you N64 is an option open to everyone (Except it fragments your audience because not everyone wanted to drop £30 on one). But with the 360 to get the better graphics you would need a new Xbox. Even Microsoft aren't that stupid to treat their early adopters like that.
Do artists like me just "not exist" in this imaginary world, or do we all go get day jobs instead?
good point - though I would argue that your music is also quite a niche and because of that would be quite sustainable in other ways. From your sig I asume your talking about electronica - and that falls into the clubbing culture that is a different kettle of fish, I admit. But, like the poster stays above - most electronica can be transformed by a live performance, where the talented creater shifts his pace and style in response to the dancers. At least that's whats happened at the best nights I've been at at.
I guess thats about right too. But I argued about creating a gig culture, not that one already exists. How many people playing on the radio ever play near you. I'm not saying they should, or could, play gig's everywhere - but I do believe it should be there primary vocation - not going on tv to push themselves.
Most bands will never make it as a profitable venture. I'd like to know exactly how all of this digital music advertising is going to get the bands enough scratch to pay the bills generated by the rental of larger venues.
I think it's well known that most bands currently don't make it as a profitable venture, with a very very small minority being very very successful, and everyone else going bust. I'm arguing there are more good bands than succesful ones this current market can support.
Really, the only way most bands will ever play a stadium or concert hall is by having financial backing from some wealthy third party.
I never suggested that this way of music production would be able to support those venues, though there would still be the very few insanely successful bands that would, but the business model would be more based around "the long tail."
And if all you ever do is play bars, well... the life and scope of your band is limited.
I think this is what reveals your true feelings about the subject - you like it how it currently is. I like the idea of my kids growing up with weekly small intimate gigs, not in bars, but not in big venues. WIth role models they meet, and see and can judge. Not watch on television.
Most bands can't even afford the cost of professional recording. And despite what some guys with a $500 card and Cubase would have you believe, you need really good equipment and a talented recording engineer to make a really good demo. I've got $2500 in microphones in my little home studio. I understand totally - and know the difference it can make. But with a greater number of low to medium level succesful bands I believe a market to hire and use these facilities would be created putting them within the reach of "the bar giggers."
I don't want to see music become free, unless the artists who made it choose it to be.
I couldn't agree more, I want the artists to want it to be free.
This is how the record industry, wait, music industry should be. The digital music is the advert to get you to go to the live gigs Where they make their money.
People complain endlessly about the lack of things for teenagers to do, and a gigging culture would benefit that endlessly.
This would have the benefit of solving most of our problems with "pop" today. You can't sing live? You can't make any money. On the plus side you can rapidly cut down on the people and skills you need to smooth you recorded sounds waves into something presentable, in your "adverts."
Music will not die. You can kill a record industry, but you cant kill a music industry. It's whether people except that maybe being a successful musician shouldn't mean that you earn more money than a brain surgeon.
The powerhouses try to tell us that if piracy kills them that will be the end of music full stop. And that would be a Bad Thing. But it wouldn't be the end, and a world with free music and constantly gigging artists, could even be better.
From a previous comment I wrote, I didn't steal it.
We've enjoyed a medium near enough free from advertising. And it is our duty to preserve this. If I pay £40 (and next gen £50) to buy a game, I buy the freedom from ads. You can put them in, but then you must make the game free. There is no middle ground. An XBOX 360 game full of ads won't cost less than some fantasy game that doesn't have them. If you think it will, I am sorry but you are fooling yourself. All it does is succeed in making genres that are not "advertising friendly" less financially viable.
Just because american TV lost the battle to product placement (as the UK might, if the EU stops product placement being illegal), that doesn't mean it's ok for games to lose too. Because this is what this is - Product Placement.
And most importantly I think it's fair to say most people who play games on slashdot want games to be seen as art. Want them to be acknowledged as a new , creative and meaningful media. And how can that happen if the people making the game have no fucking respect for their own creations.
To quote the late, great, Bill Hicks:
"Here's the deal, folks. You do a commercial - you're off the artistic roll call, forever. End of story. Okay? You're another whore at the captialist gang bang and if you do a commercial, there's a price on your head. Everything you say is suspect and every word that comes out of your mouth is now like a turd falling into my drink." - Bill Hicks
creimer meet ebay, ebay meet creimer.
And yes, I'm a console gamer. I've got a DS, a Gamecube, and when it arrives this week a dreamcast. I sit in front of a pc all day, and when I get home a comfy chair in front of a TV is far more appealing.
Whilst this has nothing to do with the whole windows/os x debate, I didn't want to let this slide.
I gave up on PC games because of this. I want to sit down and play a game. Not sit down and spend hours fiddling with graphic settings. I hated it when I thought I had got Morrowind running fine, then I would hit a "busy" place, or scene or battle, and it would slow right down, and I would have to go back to the settings page.
It's a constant nag in your head. "Is this giving me the optimum experience, should I reduce the quality in exchange for frame rate". And it's not fun for me.
I know people like to tinker. Hell I use Linux daily, and I understand that joy. But fiddling with settings kill's the "imersion" for me. Imagine what Ocarina of Time would have been like if the first time you walked out onto the field of Hyrule, instead of thoughts on the wonderful possibilites stretching out infront of you, the first thing that popped into your head was "Frame rate's taken a hit, lets reduce settings again."
If a game company can't automatically work out what settings your game should be running at - then they've failed at their job.
(P.S. If anybody replies that I just need a better computer, then well done, you have a massive e-penis.)
It should be noted this is the first time a slot loading drive can except mini disks (mac owners will understand that this is impressive at least!).
It makes me wonder how much Sony (and now MS with the 360) are paying to make their brands look popular.
And I don't think it's untrue when I say that a sizeable amount of the hate for Nintendo comes from the way these shops are set up.
* Most evidence suggests the DS far outstrips the PSP in sales, but I avoided saying that because that's not the point I'm trying to make.
12 - 18 == "Dude, I don't want no kiddie shit, I'm not buying a DS/Rev it has numbers which are smaller than this other consoles numbers!" - GTA, EA games, Juiced, Need for Speed, Pimp my Noun.Generic FPS N+1, Final Fantasy Semester - whilst scraping money together for a game, and pirating like mad.
16 - 20 == "Dude, this is Old School!" - GTA, Resident Evil N+1, PoP: 1,2,3, Sonic, Mario, Shoot em ups and only the Good RPGs.
20+ == " Fuck my life is busy, stressful and tense, so fun, cool, bright, happy games please!" - Pokemon, Mario, Katamari D, Sonic, Nintendogs, GTA, Resident Evil 4, PoP: Sands of Time, Zelda, (RPG's are too long now.). I've got money, so I'll buy games (but only good ones).
As a 24yr old, I feel Nintendo are the only company that care about making games I would like, rather than the 12-18 brand of player. And now I BUY those games because I can afford to, and because they deserve it.
"Don't tell me you'd stop playing Grand Theft Auto if you saw a Gap ad instead of some generic fake brand."
Yes I would. GTA has satirical adverts. They criticise the media, the insulting way they treat the public, and make an good social comment which improve the game no end. This is what sets it apart from EA rip offs.
We've enjoyed a medium near enough free from advertising. And it is our duty to preserve this. If I pay £40 (and next gen £50) to buy a game, I buy the freedom from ads. You can put them in, but then you must make the game free. There is no middle ground. An XBOX 360 game full of ads won't cost less than some fantasy game that doesn't have them. If you think it will, I am sorry but you are fooling yourself. All it does is succeed in making genres that are not "advertising friendly" less financially viable.
Just because american TV lost the battle to product placement (as the UK might, if the EU stops product placement being illegal), that doesn't mean it's ok for games to lose too. Because this is what this is - Product Placement.
And most importantly, I think it's fair to say most people who play games on slashdot want games to be seen as art. Want them to be acknowledged as a new , creative and meaningful media. And how can that happen if the people making the game have no fucking respect for their own creations.
To quote the late, great, Bill Hicks:
"Here's the deal, folks. You do a commercial - you're off the artistic roll call, forever. End of story. Okay? You're another whore at the captialist gang bang and if you do a commercial, there's a price on your head. Everything you say is suspect and every word that comes out of your mouth is now like a turd falling into my drink." - Bill Hicks