Yep that's why I live here (OH). Hoping to get a couple of iPods from the GOP and Dems any day now.
Actually you make an interesting observation -- votes are worth different amounts depending on where you live, and Ohio is probably where they are worth the most. Always a strong contest here and whoever Ohio votes for is who wins...
Well for starters folks have already replied to you pointing out that the Washington Post article *is* relevant to Slashdot since it regards software piracy. And the link you provided was to a comment, and those can be as irrelevant as anyone wishes. If they're too irrelevant, they get modded "Offtopic" anyway so you don't have to worry about it.
As for "putting bullshit on the front page," I suppose you can take that up with the Washington Post, heh. Either it's true or it's not, and the theme is software piracy so it's a legit topic for Slashdot.
If you want more stories you don't consider bullshit, then submit some. As it is you can find plenty of folks who appreciate any given submission and plenty who don't.
FUD? Hahaha please! Fear maybe, Uncertainty no way, Doubt no how. This is Russia we're talking about. And I can't believe that in providing a link to reporter's past comment you dwell on his saying there's enough bad stuff going on in Russia to warrant a separate news section for it, disregarding the focus of the comment which was to tell of a specific human rights violation the Russian government was guilty of.
The Electoral College was (and is) a compromise between federal and states rights. If we were to do away with it, states like Montana would have significantly less of a say in our president than they do now. These are of course states that aren't densely populated. These also happen to be rural states, and they usually vote for the Republican party candidate. If we were to do away with the Electoral College, these states would see their votes count far less compared to the urban citizenship than they do now.
I'm not saying either way is wrong or right, just saying how it is.
As for how much of a "screwup" the Electoral College can cause, it's not a very major one. When the EC's results and the popular vote have been different, the margin of victory in terms of votes has been quite slim. This is because the Electoral College for the most part represents *population* numbers. The guaranteed 2 senators per state simply gives the states with very small populations a bit more weight than they would have otherwise.
Either way I don't see it as an issue worth arguing over. Even when Al Gore lost to Bush despite there being a (supposed? I never cared to follow up after the election itself) discrepancy in the popular vote and EC results, there was no clear choice where you could say "this is the man America wants to lead." Neither could claim any sort of public mandate, really. 50% of the voter turnout of the US is not anywhere near the majority, so we shouldn't concern ourselves with "this is a president the people didn't elect" or whatever.
Well yeah, but to be fair it's an interview with Famitsu where he's talking about what people want to hear from him, not him calling some journalist at night while sobbing with a near-empty bottle of sake in his hand....Perhaps you would prefer a racy photo shoot of him in the magazine, wearing that Borat "swimsuit." Actually that would be pretty funny so nevermind.
Hmm... personally I think that in terms of visual quality games on both systems will be on about the same level. Some Xbox titles (DOA2 Ultimate, for instance) that came out towards the end of the system's lifespan looked so good that they could almost pass for next-gen. I think that trend of progressively learning to better exploit the hardware on all consoles will continue. I also don't think that superior graphics affects how a system sells because the PS2's graphics were inferior to the GCN and Xbox and never really got close to them (well, maybe with RE4 and FFXII, but FFXII came out almost same time as PS3) and yet the PS2 outsold those consoles handily.
So.. people really don't care about graphical fidelity, if we look at sales of systems. What really sells systems is marketing, brand recognition (and loyalty -- the major reason Japan hasn't adopted the Xbox), and the titles advertised for it (well, that's part of marketing but I guess also implies exclusive titles). Sony KICKED ASS at advertising its PS2. They are doing a decent job with the PS3 but haven't yet found a sweet spot with the price point and titles offered (in my opinion).
So... the question of whether the PS3 will surpass the 360... I think it depends on how the companies continue to market the consoles and what titles they make available throughout their lifespan. Even a few choice franchises like Ninja Gaiden, Super Smash Bros, Final Fantasy, and Madden NFL can keep consoles afloat so I think that's what it will ultimately come down to.
That makes sense, because people who die more than once are usually vampires, and vampires only make other vampires from hot, fit people who they like to, um, share blood with.
You're right in noticing that. And I'd actually say it's not at all true that people do not want the same game on their PSP/DS that they play on console. Some of the most popular games on both handhelds are very much console-style games, from Mario Kart DS to Castlevania. People just want "more good things," whether or not they are different from what they've seen in the past.
Speaking of which, when are we going to get Starcraft on Wii?:-P
Well it's either a problem or it isn't, and you gotta pick one ^_^ (I may have misread your post, but...) On the one hand the PS2 did (and continues to do) very well despite being less powerful than other consoles out there. On the other hand you say that in the long run the PS3 will have significant andvantages due to more firepower than the 360. Aren't those two analyses somewhat at odds?
Hehe I've never worked at one of those stores; I'd probably have gone crazy if I did. But I've shopped at them enough (yes the good old preorder-then-come-in-on-release-day method I've been using for ages) to get a feel for what goes on. And yeah, the reason I don't *enjoy* visiting the stores (go in, ask for game at register, pay, purchase the limited edition strategy guide on top of that O.o wtf, get out) is that I'm forced to listen to kids ask their parents for some decent game and the parent going "oh no that's rated T go pick a game that's E" and I'm like "agggh my brain!" and then the guy at the register starts talking to me about how he wins euchre tournaments by cheating and I'm like "dude either STAFOO or at least try to push some preorders on me for the 'upcoming' Banjo Kazooie 3 because I don't want to listen to you talking about cheating in competitions like an ass."
Your criticisms are very valid but I think apply mostly to non-first-party guides. In other words, a Final Fantasy guide produced and released *by Square-Enix* is going to be a quality product, as would a Zelda guide produced and released *by Nintendo.* They're also most likely going to be up-to-date and their production quality is very high so the paper is usually pretty nice.
Oh and some guides are just plain well-written. Take for instance the Elder Scrolls guides. Whoever wrote those is a clever guy, and it's sometimes fun to just read through some of it because it's half-decent story telling ^_^
Guides are rarely "important," that's definitely true. But they can enhance the playing experience a bit, and often help you get a better appreciation for a game. Bad guides (like the one for Guild Wars Factions, for instance, which I was a *researcher* for but nothing we ever submitted made its way into the final omg-it's-due-tomorrow-and-I-haven't-started release; shame on ArenaNet but I digress) are certainly a total waste and can be exactly what you describe. But good ones are often the equivalent of a "movie guide" which make for at least some interesting reading.
It's one of the few jobs where you mostly loaf around all day straightening up re-sealed PS2 controllers hanging on the wall and dusting off "Ninja Gaiden 2 preorder" boxes that have been up since 2006, and on occasion get to abuse a stupid customer that had the nerve to come in and buy something terrible like last year's Harry Potter game for their middle-schooler because the game he really wants is rated 'M'. Hehehe and you can reward the non-morons with super niceness and treat them like kings in order to even things out.
Too bad the pay is terrible and the management is usually hilariously bad. Problem with these stores isn't so much the setup as that it mostly attracts dumbasses to apply for work there. So you're stuck shopping from dumbasses and that's really where the aggravation comes from.
Guides can be worth the purchase for the convenience (if it's well-laid-out and thorough), the aesthetics of the design of the book, and the art inside it. The Final Fantasy XII guide is fantastic, IMO, in every respect, and I was very glad I purchased the collector's edition with the included Concept Art Book.
I also have this hardcover, gold-border Twilight Princess strategy guide but it's more of a "thing to have and admire" for its design because it's the opposite of useful when it comes to actually being used as a guide. Waaay too thorough or something. Hard to read through. But attractive.
This is the first game in which I have experienced some serious calibration issues with my DS touch screen. (The proper "click on red squares" calibration is totally shot on my DS...) The item select, the map drawing, etc. It is driving me friggin nuts!
I admit the control scheme is (when working properly) quite well-conceived and makes me happy. The boomerang and bow+arrow especially are fun, as is the boat cannon.
The game is great, although whoever came up with the idea of repeating that one Temple over and over (even with some shortcuts thrown in) is a total prick.
The "slower" the news day, the better, my man. I think the ratio of bad news to good news that we find reported (even on Slashdot) is above 1, or at least not low enough. So, look on the bright side ^^
Hmm as for the article... I don't know if anyone wants to argue with you about whether changing grades is bad because it hurts others. That much is a given since school/uni/scholarships are competitive. Most folks are just keen to discuss the [uncalled-for] severity of the maximum possible punishment, and perhaps the politics behind that punishment in the first place. I don't know, though. I got 2 hours of sleep today so I'm mostly interested in the 'Funny' posts myself.
Indeed you have me totally figured out. I am a fat, TV-watching fatass who watches way too much television. Seriously I can't stop laughing right now. That came so far out of left field I can't even think of anything witty to say. For those who want to know the man behind the mask, I'm one of those studly Russian latin ballroom dancers, and I watch Last One Standing and the Phoenix Suns and that's about it nowadays. I actually miss the days when there was a lot of stuff on TV I enjoyed watching, but back then I had more time to kill as well.
Ah, I hate going into details because it would spoil the movie, but much of what I disliked about Serenity involved the events leading up to and including the final stand against the ------s. I'm talking about discarding character(s) for no good reason without a thought to developing them further (or doing them justice given their role in the show), having other character(s) react nonsensically, and so forth.
As for Angel and Buffy, I watched *every episode* of those shows and I feel that although they had their ups and downs throughout (and Angel did pick back up towards the end), I felt they started stronger than they ended. Buffy in particular became just painful to watch for me towards the end.
Anyway, yeah I really do feel that each show (and Firefly only if you count Serenity's last 15-20 min, heh... oh and that one episode where they defend a whorehouse from an evil band of chauvinists where Joss accidentally scripted an episode of A-Team) kinda outlived its "quality" time and delved into mediocrity. Joss is at his finest when doing more light-hearted, sarcastic writing and I think he should concentrate on it for Dollhouse. (Moments like the ending of the episode "Shindig" in Firefly really stand out as memorable to me.)
Let's hope it's cancelled after 15 eps
on
Joss Whedon Back on TV
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· Score: 1, Interesting
Joss Whedon usually has just about enough good ideas for not-quite-one season. Buffy started great, and ended terribly (though its first 3 seasons were decent). Angel started awesome as well, but then went down the toilet. Firefly was all sweet... except Serenity where Whedon got a chance to once again show that he doesn't understand his own characters well enough to make a sensible, logical conclusion.
Whedon's strength is his sarcastic dialogue, which I find enjoyable to an extent. He also has cool characters (which sometimes become totally uncool but at least they start off well) often enough. I just want this show to suffer the same fate as Firefly so it *doesn't* slowly go down the toilet the way Buffy and Angel did and leaves us with a permanently good impression (I try to ignore Serenity).
Charles Martinet -- big jolly guy who wears Hawaiian shirts. Believe me it's *weird* hearing him do the Mario voice in person. I met him 2.5 years ago at a Nintendo-hosted party. Then later he was at E3 promoting Animal Crossing for DS where he sat behind the scenes and occasionally did the Mario voice while playing with everyone.
Slashdot Mirror
Yep that's why I live here (OH). Hoping to get a couple of iPods from the GOP and Dems any day now.
Actually you make an interesting observation -- votes are worth different amounts depending on where you live, and Ohio is probably where they are worth the most. Always a strong contest here and whoever Ohio votes for is who wins...
Did you actually read what I wrote or do you need to take basic reading lessons?
Well for starters folks have already replied to you pointing out that the Washington Post article *is* relevant to Slashdot since it regards software piracy. And the link you provided was to a comment, and those can be as irrelevant as anyone wishes. If they're too irrelevant, they get modded "Offtopic" anyway so you don't have to worry about it.
As for "putting bullshit on the front page," I suppose you can take that up with the Washington Post, heh. Either it's true or it's not, and the theme is software piracy so it's a legit topic for Slashdot.
If you want more stories you don't consider bullshit, then submit some. As it is you can find plenty of folks who appreciate any given submission and plenty who don't.
FUD? Hahaha please! Fear maybe, Uncertainty no way, Doubt no how. This is Russia we're talking about. And I can't believe that in providing a link to reporter's past comment you dwell on his saying there's enough bad stuff going on in Russia to warrant a separate news section for it, disregarding the focus of the comment which was to tell of a specific human rights violation the Russian government was guilty of.
Basically you are trolling.
The Electoral College was (and is) a compromise between federal and states rights. If we were to do away with it, states like Montana would have significantly less of a say in our president than they do now. These are of course states that aren't densely populated. These also happen to be rural states, and they usually vote for the Republican party candidate. If we were to do away with the Electoral College, these states would see their votes count far less compared to the urban citizenship than they do now.
I'm not saying either way is wrong or right, just saying how it is.
As for how much of a "screwup" the Electoral College can cause, it's not a very major one. When the EC's results and the popular vote have been different, the margin of victory in terms of votes has been quite slim. This is because the Electoral College for the most part represents *population* numbers. The guaranteed 2 senators per state simply gives the states with very small populations a bit more weight than they would have otherwise.
Either way I don't see it as an issue worth arguing over. Even when Al Gore lost to Bush despite there being a (supposed? I never cared to follow up after the election itself) discrepancy in the popular vote and EC results, there was no clear choice where you could say "this is the man America wants to lead." Neither could claim any sort of public mandate, really. 50% of the voter turnout of the US is not anywhere near the majority, so we shouldn't concern ourselves with "this is a president the people didn't elect" or whatever.
The comics sucking too much for anyone to bother.
Well yeah, but to be fair it's an interview with Famitsu where he's talking about what people want to hear from him, not him calling some journalist at night while sobbing with a near-empty bottle of sake in his hand. ...Perhaps you would prefer a racy photo shoot of him in the magazine, wearing that Borat "swimsuit." Actually that would be pretty funny so nevermind.
Hmm... personally I think that in terms of visual quality games on both systems will be on about the same level. Some Xbox titles (DOA2 Ultimate, for instance) that came out towards the end of the system's lifespan looked so good that they could almost pass for next-gen. I think that trend of progressively learning to better exploit the hardware on all consoles will continue. I also don't think that superior graphics affects how a system sells because the PS2's graphics were inferior to the GCN and Xbox and never really got close to them (well, maybe with RE4 and FFXII, but FFXII came out almost same time as PS3) and yet the PS2 outsold those consoles handily.
So.. people really don't care about graphical fidelity, if we look at sales of systems. What really sells systems is marketing, brand recognition (and loyalty -- the major reason Japan hasn't adopted the Xbox), and the titles advertised for it (well, that's part of marketing but I guess also implies exclusive titles). Sony KICKED ASS at advertising its PS2. They are doing a decent job with the PS3 but haven't yet found a sweet spot with the price point and titles offered (in my opinion).
So... the question of whether the PS3 will surpass the 360... I think it depends on how the companies continue to market the consoles and what titles they make available throughout their lifespan. Even a few choice franchises like Ninja Gaiden, Super Smash Bros, Final Fantasy, and Madden NFL can keep consoles afloat so I think that's what it will ultimately come down to.
Your thoughts on this?
That makes sense, because people who die more than once are usually vampires, and vampires only make other vampires from hot, fit people who they like to, um, share blood with.
You're right in noticing that. And I'd actually say it's not at all true that people do not want the same game on their PSP/DS that they play on console. Some of the most popular games on both handhelds are very much console-style games, from Mario Kart DS to Castlevania. People just want "more good things," whether or not they are different from what they've seen in the past.
:-P
Speaking of which, when are we going to get Starcraft on Wii?
Well it's either a problem or it isn't, and you gotta pick one ^_^ (I may have misread your post, but...) On the one hand the PS2 did (and continues to do) very well despite being less powerful than other consoles out there. On the other hand you say that in the long run the PS3 will have significant andvantages due to more firepower than the 360. Aren't those two analyses somewhat at odds?
Cool you should register on Slashdot so I can add you to my friends list and we can both be stupid together!
Hehe I've never worked at one of those stores; I'd probably have gone crazy if I did. But I've shopped at them enough (yes the good old preorder-then-come-in-on-release-day method I've been using for ages) to get a feel for what goes on. And yeah, the reason I don't *enjoy* visiting the stores (go in, ask for game at register, pay, purchase the limited edition strategy guide on top of that O.o wtf, get out) is that I'm forced to listen to kids ask their parents for some decent game and the parent going "oh no that's rated T go pick a game that's E" and I'm like "agggh my brain!" and then the guy at the register starts talking to me about how he wins euchre tournaments by cheating and I'm like "dude either STAFOO or at least try to push some preorders on me for the 'upcoming' Banjo Kazooie 3 because I don't want to listen to you talking about cheating in competitions like an ass."
So.. yeah woo ranting!
Your criticisms are very valid but I think apply mostly to non-first-party guides. In other words, a Final Fantasy guide produced and released *by Square-Enix* is going to be a quality product, as would a Zelda guide produced and released *by Nintendo.* They're also most likely going to be up-to-date and their production quality is very high so the paper is usually pretty nice.
Oh and some guides are just plain well-written. Take for instance the Elder Scrolls guides. Whoever wrote those is a clever guy, and it's sometimes fun to just read through some of it because it's half-decent story telling ^_^
Guides are rarely "important," that's definitely true. But they can enhance the playing experience a bit, and often help you get a better appreciation for a game. Bad guides (like the one for Guild Wars Factions, for instance, which I was a *researcher* for but nothing we ever submitted made its way into the final omg-it's-due-tomorrow-and-I-haven't-started release; shame on ArenaNet but I digress) are certainly a total waste and can be exactly what you describe. But good ones are often the equivalent of a "movie guide" which make for at least some interesting reading.
It's one of the few jobs where you mostly loaf around all day straightening up re-sealed PS2 controllers hanging on the wall and dusting off "Ninja Gaiden 2 preorder" boxes that have been up since 2006, and on occasion get to abuse a stupid customer that had the nerve to come in and buy something terrible like last year's Harry Potter game for their middle-schooler because the game he really wants is rated 'M'. Hehehe and you can reward the non-morons with super niceness and treat them like kings in order to even things out.
Too bad the pay is terrible and the management is usually hilariously bad. Problem with these stores isn't so much the setup as that it mostly attracts dumbasses to apply for work there. So you're stuck shopping from dumbasses and that's really where the aggravation comes from.
Guides can be worth the purchase for the convenience (if it's well-laid-out and thorough), the aesthetics of the design of the book, and the art inside it. The Final Fantasy XII guide is fantastic, IMO, in every respect, and I was very glad I purchased the collector's edition with the included Concept Art Book.
I also have this hardcover, gold-border Twilight Princess strategy guide but it's more of a "thing to have and admire" for its design because it's the opposite of useful when it comes to actually being used as a guide. Waaay too thorough or something. Hard to read through. But attractive.
This is the first game in which I have experienced some serious calibration issues with my DS touch screen. (The proper "click on red squares" calibration is totally shot on my DS...) The item select, the map drawing, etc. It is driving me friggin nuts!
I admit the control scheme is (when working properly) quite well-conceived and makes me happy. The boomerang and bow+arrow especially are fun, as is the boat cannon.
The game is great, although whoever came up with the idea of repeating that one Temple over and over (even with some shortcuts thrown in) is a total prick.
The "slower" the news day, the better, my man. I think the ratio of bad news to good news that we find reported (even on Slashdot) is above 1, or at least not low enough. So, look on the bright side ^^
Hmm as for the article... I don't know if anyone wants to argue with you about whether changing grades is bad because it hurts others. That much is a given since school/uni/scholarships are competitive. Most folks are just keen to discuss the [uncalled-for] severity of the maximum possible punishment, and perhaps the politics behind that punishment in the first place. I don't know, though. I got 2 hours of sleep today so I'm mostly interested in the 'Funny' posts myself.
Nah because the game is guaranteed pirated so whoever sold it to you probably did it in a shady manner and Jack Thompson wouldn't know about it.
Indeed you have me totally figured out. I am a fat, TV-watching fatass who watches way too much television. Seriously I can't stop laughing right now. That came so far out of left field I can't even think of anything witty to say. For those who want to know the man behind the mask, I'm one of those studly Russian latin ballroom dancers, and I watch Last One Standing and the Phoenix Suns and that's about it nowadays. I actually miss the days when there was a lot of stuff on TV I enjoyed watching, but back then I had more time to kill as well.
It had to do with the events that led up to and included the final stand against the ------s. So, the last 15-20 min of the show.
Mostly an uncalled-for, poorly-dramatized and completely unjustified killing-off of a character.
Ah, I hate going into details because it would spoil the movie, but much of what I disliked about Serenity involved the events leading up to and including the final stand against the ------s. I'm talking about discarding character(s) for no good reason without a thought to developing them further (or doing them justice given their role in the show), having other character(s) react nonsensically, and so forth.
As for Angel and Buffy, I watched *every episode* of those shows and I feel that although they had their ups and downs throughout (and Angel did pick back up towards the end), I felt they started stronger than they ended. Buffy in particular became just painful to watch for me towards the end.
Anyway, yeah I really do feel that each show (and Firefly only if you count Serenity's last 15-20 min, heh... oh and that one episode where they defend a whorehouse from an evil band of chauvinists where Joss accidentally scripted an episode of A-Team) kinda outlived its "quality" time and delved into mediocrity. Joss is at his finest when doing more light-hearted, sarcastic writing and I think he should concentrate on it for Dollhouse. (Moments like the ending of the episode "Shindig" in Firefly really stand out as memorable to me.)
Joss Whedon usually has just about enough good ideas for not-quite-one season. Buffy started great, and ended terribly (though its first 3 seasons were decent). Angel started awesome as well, but then went down the toilet. Firefly was all sweet... except Serenity where Whedon got a chance to once again show that he doesn't understand his own characters well enough to make a sensible, logical conclusion.
Whedon's strength is his sarcastic dialogue, which I find enjoyable to an extent. He also has cool characters (which sometimes become totally uncool but at least they start off well) often enough. I just want this show to suffer the same fate as Firefly so it *doesn't* slowly go down the toilet the way Buffy and Angel did and leaves us with a permanently good impression (I try to ignore Serenity).
Hah! I can tell how much is in my bank account by looking at TWO pennies! I win.
Charles Martinet -- big jolly guy who wears Hawaiian shirts. Believe me it's *weird* hearing him do the Mario voice in person. I met him 2.5 years ago at a Nintendo-hosted party. Then later he was at E3 promoting Animal Crossing for DS where he sat behind the scenes and occasionally did the Mario voice while playing with everyone.