"Bear in mind that's not a list of exclusive Blu-ray supporters."
I never claimed it was.
"To take two prominant examples, HP is shipping HD DVD dirves in PCs today, and Apple has been shipping HD DVD authoring and (limited) playback for a year and a half."That has shit-all to do with the fact that the poster I was responding to was claiming Sony was going-it-alone and no other companies whatsoever to do with Blu-Ray.
It looks like you had a factoid that you just had to get out there to prove to everyone how knowledgable you are; it backfired. You come across as a moron that makes statements that are completely unimportant to the fucking discussion. When the revolution comes, I know where you'll be.
"Sony is the only one on that list that is purposely damaging themselves (and gamers) with Blu-Ray by tacking it to the PS3. The other companies are letting the tech stand on its own and letting the market decide. Sony is bundling it in a vain attempt to get it into living rooms by playing off the popularity of the PlayStation brand."
You mean to tell me what those other companies aren't including Blu-Ray in their PS3s!! That's shocking!
"If I want a console, I'd like to buy just a console please. If I wanted Blu-Ray, I'd buy it. I think (hope) they just priced themselves out of the market."
I assume you avoided both the XBox and the PS2 since they shoved DVD down your throat, right? Oh, and obviously you wouldn't have bought a PS1 or a Saturn since CDs were being forced down your throat on that one. Your argument is completely illogical. There are many reasons that Sony is a terrible company and will hopefully cease to exist - you manage to hit none of those and come off sounding rather foolish. If you work for Sony, I say bravo. While it is rather cheeky to attempt to discredit those who hate Sony by making anti-Sony arguments that are borderline retarded, it might just work.
Anyway, I was setting the record straight - Sony is playing nice with others, in contradiction to what the OP said, in the sense that others are also involved in Blu-Ray.
"I do wonder, though, how many more times will Sony have to lose because of their stubbornness before they realize it might be more beneficial playing nice with others... ah, well..."
I dislike Sony as a company but they are certainly not the only ones pushing Blu-Ray; the Blu-Ray Disc Association board also includes Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Pioneer, Koninklijke Philips Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Sharp and Apple. I think it's rather deceitful to act as though Sony is the only company that has a hand in Blu-Ray (or you're simply not aware of this fact, in which case I hope I have enlightened you).
"Mass layoffs aren't something anyone should be cheering on, IMO."
Why not? Those people that you are so concerned about are either the ones who have made the decisions that have been obvious attempts to destroy consumer rights or they are implementing those decisions. Either way, I would like to see everyone who works for Sony get fired. People will find new jobs. The video game market is going to be a certain size; if Sony falls out of it, the dollars will go to another company. One can hope it would go to a more consumer-oriented company but that's probably a pipe dream. Regardless, Sony and all their minions should pay for lik-sang and the root kit.
Amen to that. Not only does it not saying anything new or interesting, it fails in even coming close to evaluating the thesis of the piece. Is it the worst gadget Christmas ever? Who knows, they've done nothing to put the situation into historical perspective.
If you're going to say something is the worst ever, it's important to actually describe how you are judging and why other entries are so much worse. For instance, did they consider the dredded gadget year of 1998? Let me take a stab at being as shallow and without journalistic merit as the author of this article by saying, 1998 was the worst gadget Christmas ever!
"And no, there are whole categories of problems they won't have at all, or at least less of them - like viruses and spyware."
"And no"? What are you refuting? Where did I say anything about viruses and spyware continuing to be a problem on Linux?
My point, which you obviously missed in your rush to correct me (although, I'm still wondering what you were responding to) was that changing the OS and giving free support isn't going to fix the inherent problem with most that user computers today - which is that they don't understand the basics of operating the computer. Many people don't understand the inner workings of a car but they do understand that driving it into a tree is going to cause damage. The same parallel is not true for the average computer user. Changing the OS does nothing to solve this knowledge gap. Now, instead of trying to play Mr. Know It All and correct something I didn't say, how about you shut the fuck up? Thanks!
"It's not their computer until they learn to use it properly."
Guess what - if they don't know what they're doing with a Windows machine and that is creating problems, installing Linux is merely going to create different problems. With non-tech people, the biggest cause of misbehavior is always the user. The OS is not going to fix that.
"And who thought San Andreas was so much better than Vice City, or even the "original" GTA3."
I thought San Andreas improved on GTA3 by leaps and bounds. The improvement from GTA3 to Vice City was not as evident but still noticable. Furthermore, the jump from GTA2 to GTA3 was monumental. I noticed that you didn't even mention that, which is quite telling about your argument.
In making a case that sequels rarely improve on the originals, you ignore the case of GTA2 -> GTA3 because it was too dramatic a change/improvement, right?
"These games, however, aren't good enough to give BK three Michellin stars ('worth a special trip') - they should give the games for free on XBL Marketplace to boost brand."
You're judging the quality of these games on some screenshots and nothing more. You have not played these games so you really don't know if they are good or not.
"360 users can get new pop-cap, low-end games (and some pretty good ones, too) for free or pay $4 for full versions on Live."
So the exact price that BK is going to charge in store is what you can get similar games on Xbox Live for...but you're still suggesting they give them away for free. How does that make sense?
"To use an analogy - I don't mind you watching my back, but I don't want you peering over my shoulder the whole time. Before cameras were everywhere, people could go off and find a little privacy, even in a public setting."
What was preventing anyone from peering over your shoulder in a public place before the advent of CCTV? Just because, in all likelihood, most people weren't going to walk up to you and peer over your shoulder, does not mean that you had a right to it.
"Why bother fixing it when you don't even want to use it?"
It is not as important to fix it as to understand what "it" is so that he/she doesn't run into the same problem again. It is quite likely that whatever he/she did to cause this problem, he/she will continue the behavior and merely create the problem on the next machine. Therefore, it is not perfectly reasonable. How can it be perfectly reasonable when it is just going to occur on the next machine?
"And back to the point. So you make a game trying to satisfy those immature kids. Everyone gets whatever they want. Essentially, nobody is different than anybody else. Wow, I am sure that game is going to really pull in the money."
Try to take your personal animosity towards WoW players out of the discussion for a moment. (It really has no place here.) I think you're missing the point of what a casual gamer would be considered; it's not just that they play fewer hours than the "hardcore" gamer, it's that their play patterns are significantly different than the hardcore gamer. Fewer hours, maybe but maybe not; the casual gamer is more identified to their commitment to advancing in the game. A hardcore gamer may encounter a section in a game where they have to spend days and days trying to advance. A casual gamer would encounter this same section and leave the game behind entirely.
The best example of a casual gamer does not involve WoW. A great example of a casual gamer is someone who plays Bookworm or Scrabble online. The basic game structure remains the same from play to play. Also...
"Gamer markets are already well established: Sports, RTS, RPG, MMORPG, FPS, etc etc."
Slashdot Mirror
Anyway, I was setting the record straight - Sony is playing nice with others, in contradiction to what the OP said, in the sense that others are also involved in Blu-Ray.
If you're going to say something is the worst ever, it's important to actually describe how you are judging and why other entries are so much worse. For instance, did they consider the dredded gadget year of 1998? Let me take a stab at being as shallow and without journalistic merit as the author of this article by saying, 1998 was the worst gadget Christmas ever!
I like the Edge a lot but for me, when it comes to Q2 maps, Tokay's Towers was always my favorite.
My point, which you obviously missed in your rush to correct me (although, I'm still wondering what you were responding to) was that changing the OS and giving free support isn't going to fix the inherent problem with most that user computers today - which is that they don't understand the basics of operating the computer. Many people don't understand the inner workings of a car but they do understand that driving it into a tree is going to cause damage. The same parallel is not true for the average computer user. Changing the OS does nothing to solve this knowledge gap. Now, instead of trying to play Mr. Know It All and correct something I didn't say, how about you shut the fuck up? Thanks!
In making a case that sequels rarely improve on the originals, you ignore the case of GTA2 -> GTA3 because it was too dramatic a change/improvement, right?
I didn't know you lived in the magical world where everything was set up to perfectly suit your wants and desires. How is that working out for you?
The best example of a casual gamer does not involve WoW. A great example of a casual gamer is someone who plays Bookworm or Scrabble online. The basic game structure remains the same from play to play. Also...
Those are genres, not markets.