Women have fought long and hard for equal rights in the workplace. GREAT! I'm all for that, but here's the problem...
Requiring us to treat you like equals and then refusing to do any lifting, manual labor, ext. makes you a hypocrite of the worst and most horrible kind. Being a women doesn't necessarily exclude you from team lifts, unloading a truck, ext. Being female doesn't make you necessarily any weaker, sure having 2 XX chromosomes means less testosterone -> less muscles, but...
Ok, here's the thing, women can work out, they can build their testosterone levels. And women certainly can move a 20 inch TV 3 feet, especially assisted by a team lift.
But back to my original point, equality in the workplace is not what women won’t. What they won’t is to pick and chose their privileges, they want all the benefits of being a man, and none of the disadvantages.
Movie Review: Superman Returns
Dedicated to Christopher Reaves
This movie was horrible!!!! An insult to Mr. Reaves memory! Let me explain…
Plot:
1 out of 5
Basically Mr. Luther is back and his grand scheme is to take over the world by… Wait for it… Selling real-estate, you heard me correctly, Lex has stolen the secrete to making buildings out of crystals, after hacking superman’s computer composted of millions of shiny stones! Lex is convinced people will pay him billions of dollars to live in homes made eternally made out of disgusting black stones; completely open to the elements with no heating cooling ext. Lex is also convinced that the stones hold the key to the unbelievable technological achievements of kalel’s home world. However, in the entire movie the stones, do no more than grow really big, and well that’s it, they grow… I can do the same thing with a chea-pet. The movie is full of the man of steal making horrible decisions, like trying to steal Lois lane from her husband, abandoning his parents for several years, eventually abandoning his 12 year old son, and flying off into space to go where? Where is he going????
Special Effects:
3 out of 5
The CG scenes where decent however I’ve seen better and they where obvious fabrications. The close-ups of superman flying where an obvious green screen and looked horrible, the Hair Potter flying on the broom effect would have looked much better and been more appropriate, overall not worthy of a modern production.
Acting:
3 out of 5
Acting was good, especially, from the child actor who player super son, and Mrs. Kent. Lex was ok, but not great, and superman’s range of emotion was limited due to one a poor script, and two the actors overall range.
Overall not worth seeing or even renting, and definitely not a tribute to Mr. Reeves memory.
Leave it to me to wonder stuff like this. GBA comes out, I ask "does it support SGB color pallettes?" and "yeah I know it doesn't have the infrared port, but could it basically use a converting protocol to use the link cable for that same feature?". PS3 comes out, I wonder if it'll support multitap gaming on PS1 and 2 games. XBox 360 is out, I wonder about Steel Battallion's ridiculously oversized controller. That thing's expensive, too much for my blood, but if they intend on making it FULLY backwards compatible, it is something they need to consider eventually.
So here's my question for the Wii. Seems that the console is going to support everything that the Gamecube did, except the Gameboy Player. I can accept that well enough (very few additional features were ever added to GBA games for that, in fact I believe Rumble is the only thing I can think of). However, my question is support for the OTHER thing, the broadband/modem adapter. No, it won't have those, but it has wifi. Will it be possible, after using the Wii's main menu to connect to the nearest wifi connection (in this case, it'll need to be one connected to a local network with either other Wiis, other Gamecubes, or a PC with tunneling software, for example my own router) for the system to basically allow Gamecube games that support the broadband adapter to "see" the wifi connection as though it is the broadband connection and thus still be able to network Mario Kart Double Dash together with other systems for "mad crazy banana shell action"?
(Note, clearly this is a ridiculous claim from a ridiculous man, but let's just go with it and make a new web fad.)
Pat Robertson's leg strength is told of in epic tales! He was the one they modelled Atlus after. He kicked down the Collosus of Rodes! He practiced his kung-fu (Jesus-fu) in the Sahara Forest, or at least that's what the place was called back then.
Yes, it is a lame advertising slogan, but then again isn't it also pointless to put "COLOR" in big letters on the box of an HDTV? (Are there black and white HDTV sets out there? Are there black and white TVs being made at all anywhere in the multiverse any more?)
Read both articles... the first one is a quite good article that does a great job of laying out the major points of the console war (and why Sony might not win). The second one... well... it's the standard "Wii will be in last, PS3 ftw" stuff you've read before... they just say that the price will delay the PS3's eventual inevitable victory. Right... I'm not going to post it. I will post the first one, though...
Quote:Finally most of the cards are on the table and we can start making some more definitive statements about where we think the video game market is going. DFC Intelligence is always adjusting its forecasting model based on changes in the marketplace. Suffice to say events of the past six months have forced us to overhaul our models like never before. It now appears clear that this new generation of console systems is going to result in a big shake-up in the game industry power structure. While it has always been clear that Sony’s dominant market share was destined to decline, there now appears to be the distinct possibility the PlayStation 3 could end up third in market share behind both the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii.
However, we should emphasize a third place finish for Sony is only one of several possible scenarios. Unlike many market prognosticators, DFC does not claim to know exactly how the market will shakeout. We have no way of knowing exactly what sales will be and which platform will be the market leader. When we release forecasts we use multiple scenarios that adjust for different factors like price decreases, hit software titles, market competition etc. In the entertainment market there are always unknowns when it comes to consumer behavior and we like to build that uncertainty into our forecast models. When we say the PlayStation 3 could end up in third place that is a worst case scenario for Sony. Furthermore, much will depend on variables such as Sony’s execution and most importantly how rapidly they can bring down the PS3 price.
When building forecasts we use several factors to estimate how well a system will do. Many of the variables in our forecasts are assumptions of future performance. By changing these future assumptions we can build different scenarios. Obviously, the more factors that are set in stone the more confident the forecast. When it comes to forecasting video game hardware performance the key factors include:
1. Brand, Current Market Position and Past Consumer Behavior relative to all players in the marketplace.
2. Current Software including Software Diversity, Third Party Support, Exclusives and Big Hits.
3. Current Software for the Competition looking at all the above factors.
4. Expected Upcoming Software looking at all the above factors.
5. Expected Upcoming Software for the Competition looking at all the above factors.
6. Current Price
7. Current Price for the Competition.
8. Expected Future Price.
9. Expected Future Price for the Competition.
10. Hardware, Extra Features, the “Wow Factor,” Intangibles and the Ability to Pull a Rabbit Out of a Hat.
In looking at all these elements, Sony’s clear strength is the first factor: brand strength and current market position. The glaring weakness of the PlayStation 3 is price, especially when compared to the competition. However, it is more than just an issue of whether the PlayStation brand strength can justify a premium price. Of course, Sony would like to point to the hardware horsepower and extra features like Blu-ray. The problem is that is only one factor in our forecasting matrix. Furthermore, with the competition having features like Xbox Live and the Nintendo Wii controller, the PS3 may not have that much of an advantage in the elusive “Wow Factor.” That gets to the heart of the biggest concern with the PlayStation 3. Sony has done very little to justify why the system is worth a premium price for consumers that don’t care about raw hardware performance and are not hard-core audio/visual consumers. Unfortunately we believe that represents over 90% of the consumers in the marketplace.
It has often been said that it all comes down to software, i.e. the games. While our matrix has only 4 out of 10 variables that deal with software, obviously software is crucial. When talking about entertainment software, people often refer to the “killer application,” or the hit product that drives a system’s sales. However, we think hit software is only one part of the equation. It is our view that the PlayStation systems have been successful not because of hit software but mainly because of software diversity and third-party support. In essence, Sony helped expand the market by reaching a more casual consumer that wasn’t so concerned with the latest big hit.
Of course, the PlayStation 2 had more than its share of big hits, most notably the Grand Theft Auto series. However, we estimate that less than 20% of PlayStation 2 owners bought a GTA game. Meanwhile the Xbox with Halo and Nintendo’s lineup of mega-franchises were nothing to sneeze at in the hits department. Without GTA buyers, the PS2 would still have outsold the competition by more than 3 to 1. The secret to the PS2’s success was more in the wide range of product offerings: all kinds of sports games, racing games, RPGs, action titles, big name licenses, kid friendly products, RPGs with Disney characters, etc. Japan had Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, Europe had EyeToy and SingStar. In all markets, the PlayStation2 was a complete entertainment system for the family priced under $300.
It now appears all that wasn’t good enough for Sony. With the PlayStation 3 the company is going after the high-end power user. It is almost as if Coca-Cola not only decided to go with a new formula, but also decided to exit the low brow soft drink business to go into high-end wines. Of course, there is a market for high-end products but it is 1) a very different consumer type and 2) not nearly as big as the blue collar mass market. Wal-mart sells more toys than FAO Schwartz and McDonald’s sells more beef than Ruth’s Chris Steak House.
Looking at Sony’s portable PSP system shows some other dangers in trying to be too many things at once. The PSP is designed to be much more than a game system, it is a complete portable entertainment package. With a beautiful, sleek look, the ability to play music, movies, games, wi-fi connectivity etc, the PSP seemed like a bargain at $250 and less.
On the surface it seems like the PSP has been a huge success. By the end of fiscal 2006, Sony announced they had shipped over 17 million PSP systems worldwide. This was comparable to the Nintendo DS shipments at almost twice the price. However, underneath the surface the PSP seems more about style than substance. The system truly excels at none of its functions. Meanwhile, the DS seems to be really expanding the market where the PlayStation brand had been dominant. Titles like Nintendogs and Brain Age add the type of product diversity that drove over 100 million consumers to buy each of the first two PlayStation systems.
Right now, the Nintendo DS is having some of its strongest success in Japan, while the PSP holds its own in North America and Europe. However, Japan’s trend conscious consumers are often a harbinger of worldwide success. In the 1990s, Nintendo’s business in Japan started to decline faster than it did in North America. Could the PSP’s performance in Japan be a harbinger of things to come for Sony?
Of course, the big problem with the PlayStation 3 is price, and in theory that can be easily solved by simply lowering the price. There is always that core group of consumers that will rush out to buy a new PlayStation system no matter what the price. So it would make sense for Sony to gain as much revenue as possible from those consumers before lowering the price. The vast majority of consumers will not be in the market for a new system until holiday 2007 or later.
Our concern is that 1) Sony’s hands may be tied in regard to price cuts and 2) Sony drastically underestimated the competition. The price of the PlayStation 3 does not exist in a vacuum and consumers will clearly look at the competitive alternatives. Right now both the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii are looking like much better alternatives than they did a year ago. Core PlayStation franchises like Grand Theft Auto, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and others are starting to appear on other systems. In short, we have seen absolutely nothing that would justify a $200 price difference.
Can Sony afford to lose its position in the video game marketplace for a generation of game systems? That is becoming a crucial question. If Sony took a $200 loss on every system to become more price competitive and maintain market share that works out to $2 billion for every 10 million units. Will Sony investors swallow that type of loss?
In forecasting the market we can say this with confidence: a $600 price point is okay for launch but it will not fly in holiday 2007. If Sony wants to drive unit volume 2007 needs to be not only the year of price cuts, but the year of drastic price cuts. There is going to be a shakeup in the video game industry and even if Sony executes perfectly there could be a new market leader in two years. Stay tuned, next month we will formally unveil some of the actual numbers in our forecasts. This month we will just say that yes, Sony could easily go from first to worst in the video game market.
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