I've totally noticed this myself, and apparently it has been the subject of rigorous and repeatable psychological studies.
For those too lazy to read, it's that strange thing that happens when you do any single sort of repeated activity that requires coming up with a system to do it for a long period of time and finding yourself applying it in the back of your mind to the rest of reality for several hours or even days afterwards. Named basically because it was first studied with the game Tetris.
I've noticed it from something like playing Ocarina of Time in that I unconciously look for the context sensitive action when approaching a door, and after spending a long time outside with my cat "hunting" in the small wooded area nearby I notice unconcious "lookit that" type behavior. Nothing that dominates thoughts or anything, just an odd mental phenomenon that's worth studying.
Quote:As the hardware team wrapped up its work, Microsoft had to consider what to do with its talented team of 200 engineers. Many of the engineers would be tied up on the cost reductions for the Xbox 360 for years to come. They would redesign the parts so they could be simpler and cheaper to build. They would combine the graphics chip and the microprocessor into a single chip at some point. But some engineers needed work to do before the next console had to be designed. Microsoft’s executives hatched a plan to keep them busy. They dusted off the old scheme to create a portable game player. It was about time. Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer decided to realign Microsoft’s top executives so that the company could move faster to deal with its new rivals. It had to start thinking beyond Sony and Nintendo. Microsoft had to compete faster against companies such as Google, Yahoo!, eBay, Amazon.com, Apple Computer, and a host of fleet start-ups. On September 20, 2005, the company split itself into three divisions. The core Windows group would be called the Microsoft Platform Products & Services Division, led by Kevin Johnson and Jim Allchin as co-presidents; Jeff Raikes was named president of the Microsoft Business Division; and Robbie Bach was named president of the Microsoft Entertainment & Devices Division. Bach would no longer be the chief Xbox officer. He would step up beyond the Xbox. His Home and Entertainment Division would be combined with Mobile and Embedded Devices, including gadgets such as smart phones, MSN, music services, and Internet TV. With this portfolio of businesses under his control, Bach could end some internecine warfare within the company and launch a counterattack against rivals in portable gadgets. He now had everything within his control to launch a so-called “iPod killer” that played games.For a long time, Microsoft had watched Apple’s resurgence with frustration. The iPod had become a cultural phenomenon, selling well over 10 million units a quarter. Everything that Microsoft did in music services had fallen short. It created PocketPC software that enabled people to play music on their handheld organizers. It had SmartPhone software that was just starting to break into the cell phone business. It licensed its software to makers of Portable Media Players, but even though it won over dozens of licensees, none of the companies could break Apple’s hold on the market. The smaller players didn’t have enough advertising money to establish a brand, and they didn’t have control of hardware, software, and services the way that Apple did. Apple was so well integrated that it could design a product and everything to go with it. It was time for Microsoft to step up and take on Apple directly, in the same way as it took on Sony with the Xbox and Xbox 360. Different parts of Microsoft had tried to take a stab at Apple. Otto Berkes, the co-creator of the original Xbox, had left the project early in its inception to return to Windows products. He was a right wing hawk when it came to supporting the PC and Windows. Berkes began research to try to make a handheld Windows computer. He didn’t know or care what it would be used for. But he knew if Microsoft could pull it off, people would find wonderful uses for it the way they had done with the ever-evolving PC. He teamed up with Horace Luke to create various prototypes. But the Intel-compatible chips of the time had not been designed with extreme low power in mind. Even Transmeta, which made low-power microprocessors, couldn’t make chips that enabled the tiniest handheld computers that Berkes had in mind. He persevered, even as Luke shifted over to designing SmartPhones. Bill Mitchell, the head of Windows mobile devices, encouraged Berkes to keep at it. Bill Gates held up an early non-working prototype, which Berkes had dubbed “Haiku,” at a Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in April, 2005. But that version proved too hard to make, so Berkes started work on a successor, dubbed “Origami.” This system got traction as Samsung and other computer makers in the Far East decided to launch versions of it in the spring of 2006. But nobody expected the Origami machines, which had 7-inch diagonal touch-screens and couldn’t fit in a pocket, to do any damage whatsoever against the iPod or the Sony gadget. Microsoft needed a game machine that was small. Bach assigned J Allard to take on this “next big thing.” Doing so would make a huge statement that Microsoft was going to ship this iPod-killer and that it would do it with the same precision planning that it had done with the Xbox 360. Allard would run the platform, handling the hardware, software, and services for the handheld. Bryan Lee, meanwhile, would become the chief financial officer for the entire Entertainment and Devices Group and run the handheld’s business side. Peter Moore would take charge of the Xbox 360 and Windows games businesses, effectively replacing Bach in his old job. These promotions set in motion another series of promotions. Todd Holmdahl replaced Allard as the head of the Xbox platform. Larry Yang in Mountain View took Holmdahl’s old job, while Bill Adamec eventually stepped up to replace Yang as the semiconductor chief. Allard picked Greg Gibson to be the project director on the handheld.
Gibson had a proven track record for managing a complex design. He would be able to spearhead the core team as it tackled difficult technical challenges, such as cramming a powerful microprocessor into a handheld device that couldn’t consume a lot of power because of battery life requirements. Microsoft hired Transmeta, the low-power chip company, so that it could use 30 of Transmeta’s engineers on a secret project, and the press began speculating about a connection between a handheld project and the Transmeta team. After all, Transmeta was helping Sony create low-power versions of the Cell microprocessor for handheld applications. The Microsoft project would operate in secret until, once again, the media blew the lid off the story in the spring of 2006. The project reminded Microsoft veterans of other times when the team had considered handheld game players. Back in 2001, Margaret Johnson explored the idea of doing the Xboy handheld with technology from R.J. Mical’s Red Jade project. But that project got scuttled. And the Xe 30 team contemplated handhelds again, but they decided to wait until the Xbox 360 shipped. The hardware gang had moved on to bigger and better things. The handheld seemed like the logical next step for Microsoft in games,
Microsoft is fucking terrible at keeping things in the dark. It's coming.
What makes it most exciting is Microsoft's recent announcement of Live Anywhere. Content you purchase off of the Live service could potentially be accessed using your PC, Xbox 360, Xboy (we'll call it that for now), or any other Windows enabled device. Imagine purchasing a fun Xbox 360 game and taking it with you later on without having to pay for it again. Nice.
My concerns are with Microsoft's developer resources. It seems as though they have just enough exclusive content to finally divert some attention away from Nintendo or Sony and pay some mind to the 360. I don't want to see Bungie, Rare, or Lionhead taking even longer to release games because they're working on Xboy projects. The third-parties...good luck getting them from the already installed userbases of Nintendo and Sony. I suppose by late 2007/2008 (the projected launch), Xbox Live Arcade could have a considerable library of games, but enough to justify a purchase over a NDS or PSP?
eh...I'm not sure how I feel about it. I think I'd rather see them firmly establish the 360 than spread thin their developer resources on another hardware venture.
Why are they DOING this to us?! Please don't make this game Nintendo! Just give us the WHOLE thing! I don't buy books and then buy extra pages to insert into different chapters to have "added monologue", so don't throw stuff like this at us! Evil, EVIL! On the other hand extra chapters entirely, in other words sequel type stuff, sure sell me that.
So what, they predict they will have the storage space to store this sort of data?
Anyway, this unofficial mod (the reason to prefer the PC version in the end) adds very basic multiplayer. I never expected fully developed multiplayer, but a small mod like this that at least allows your friends to join you in the single player mode is certainly welcome. It's very preliminary, so here's hoping it'll really be added to later. Maybe the mod community will add in all sorts of bonus quests that require multiplayer action.
Quote:Top Ten Software Sales:
1. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo, DS) -- 200,037 units
2. Brain Training 2 (Nintendo, DS) -- 60,463 units
3. Winning Eleven Soccer 10 (Konami, PS2) -- 52,124 units
4. Digimon Story (Bandai, DS) -- 41,135 units
5. Brain Training (Nintendo, DS) -- 40,878 units
6. Animal Crossing (Nintendo, DS) -- 30,206 units
7. Brain Training English Translation (Nintendo, DS) -- 26,723 units
8. Tetris DS (Nintendo, DS) -- 23,762 units
9. Neon Genesis Evangelion Pachinko -- (D3, PS2) -- 23,587 units
10. Doko Demo Issho: Let's Gakkou! (Square Enix, PSP) -- 16,582 units
Week's Hardware Sales
DS Lite -- 141,487 units
PSP -- 24,653 units
DS -- 22,478 units
PS2 -- 20,737 units
GBA SP -- 4,642 units
Xbox 360 -- 1,407 units
Game Boy Micro -- 1,294 units
GameCube -- 1,002 units
GBA -- 20 units
Xbox -- 15 units
The XBox sold 15 units. Wow. The 360 is selling more than the Micro and the Gamecube. That's a surprise as well, but not really. The SP outsold the micro in Japan too eh? I'm not surprised. The micro is all gimic, no substance. I mean, it is amazing how small it is. I'm impressed by that, but not enough to buy it and hang it from my keychain. The thing requires all it's own accessories, and doesn't play GB or GBC games. Further, the new SP has the same bright screen, only a little larger, and the SP is still very attractive a design (it looks great next to my DS Lite, like a near match, except the SP lacks the transparent gloss layer).
micro still did better than the original GBA, which I am shocked to see is still being sold. 5 more than the XBox it seems :D.
Look you idiots. The content was dummied out! When the game is played without modification, that content is absent! I'd be mad if Final Fantasy IV actually advertised the content they dummied out of the original version FOR the original version, only to find I couldn't access it at all until someone hacked it with a Game Genie. I'd call it false advertising. Why is this any different?
Morons... This really is about as bad as the higher rating Oblivion was forced to adopt because someone found a way to hack the game to remove everyone's clothes.
Penny Arcade was right... Not long before the Etchisketch is sued because someone drew square genitals on it.
