5th November 2003, 12:48 AM
The e-reader isn't that expensive, just so you know, well mine wasn't. It's around the price of the average game for GBA.
For clarification ABF, lemme explain what's going on with Crystal Chronicles as I've read. It's not about hiding the data from the other players at all. It's about being able to select items and spells without blocking parts of the screen and without pausing the game. I'm not sure exactly how much space this menu could really be taking up, but I really have a hard time imaging it being so large as to prevent 4 small menus in the 4 corners at once without blocking the action. I do however easily see how having the game paused all the time (assuming the menu really does have to be that big) could hurt the experience.
And GR, regarding FFXI, that wasn't exactly my point. That I HAVE to buy it to play it isn't the point. It's that they are artificially CREATING the need. That's what's wrong. Not including a single player mode isn't artificially creating the need. That suggest they would have to do MORE work to have the Metroid Prime stuff unlocked from the start than to go out of their way to do what they did, or somehow otherwise be a very difficult thing to do on a technical standpoint. That's not the case though. Artificial needs, well, they sicken me. As an example, let's consider the early DivX model. They had actually wanted to make a movie disk that artificially expires. It wasn't a natural degredation at all, but rather a built in chip to say "don't play it any more after this number of plays so they have to buy it again". That's an example of evil business practice, and as was quickly shown, the consumer hated it too. I myself, and I believe most people, consider artificial product requirements to be just plain wrong in their very conception. When it's truly needed to make the game run, then it's completely acceptable. It's when it's artificially created just for the sake of profit (and let's face it, the Metroid Prime thing was not about fun in the least, just about profit), that people get mad. People understand when they need to buy a special joystick to fully enjoy proper control in a PC flying shooter, because it really IS needed to fully enjoy the game and is a result of simple REAL limitations. However, if they had to hook up a special "unlocking add-on", like some amazing chip you hook to USB that has nothing but a key on it to unlock a hidden level in a game, I think everyone would hate it. There would be boycots here and people just hacking the game to get the hidden stuff without the key there. The latter wouldn't even be illegal, because as I said, the stuff is already IN the game anyway so they can't be said to be stealing it (well, maybe the key, but it's more likely they would just delete the requirement for that key than try to spoof it).
Now I can see you are trying to be fair here, but you do see what I'm saying here, right?
For clarification ABF, lemme explain what's going on with Crystal Chronicles as I've read. It's not about hiding the data from the other players at all. It's about being able to select items and spells without blocking parts of the screen and without pausing the game. I'm not sure exactly how much space this menu could really be taking up, but I really have a hard time imaging it being so large as to prevent 4 small menus in the 4 corners at once without blocking the action. I do however easily see how having the game paused all the time (assuming the menu really does have to be that big) could hurt the experience.
And GR, regarding FFXI, that wasn't exactly my point. That I HAVE to buy it to play it isn't the point. It's that they are artificially CREATING the need. That's what's wrong. Not including a single player mode isn't artificially creating the need. That suggest they would have to do MORE work to have the Metroid Prime stuff unlocked from the start than to go out of their way to do what they did, or somehow otherwise be a very difficult thing to do on a technical standpoint. That's not the case though. Artificial needs, well, they sicken me. As an example, let's consider the early DivX model. They had actually wanted to make a movie disk that artificially expires. It wasn't a natural degredation at all, but rather a built in chip to say "don't play it any more after this number of plays so they have to buy it again". That's an example of evil business practice, and as was quickly shown, the consumer hated it too. I myself, and I believe most people, consider artificial product requirements to be just plain wrong in their very conception. When it's truly needed to make the game run, then it's completely acceptable. It's when it's artificially created just for the sake of profit (and let's face it, the Metroid Prime thing was not about fun in the least, just about profit), that people get mad. People understand when they need to buy a special joystick to fully enjoy proper control in a PC flying shooter, because it really IS needed to fully enjoy the game and is a result of simple REAL limitations. However, if they had to hook up a special "unlocking add-on", like some amazing chip you hook to USB that has nothing but a key on it to unlock a hidden level in a game, I think everyone would hate it. There would be boycots here and people just hacking the game to get the hidden stuff without the key there. The latter wouldn't even be illegal, because as I said, the stuff is already IN the game anyway so they can't be said to be stealing it (well, maybe the key, but it's more likely they would just delete the requirement for that key than try to spoof it).
Now I can see you are trying to be fair here, but you do see what I'm saying here, right?
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)