Do you offer the carrot, or do you use the stick? Well, if you have a carrot on a stick, you can do either or both. Neither is probably always an option as well.
One problem there is what if they don't like carrots. Add to that, what if they aren't bothered by the stick?
It's more like rock and a hard place but that's so overused and exceedingly trite. Just typing it makes me feel like I do when I hear the sounds of the current Xbox 360 (which everyone calls the 360 of course). I mean, it's all fine to be childish or proud of a Wii or prancy-dancy uber-queen-style gay or ultra-feminine all 1950s-like or a fan of the overly dulcet or a product of the times in general, however you want to put it. Somebody has to watch reality TV shows or there wouldn't be so many of them, QED and quid pro quo. Yet not everyone appreciates trying to be converted to a certain point of view, especially those who already are.
Obviously even that mild sort of thing is sure to bring disapproval or even anger, but like what much of the rest of this talk is about, those are all the sorts of things we'll discuss. Ideas, personal preferences and how we react to things. Examples are wonderful things, sometimes.
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Friday, May 24, 2013
Other Considerations to the next post.
As an add on after the fact here.
Although here on Saturday May 25th I'm scheduling it to show it as from yesterday May 24th, hence the Friday date of the post. That's in order to make it show up earlier in the blog post stream even though it was written after .
Let's look and see some of the business take on some aspects of all that. In case you've not been paying any attention, some background that probably fairly well details the overall. So, after thinking what might others be saying about it all, here's a smattering of randomness new and old to get an idea why this isn't anything new.
At Xbox Reveal, Microsoft Hides A Priceless Asset
Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo, We're In A Console Rut
The Xbox One Misses the Perfect Set-Top Box Target
Mobile game sales to reach $11.7B by 2014, led by iPhone
Smartphones rocket past consoles for mobile game sales
And for another thing to chew on, at least hardware-gaming-wise. Although it may have (likely has) no practical bearing now. And even if not having any practical bearing right this second, may have no practical bearing in the next month. Or in three to twenty-four months. Much can change in a quarter year to two years. The hardware specs also not anything anyone's denying (as far as I know) but hardware isn't the entire story, obviously. Certainly though, the psfour will be beefier than the xbone if things remain the same.
Why the PS4 will be much more powerful than the Xbox One
Sunday, May 19, 2013
How Microsoft might royally bufu themselves with their new console (and not in a good way)
Some of these will be an instant issue, others might add up together. But they're all really bad ideas.
1. Always requiring an Internet connection.
This one is just stupid. It's been tried before and it's an unmitigated disaster. Even if it had never been tried, it's idiotic. Would we expect this from a company that is tying together all their OS products so brilliantly? Hopefully not.
2. Blocking out used games.
Not every title is a buy when it comes out or buy new, and plenty of money is made by selling online passes, map packs, song and dance downloads. Sometimes people buy consoles and sign up for Live because they trade games. Also, there are a number of companies that rent out games. So attempting to alienate vast numbers far more than their horrible sounds already do, that's just plain extra retarded. As in backwards and slow and low-IQ. Like a spark firing at the wrong time retarded.
3. Getting rid of Micro Soft Points.
They could replace it somehow, maybe, but getting rid of them totally in every way is probably not such a great idea.
4. Making the console sounds and colors even more fru-fru and Wii-like.
That's pretty self explanatory, but for those that really love the Wii and Wii games (Hello, it's Mario!!!!) they have a Wii already most certainly. Even if they're trying to convert people into dropping their current careers and becoming interior decorators, it's just a doomed idea.
Yes, I have a Wii. Yes, I've played a couple of games on it. No, it's in a box somewhere not even hooked up. No, my habits in various lifestyle areas are not applicable here.
5. Resetting achievements.
6. Not counting old achievements.
7. Doing away with achievements.
Messing around with people's Gamer Score is a sure-fire way to tank things. Removing the reasons people buy a great number of games only for that reason ("the cheevos" is beyond the most moronic thing anyone could possibly ever do. It's counter-productive, and antagonistic. Customer no-support. The definition of consumer unfriendly. Hostile.
Although it seems that would be impossible, as it would require everyone working at Microsoft to become brain-dead, or at least to forget everything they've learned since they introduced GS. Since we know they've put in achievements and tied it all in with Windows 8 on PC, tablet and phone, how could they possibly make such a move?
8. Requiring a Kinect.
9. Putting more ads on the dashboard.
Both of those are seemingly non-sensical, but maybe they could make it work, somehow. Probably not.
10. I don't have a ten here either. Perhaps later.
So, anything else we can think of? A number of people dislike or hate Microsoft as it is, so what would push you over the edge if you haven't already been by just the rumors?
1. Always requiring an Internet connection.
This one is just stupid. It's been tried before and it's an unmitigated disaster. Even if it had never been tried, it's idiotic. Would we expect this from a company that is tying together all their OS products so brilliantly? Hopefully not.
2. Blocking out used games.
Not every title is a buy when it comes out or buy new, and plenty of money is made by selling online passes, map packs, song and dance downloads. Sometimes people buy consoles and sign up for Live because they trade games. Also, there are a number of companies that rent out games. So attempting to alienate vast numbers far more than their horrible sounds already do, that's just plain extra retarded. As in backwards and slow and low-IQ. Like a spark firing at the wrong time retarded.
3. Getting rid of Micro Soft Points.
They could replace it somehow, maybe, but getting rid of them totally in every way is probably not such a great idea.
4. Making the console sounds and colors even more fru-fru and Wii-like.
That's pretty self explanatory, but for those that really love the Wii and Wii games (Hello, it's Mario!!!!) they have a Wii already most certainly. Even if they're trying to convert people into dropping their current careers and becoming interior decorators, it's just a doomed idea.
Yes, I have a Wii. Yes, I've played a couple of games on it. No, it's in a box somewhere not even hooked up. No, my habits in various lifestyle areas are not applicable here.
5. Resetting achievements.
6. Not counting old achievements.
7. Doing away with achievements.
Messing around with people's Gamer Score is a sure-fire way to tank things. Removing the reasons people buy a great number of games only for that reason ("the cheevos" is beyond the most moronic thing anyone could possibly ever do. It's counter-productive, and antagonistic. Customer no-support. The definition of consumer unfriendly. Hostile.
Although it seems that would be impossible, as it would require everyone working at Microsoft to become brain-dead, or at least to forget everything they've learned since they introduced GS. Since we know they've put in achievements and tied it all in with Windows 8 on PC, tablet and phone, how could they possibly make such a move?
8. Requiring a Kinect.
9. Putting more ads on the dashboard.
Both of those are seemingly non-sensical, but maybe they could make it work, somehow. Probably not.
10. I don't have a ten here either. Perhaps later.
So, anything else we can think of? A number of people dislike or hate Microsoft as it is, so what would push you over the edge if you haven't already been by just the rumors?
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Addendum: 360 Game sales et al
To put all that game sales stuff in perspective, let's look at the worldwide sales figures for the overall best selling games for the Xbox 360 that went over four million sales.
Game - Year - World sales millions
Kinect Adventures! 2010 20.04
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 2011 14.93
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2010 13.94
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 2009 13.02
Call of Duty: Black Ops II 2012 9 12.20
Halo 3 2007 11.77
Grand Theft Auto IV 10.25
Halo: Reach 2010 9.43
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 8.89
Halo 4 2012 8.24
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 2011 7.20
Call of Duty: World at War 2008 6.93
Battlefield 3 6.81
Gears of War 2 2008 6.62
Halo 3: ODST 2009 6.15
Gears of War 2006 6.00
Gears of War 3 2011 5.88
Kinect Sports 2010 5.59
Red Dead Redemption 2010 5.53
Forza Motorsport 3 2009 5.37
Assassin's Creed 2007 5.29
Assassin's Creed II 2009 5.10
Fable III 2010 4.92
FIFA Soccer 13 2012 4.65
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood 2010 4.52
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock 2007 4.39
Assassin's Creed III 2012 4.29
Fable II 2008 4.12
FIFA Soccer 12 2011 4.08
Fallout 3 2008 4.05
Forza Motorsport 2 2007 4.00
This is a "top 30" list, because the first title comes with new sales of a Kinect. So any fan of any genre (even those who, say, bought a Kinect just to give voice commands in Mass Effect 3) "bought" a copy of Kinect Adventures when they got the sensor. That figure likely also includes console sales of any of the Xbox 360 + Kinect bundles.
What this tells us is that historically, people who play games on this particular console, do so to large extent for games like those genres listed above.
-
If you just want to go with the sales figures for North America all consoles, in November 2012 "Amazon online sales data" (for week 45 it was said) looked like this:
1. Halo 4 (Xbox 360)
2. Assassin’s Creed III (Xbox 360)
3. Just Dance 4 (Wii)
4. Assassin’s Creed III (PS3)
5. FIFA Soccer 13 (PS3)
6. New Super Mario Bros. 2 (3DS)
7. Madden NFL 13 (Xbox 360)
8. Pokémon Black Version 2 (DS/3DS)
9. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Xbox 360)
10. FIFA Soccer 13 (Xbox 360)
Which might also give us a clue as to what kinds of games might go with what kinds of consoles, at least in NA.
Game - Year - World sales millions
Kinect Adventures! 2010 20.04
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 2011 14.93
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2010 13.94
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 2009 13.02
Call of Duty: Black Ops II 2012 9 12.20
Halo 3 2007 11.77
Grand Theft Auto IV 10.25
Halo: Reach 2010 9.43
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 8.89
Halo 4 2012 8.24
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 2011 7.20
Call of Duty: World at War 2008 6.93
Battlefield 3 6.81
Gears of War 2 2008 6.62
Halo 3: ODST 2009 6.15
Gears of War 2006 6.00
Gears of War 3 2011 5.88
Kinect Sports 2010 5.59
Red Dead Redemption 2010 5.53
Forza Motorsport 3 2009 5.37
Assassin's Creed 2007 5.29
Assassin's Creed II 2009 5.10
Fable III 2010 4.92
FIFA Soccer 13 2012 4.65
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood 2010 4.52
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock 2007 4.39
Assassin's Creed III 2012 4.29
Fable II 2008 4.12
FIFA Soccer 12 2011 4.08
Fallout 3 2008 4.05
Forza Motorsport 2 2007 4.00
This is a "top 30" list, because the first title comes with new sales of a Kinect. So any fan of any genre (even those who, say, bought a Kinect just to give voice commands in Mass Effect 3) "bought" a copy of Kinect Adventures when they got the sensor. That figure likely also includes console sales of any of the Xbox 360 + Kinect bundles.
What this tells us is that historically, people who play games on this particular console, do so to large extent for games like those genres listed above.
-
If you just want to go with the sales figures for North America all consoles, in November 2012 "Amazon online sales data" (for week 45 it was said) looked like this:
1. Halo 4 (Xbox 360)
2. Assassin’s Creed III (Xbox 360)
3. Just Dance 4 (Wii)
4. Assassin’s Creed III (PS3)
5. FIFA Soccer 13 (PS3)
6. New Super Mario Bros. 2 (3DS)
7. Madden NFL 13 (Xbox 360)
8. Pokémon Black Version 2 (DS/3DS)
9. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Xbox 360)
10. FIFA Soccer 13 (Xbox 360)
Which might also give us a clue as to what kinds of games might go with what kinds of consoles, at least in NA.
Why people buy the Xbox 360
This isn't a scientific study. It's not even based much upon sales figures and not at all on those self-serving surveys. So this is rather mostly a non-empirical, rule of thumb off the cuff sort of story, with anecdote and "common sense" perhaps. These aren't necessarily in order either; although the first one is the most important.
1. There are a number of recent things that have certainly or likely broadened the appeal of the Xbox 360 to large extent, but primarily it's a gaming device. So people buy it to play games upon it. The number of people who have a 360 is the biggest reason people buy more, which feeds on itself. But games is the main reason to get one
What sort of games we ask? Well there's a lot of them, but if the big sellers are the main reason, it's for those sorts of games then. Sort of a QED, sort of a tautology. To dip though into some random reports of dubious veracity then. The top 10 best sellers of 2011 say, that starts with what's to large extent First Person shooters. Ones with numbers in the titles, as really all of them are. Three being the most prevalent, trivially speaking.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Battlefield 3
In the case of what's affectionately known as Skyrim, it's a first or third person fantasy role playing game, but you do shoot things; magically, shoutingly and with bows. It's also (for the voice commands) "Kinect enabled". Which brings us to the rest of the list, being as the next two are actual Kinect titles.
Kinect Sports Season 2
Just Dance 3
Followed out by mostly more shooters, first person and otherwise.
Halo 3 (Allegedly)
Gears of War 3
Saint's Row The Third (we see what you did there)
Fifa 12 (our only sports sim)
Batman: Arkham City (technically, more like "Batman Arkham 2", but who's counting)
2. That leads us to Kinect. Figure and voice recognition, sports, edutainment, exercise, video chat and conferencing, game and AV control, and so on. Kinect certainly hasn't hurt console sales. Although it is as much a cool factor, a kids draw (think, interactive Sesame Street) and a user interface as it is anything else. But only the Xbox 360 has it (aside from some hackers here and there, as they say) and it's a reason to get a 360.
3. Multiplayer. Part of the recent surge in console sales is weight; the more people playing multiplayer on a platform, the more reason there is for others to join in. (It's also a big part of why the Call of Duty franchise is so big.)
3. Another part to that, perhaps the same thing, maybe another subject. The multiplayer aspect goes along with the chat and party features of the 360, and the other way around. Those are reasons to get a 360 versus one of the alternatives, a different console or a computer. It's fairly seamless and easy to "chat and party" as long as your friends (or new ones) are along for the ride.
-
For both of those, yes, it requires a "gold membership" of Live to use, but that's also needed to use IE , and so do many of the music/video/news/streaming features. But at discount that "Gold Live" is $40 a year or so, you get a network (speed, stability, uptime) that goes along with the price, and there are enough deals and freebies over a year where it ends up costing little or nothing in absolute terms.
This aspect of paying for access is also a reason people don't buy a 360, but we're not talking about that here right now.
4. Apps and such. The addition of Internet Explorer (slow and HTML5 video/audio only really) might not mean much, unless you've got a keyboard and mouse and don't mind waiting and having no flash etc. IE also replaced the Twitter and Facebook apps, which are also not much to speak of either. But the addition of things like Netflix, Vudu, MLB, UFC, ESPN, even though most are just front-ends to services you already have to have from the respective providers. There are also free (to some extent, pay for premium, watch and listen to advertising, etc) audio and video streaming apps though, Crackle, Last and so on. Along with Xbox Video and Xbox Music (which used to be called Zune) for those who want to digitally rent or buy (regardless of cost, because of ease). And a few more things. Overall then, this in its entirety makes it a reason to buy, or at the least adds to the reason. Of course, the 360 is also a DVD player, but even with a specific "regular" remote, that's not much of a reason to buy a 360 in and of itself. Some $200 or $300 for a clunky big limited DVD player, not so much of a draw. There are other pros and cons too......
However taken in total, all of these coordinated entertainment viewing options, plus and minus, offer a number of people a reason to consolidate things on one platform.
5. Integration with other things that are all windowy-like. Although for some, this item here is a reason to get the other things rather than a reason to get a 360. But with the rolling in of similar interfaces and cross-platform logins and user data and other things, there's Windows 8 (the OS) and Windows Phone (7 and 7.5 and 8). Throw in a tablet here, a laptop there, roll it back into the infrastructure, and as the French say, boom.
6. Sound and visual schemes. They've taken the wussiest and most wretched looks and sounds from the Wii say for example, and made everything look and sound like those sorts of things. It likely brings over some fair number of buyers (or pushes them in), while the gamers just turn off the sounds (except for some apps that think it's fun to play the sounds too) and don't pay much attention to the colors. Well, actually, the gamers are probably too busy actually playing games to worry about how things pander to the sorts of people that buy those other things. All in all, it's probably a net-sum gain, one might guess.
7. Microsoft points MSP. A convenient way to consolidate funds to get games on demand (overpriced usually, and with no physical media ever, but something that appeals so some people), Downloadable content DLC (addins for games, songs and dances for such games, etc), share funds in a family. Plus some of the other things (Xbox Rewards, Bing Search) let consumers get MSP for doing other things.
8. Achievements. A big part of the total, a meaningless number of great import. It gives goals, reasons, something to count. How many of the total (1000, 200, whatever) did you get out of the game? Did you fully complete it, do you have a reason to replay it. Not that it's needed, people play CoD multiplayer even without it, others don't care. On the other hand, there are whole web sites just for them, such as this one and this one.
9. Hardware and software lock in. If you game on the PC, and you play the newest games, and you want all the graphics and speed the games have to offer, you are going to be spending a lot of money frequently. Say you've got a PC that's 2 years old and has a graphics card that cost $150 at the time. What games are you going to play now that are new and this gen? How about 5 or 7 years old. Plus the whole PC support thing. Do PC break and need to be replaced as much as the older Xbox that red ringed do? Probably not, but the out-of-date PC will have to be upgraded or replaced.
The side benefit is greater graphic resolution and such possible on a PC, for those who spend $500 not really, and how many people buy $1000 or $3000 PC every year or two. Maybe that's overstating things and making it seem a bigger deal than it is. But much has been done on a hardware platform that has stayed stable and has requirements. The software is optimized in ways it can't be on a wide variety of uncontrolled hardware. Even more so, hardware that changes from month to month. (Check the stats of a $350 video card from five years ago versus one from right now for example. Which may we remind you please, is about the cost of a console with hard drive and a year of Live Gold.)
Which that uncontrolled/controlled thing is the second part. Cheaters, hackers, viruses, spyware on a console. That goes for any console, but remember this is also a paid network. How much, if anything, they actually spend on the network is another question, but there's no doubt they have teams watching for those people who abuse or take advantage of the system. Maybe some don't like that control, or who's doing it, but most console buyers probably don't, regardless of what they think of Microsoft Or Microsoft versus Sony versus Nintendo, for that matter. Or even Valve and Steam on the other side of things. Punkbuster, sure. Xfire, of course. And nothing here is meant to suggest PC gaming is worse or better, or that it isn't much bigger or much smaller overall just that these are factors. It's also not meant to suggest the superiority of the mouse/keyboard (for most games) is in question. :smiley:
10. I'm sure there's a ten here somewhere, maybe later.
So there you have it. The main reasons that people buy Xbox 360s, which primarily is for gaming purposes. Or at least that's probably where all the money is. Some 12% of sales of all games is almost certainly a bigger chunk than the number of people using the cable apps to watch cable TV on an Xbox 360 or how many people are browsing the web with a controller in a single-use full-screen program on a console.
1. There are a number of recent things that have certainly or likely broadened the appeal of the Xbox 360 to large extent, but primarily it's a gaming device. So people buy it to play games upon it. The number of people who have a 360 is the biggest reason people buy more, which feeds on itself. But games is the main reason to get one
What sort of games we ask? Well there's a lot of them, but if the big sellers are the main reason, it's for those sorts of games then. Sort of a QED, sort of a tautology. To dip though into some random reports of dubious veracity then. The top 10 best sellers of 2011 say, that starts with what's to large extent First Person shooters. Ones with numbers in the titles, as really all of them are. Three being the most prevalent, trivially speaking.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Battlefield 3
In the case of what's affectionately known as Skyrim, it's a first or third person fantasy role playing game, but you do shoot things; magically, shoutingly and with bows. It's also (for the voice commands) "Kinect enabled". Which brings us to the rest of the list, being as the next two are actual Kinect titles.
Kinect Sports Season 2
Just Dance 3
Followed out by mostly more shooters, first person and otherwise.
Halo 3 (Allegedly)
Gears of War 3
Saint's Row The Third (we see what you did there)
Fifa 12 (our only sports sim)
Batman: Arkham City (technically, more like "Batman Arkham 2", but who's counting)
2. That leads us to Kinect. Figure and voice recognition, sports, edutainment, exercise, video chat and conferencing, game and AV control, and so on. Kinect certainly hasn't hurt console sales. Although it is as much a cool factor, a kids draw (think, interactive Sesame Street) and a user interface as it is anything else. But only the Xbox 360 has it (aside from some hackers here and there, as they say) and it's a reason to get a 360.
3. Multiplayer. Part of the recent surge in console sales is weight; the more people playing multiplayer on a platform, the more reason there is for others to join in. (It's also a big part of why the Call of Duty franchise is so big.)
3. Another part to that, perhaps the same thing, maybe another subject. The multiplayer aspect goes along with the chat and party features of the 360, and the other way around. Those are reasons to get a 360 versus one of the alternatives, a different console or a computer. It's fairly seamless and easy to "chat and party" as long as your friends (or new ones) are along for the ride.
-
For both of those, yes, it requires a "gold membership" of Live to use, but that's also needed to use IE , and so do many of the music/video/news/streaming features. But at discount that "Gold Live" is $40 a year or so, you get a network (speed, stability, uptime) that goes along with the price, and there are enough deals and freebies over a year where it ends up costing little or nothing in absolute terms.
This aspect of paying for access is also a reason people don't buy a 360, but we're not talking about that here right now.
4. Apps and such. The addition of Internet Explorer (slow and HTML5 video/audio only really) might not mean much, unless you've got a keyboard and mouse and don't mind waiting and having no flash etc. IE also replaced the Twitter and Facebook apps, which are also not much to speak of either. But the addition of things like Netflix, Vudu, MLB, UFC, ESPN, even though most are just front-ends to services you already have to have from the respective providers. There are also free (to some extent, pay for premium, watch and listen to advertising, etc) audio and video streaming apps though, Crackle, Last and so on. Along with Xbox Video and Xbox Music (which used to be called Zune) for those who want to digitally rent or buy (regardless of cost, because of ease). And a few more things. Overall then, this in its entirety makes it a reason to buy, or at the least adds to the reason. Of course, the 360 is also a DVD player, but even with a specific "regular" remote, that's not much of a reason to buy a 360 in and of itself. Some $200 or $300 for a clunky big limited DVD player, not so much of a draw. There are other pros and cons too......
However taken in total, all of these coordinated entertainment viewing options, plus and minus, offer a number of people a reason to consolidate things on one platform.
5. Integration with other things that are all windowy-like. Although for some, this item here is a reason to get the other things rather than a reason to get a 360. But with the rolling in of similar interfaces and cross-platform logins and user data and other things, there's Windows 8 (the OS) and Windows Phone (7 and 7.5 and 8). Throw in a tablet here, a laptop there, roll it back into the infrastructure, and as the French say, boom.
6. Sound and visual schemes. They've taken the wussiest and most wretched looks and sounds from the Wii say for example, and made everything look and sound like those sorts of things. It likely brings over some fair number of buyers (or pushes them in), while the gamers just turn off the sounds (except for some apps that think it's fun to play the sounds too) and don't pay much attention to the colors. Well, actually, the gamers are probably too busy actually playing games to worry about how things pander to the sorts of people that buy those other things. All in all, it's probably a net-sum gain, one might guess.
7. Microsoft points MSP. A convenient way to consolidate funds to get games on demand (overpriced usually, and with no physical media ever, but something that appeals so some people), Downloadable content DLC (addins for games, songs and dances for such games, etc), share funds in a family. Plus some of the other things (Xbox Rewards, Bing Search) let consumers get MSP for doing other things.
8. Achievements. A big part of the total, a meaningless number of great import. It gives goals, reasons, something to count. How many of the total (1000, 200, whatever) did you get out of the game? Did you fully complete it, do you have a reason to replay it. Not that it's needed, people play CoD multiplayer even without it, others don't care. On the other hand, there are whole web sites just for them, such as this one and this one.
9. Hardware and software lock in. If you game on the PC, and you play the newest games, and you want all the graphics and speed the games have to offer, you are going to be spending a lot of money frequently. Say you've got a PC that's 2 years old and has a graphics card that cost $150 at the time. What games are you going to play now that are new and this gen? How about 5 or 7 years old. Plus the whole PC support thing. Do PC break and need to be replaced as much as the older Xbox that red ringed do? Probably not, but the out-of-date PC will have to be upgraded or replaced.
The side benefit is greater graphic resolution and such possible on a PC, for those who spend $500 not really, and how many people buy $1000 or $3000 PC every year or two. Maybe that's overstating things and making it seem a bigger deal than it is. But much has been done on a hardware platform that has stayed stable and has requirements. The software is optimized in ways it can't be on a wide variety of uncontrolled hardware. Even more so, hardware that changes from month to month. (Check the stats of a $350 video card from five years ago versus one from right now for example. Which may we remind you please, is about the cost of a console with hard drive and a year of Live Gold.)
Which that uncontrolled/controlled thing is the second part. Cheaters, hackers, viruses, spyware on a console. That goes for any console, but remember this is also a paid network. How much, if anything, they actually spend on the network is another question, but there's no doubt they have teams watching for those people who abuse or take advantage of the system. Maybe some don't like that control, or who's doing it, but most console buyers probably don't, regardless of what they think of Microsoft Or Microsoft versus Sony versus Nintendo, for that matter. Or even Valve and Steam on the other side of things. Punkbuster, sure. Xfire, of course. And nothing here is meant to suggest PC gaming is worse or better, or that it isn't much bigger or much smaller overall just that these are factors. It's also not meant to suggest the superiority of the mouse/keyboard (for most games) is in question. :smiley:
10. I'm sure there's a ten here somewhere, maybe later.
So there you have it. The main reasons that people buy Xbox 360s, which primarily is for gaming purposes. Or at least that's probably where all the money is. Some 12% of sales of all games is almost certainly a bigger chunk than the number of people using the cable apps to watch cable TV on an Xbox 360 or how many people are browsing the web with a controller in a single-use full-screen program on a console.
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Lightwave Saber Bass Optical Pickup System controls
The dials and iceTone switch explained pseudo-simply.
There are five knobs and a switch on a standard Lightwave Saber Bass, such as this one. Here's what the controls do.
Switch. Switch controls warmness and coolness, somewhat akin to what a neck/bridge pickup switch does. When up (towards the neck/top) this gives a "warm" tone. When down (towards the bridge/bottom) this gives a "cool" tone. "switched-in EQ that applies an upward-tilted frequency response curve"
First/top knob. Master volume. Controls optics and iceTone volume both. All the way clockwise (right) is the loudest and all the way counter-clockwise (left) is the quietest.
Second knob. Bass volume (boost/cut). In the center is 0 dB. Roughly 300 Hz knee. All the way right (clockwise) is four times more bass (+12 dB) and all the way left (counter-clockwise) is four times less bass (-12 dB)
Third knob. Mids volume (boost/cut). Same as the second knob, cw +12 dB ccw -12 dB. Frequency depends upon fourth knob position (varying Q).
Fourth knob. Controls the mids range of the third knob. Left/ccw is 200 Hz and right/cw is 1 KHz. Narrower in the lower frequencies and broader in the higher frequencies.
Fifth/bottom knob. Controls iceTone. HFE blending. . All the way left/ccw is off. Going right/cw adds percussive and high end presence and crispness. "blends in the high frequency enhancement built into each individual string saddle"
There are five knobs and a switch on a standard Lightwave Saber Bass, such as this one. Here's what the controls do.
Switch. Switch controls warmness and coolness, somewhat akin to what a neck/bridge pickup switch does. When up (towards the neck/top) this gives a "warm" tone. When down (towards the bridge/bottom) this gives a "cool" tone. "switched-in EQ that applies an upward-tilted frequency response curve"
First/top knob. Master volume. Controls optics and iceTone volume both. All the way clockwise (right) is the loudest and all the way counter-clockwise (left) is the quietest.
Second knob. Bass volume (boost/cut). In the center is 0 dB. Roughly 300 Hz knee. All the way right (clockwise) is four times more bass (+12 dB) and all the way left (counter-clockwise) is four times less bass (-12 dB)
Third knob. Mids volume (boost/cut). Same as the second knob, cw +12 dB ccw -12 dB. Frequency depends upon fourth knob position (varying Q).
Fourth knob. Controls the mids range of the third knob. Left/ccw is 200 Hz and right/cw is 1 KHz. Narrower in the lower frequencies and broader in the higher frequencies.
Fifth/bottom knob. Controls iceTone. HFE blending. . All the way left/ccw is off. Going right/cw adds percussive and high end presence and crispness. "blends in the high frequency enhancement built into each individual string saddle"
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
The economics of it all
Without getting too very much bogged down in the details, let's see what's going on with some tech stuff.
On an auction (supposedly) site where you can buy things outright with ease, case in point. Special offers, advertised on the main pages.
iPad Mini 16G 7.9" screen : $300
Android 8G 10.1" screen: $120
Of course you can't really compare them; one is very well put together and stylish, and the other is an entry level with a resistive touchscreen. Still, if you just have to have a tablet, well.
How about phones? Same place.
iPhone 4 16G $185
Droid Incredible $65
There's all sorts of factors that go into buying tech of course. Sure, you can build a computer at home that is exactly what you want, for less than anyone sells the equivalent. But how about an OS, and tech support, and the entire infrastructure built around name-branding.
I might just delete this post, it's stupid.
On an auction (supposedly) site where you can buy things outright with ease, case in point. Special offers, advertised on the main pages.
iPad Mini 16G 7.9" screen : $300
Android 8G 10.1" screen: $120
Of course you can't really compare them; one is very well put together and stylish, and the other is an entry level with a resistive touchscreen. Still, if you just have to have a tablet, well.
How about phones? Same place.
iPhone 4 16G $185
Droid Incredible $65
There's all sorts of factors that go into buying tech of course. Sure, you can build a computer at home that is exactly what you want, for less than anyone sells the equivalent. But how about an OS, and tech support, and the entire infrastructure built around name-branding.
I might just delete this post, it's stupid.
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