Topicless thread

[Chocofreak13]

that, and that most (if not all) games are going to be download these days, or streaming. that's a big fat no for me. >>;

(also, they're really kicking their own ass by cutting gamestop out of the equation, considering i'm willing to bet the exclusive bonus content from preorders netted them quite a bit in sales.)

[SleepyD]

Sorry this is so long. m(_ _)m If you quote this, you probably want to just cut the relevant bits in.

Gamestop/Used Games
Well the big financial reason for that is not because Gamestop = The Pirate Bay, but the fact that the developers/publishers don't get any share of the profits from Gamestop. From a business standpoint, it's understandable they want to cut this out. I have no solid numbers for you, but I'm pretty sure the "losses" from used game sales well outpace any profits they get from preorder sales.

On a similar note, there's the issue of out-of-print games. That falls in the used game category, since the developer/publisher lost a sale to someone forced to track down a used copy. With downloadable games, they can keep old games online for as long as they want. I remember looking for a copy of Tales of Graces f, and found out they only ever did one print run of the game. So even only a year after it's release, it took me forever to track down a copy. Print runs are VERY expensive, and unless they can guarantee a large number of sales, they cannot justify the cost of doing so.

Social Media
There is a sizable demand for social bits and downloadable game stuff. While I don't care much for facebook on my console, I do see some potential in streaming your gaming sessions or stuff like that. That said, I do enjoy being able to cut myself off from the world when it comes to games, so I trust the developers to develop some games of the sort. Just because a feature is there, doesn't mean a game developer has to use it.

On a tangentially related topic, something I just watched:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZwJq88cWKY

Download-Only Games
Steam's success shows that downloadable games are indeed the future. And again, finances are a big reason why--Simply put, it's cheaper.

There are some games, particularly games like Corpse Party along with a number of other Japanese doujin games, that were only available for download on PSN. The higher ups couldn't justify the cost of printing such risky titles that would only garner sales of a few hundred at most. I'd rather they did download-only, rather than not bring it over at all.  I like that it gives them the ability to take on games that are more niche and would only appeal to a smaller set of people. (I feel fighting games will go the way of scrolling shooters in the next few generations, and will require this option to keep the genre alive)

And with Japanese doujin games, they often just release online only, and any print runs they do (if they ever decide to do so) are small and only available at a few events, such as Comiket and the like, until they run out, never to be printed again.

Personal Thoughts
Man, I talk too much online. It's like, I like writing essays or rants or something (even though I decidedly did NOT like doing so in school).

Anyway, I love physical products too. If corpse party had a physical game copy, I'd jump on that. I plan on importing Arcana Heart 3 from Europe just because they got a physical copy.

But last weekend I discovered that a shop in Little Tokyo actually had a second floor I was unaware of. It was stocked full of anime Laserdiscs. I noticed that people who bought these things got way more awesome cover art (owing to the large real estate a LD cover gives you) than we ever will with DVDs and BDs. So, things change. Sometimes not for the better. But we'll find other outlets. Anime figures, anyone? Those LDs were like $75 a piece (non-sale price), and had about as many episodes as a DVD would. They need to sell something at a high price point. haha

I feel that developers and publishers could still find other ways to satisfy my want for a physical product. That would probably mean more limited release products. They'll need to avoid the temptation to do another print run of whatever product they ship with the game, however, in order to keep our satisfaction that "yes, I did buy this game, and here's my proof." It's similar to doujin circles, but this limited release is more artificial since they'll probably have enough money to make more if they wanted to. Doujin circles usually just move on to the next project, since only the big circles can afford to do print runs of older stuff.

[LeaflameSD]

@Sleepy: Well that is one idea down the drain...

[Nichi]

I had a faster connection, I might not mind the current direction of "download everything" as much, but as it stands, anything that screws over those who live in an area with shit-tier internet is something I'm strongly against; given how I'm insecure about my crappy 64KB/s connection :\

[LeaflameSD]

I don't understand why anime torrents have to be 10-30GB when I've seen torrents that are like 2-4GB that have awesome video quality. Anyway I'm currently looking for Slayers 1-26 torrents that aren't bigger than 4GB

@MMX: I don't mind downloading directly. Also my connection isn't that great either ;0_0;

[SleepyD]

@Sleepy: Well that is one idea down the drain...

Which idea? I said a lot. XD;

I had a faster connection, I might not mind the current direction of "download everything" as much, but as it stands, anything that screws over those who live in an area with shit-tier internet is something I'm strongly against; given how I'm insecure about my crappy 64KB/s connection :\

This is understandable. I'm hoping that private companies like Google Fiber spur other telephone/cable companies to provide connectivity to all. At the very least, decent DSL speeds for the entire nation. It's just so much more beneficial to the economy to give the entire nation access to high speed internet, despite the high initial costs.

I don't understand why anime torrents have to be 10-30GB when I've seen torrents that are like 2-4GB that have awesome video quality. Anyway I'm currently looking for Slayers 1-26 torrents that aren't bigger than 4GB

It depends on your monitor. Watching an SD episode on a 1080 monitor isn't a pleasant experience full-screen.
It also depends on who does the encoding. Fansubbers who are knowledgeable about encoding can keep file sizes down to a minimum while preserving quality.
And knowing anime fans, they want to have the best quality on their computer. So you will find a lot of 1080/720p format than SD format anime episodes nowadays. Which means downloads of at least 10GB for full seasons. This is normal for new series.

[LeaflameSD]

@Sleepy: The one on learning Romanized  Japanese. Also my monitor is 1280x1024. Also... I guess the anime torrent sizes are understandable.

[Dr. Kraus]

This is understandable. I'm hoping that private companies like Google Fiber spur other telephone/cable companies to provide connectivity to all. At the very least, decent DSL speeds for the entire nation. It's just so much more beneficial to the economy to give the entire nation access to high speed internet, despite the high initial costs.

Google Fiber is going to take some time since they JUST started installing stuff in Kansas City, which won't be finished for quite some time. Hopefully Google will start to shift from gear number 1 to gear number 2 some point this year and will be getting into other cities.

[SleepyD]

@Sleepy: The one on learning Romanized  Japanese. Also my monitor is 1280x1024. Also... I guess the anime torrent sizes are understandable.

Well, I do encourage you to learn the hiragana. Take a gander at the first few pages of this:
http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/complete/writing

And the more you see the characters, the easier it will be to remember. I'm not too keen on rote memorization myself. Shall we start a learning Japanese thread? I've never actually studied japanese, and I figure I need to have some structure to learn it properly.

Google Fiber is going to take some time since they JUST started installing stuff in Kansas City, which won't be finished for quite some time. Hopefully Google will start to shift from gear number 1 to gear number 2 some point this year and will be getting into other cities.

And when they do so, I hope enough people switch providers that to Google Fiber all the other tele/cable companies move to create more extensive networks, thereby connecting the US population to high speed internet much faster.

[LeaflameSD]

@Sleepy: Thanks for the hiragana page. And I'm typing Japanese words into a text file just in case. Downloading the PDF file. And you know what? I've always thought of making a thread like that.


*Makes thread*

[Bella]

HEY, OSC, Y'ALL ARE CREATIVE PEOPLE SO YOU CAN PROBABLY HELP ME OUT:

Get yer buns to the OS-tan Theory Thread and help me figure out what the hell artificial intelligence is in OS-tan universe terms.

[NejinOniwa]

It seems like I'll be getting Featured whenever I update Wandering from now on.

I AM OK WITH THIS.JPG

[Chocofreak13]

@games: download only is a sucky option for those of us who don't have access to a good connection, or have bandwidth caps on the download/upload speed. not to mention i hate social media games and i'm willing to bet i'm not the only one. WHY WOULD I WANT TO GAME WITH IDIOTS WHEN I CAN GAME WITH THE BRAINY LIKES OF ME MYSELF AND I? (lol)
steam is a good platform for indie games, and i'm not against download titles for games that would otherwise not get released, but my worry is that EVERY game on the market (indie or mainstream, american or japanese) would turn into a download-only title. not that i have the consoles to play them anymore, but i like physical copies of things considering how many computers i've lost over the years. things don't seem tangible enough to me unless you can hold it in your hand.

@japanese: i'm game, it'll help keep me on track. as for the giant filesize leaf, if you're talking about the program i sent, it has 2 seasons and the textbooks (as far as i know). each season also has about 24 episodes each. so that sounds about right.

@os-tan theory: eh, sure, why not...

[SleepyD]

download only is a sucky option for those of us who don't have access to a good connection, or have bandwidth caps on the download/upload speed.

Yeah this sucks, I'll admit. It's worse when there's no competition between service providers in your area, since there is no incentive to remove such limitations. Generally in urban areas there's usually some choice (even if just one or two), but even I just had the choice between TWCable or AT&T DSL. There's another big cable provider here in San Diego, but they don't service my particular area. That's why I'm hoping Google will shake things up. I also hope it would get Verizon to hooking up fiber to more places again (they've since stalled on expanding their networks).

not to mention i hate social media games and i'm willing to bet i'm not the only one. WHY WOULD I WANT TO GAME WITH IDIOTS WHEN I CAN GAME WITH THE BRAINY LIKES OF ME MYSELF AND I? (lol)

I've tried one before on facebook. Fairly recently I might add. It's enjoyable for a time, but I found it was only enjoyable because the other option (work) was less enjoyable. The constant need to share and interact with friends in order to progress got irritating at times. Eventually I lost interest, but still it sits there.

And I didn't watch the event, but I hear that they were really hammering this idea down everyone's throats. But I don't think that every game will be a social media game like those on facebook. I think what's going to happen is that many (if not all) games will have social media functions. So even your single player RPG will let you tweet to the world "I BEAT KEFKA!" or something else stupid like that. As long as they let me turn off the feature, I won't mind. And if other people and my friends do it? Well, I generally ignore such things anyway so it doesn't bother me.

steam is a good platform for indie games, and i'm not against download titles for games that would otherwise not get released, but my worry is that EVERY game on the market (indie or mainstream, american or japanese) would turn into a download-only title. not that i have the consoles to play them anymore, but i like physical copies of things considering how many computers i've lost over the years. things don't seem tangible enough to me unless you can hold it in your hand.

Yeah, somehow, I think download-only is something that's going to happen in the not-so-distant future. As networks grow faster and connecting more and more people to that high-speed network, it would make business sense to use this cheap distribution network without incurring all the costs that normally come with physical distribution.  Look what happened to music. the large majority of music purchases are now digital. When a larger number of people are connected at Gigabit speeds, I feel movies and games are going to follow suit. 

I can't say I'm too keen on the idea myself, but I feel this is something that's going to happen anyway, just using music and mp3s as historical precedent.

[alfonso_rd_30]

true, yet most of us still want our physical discs too... that was a complaint on capcom unity about the new darkstalkers compilation.....

in an unrelated note... who's the richest guy in the world?