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If you love JRPG's, why not sign a petition?
We don't normally fall into the "sign this petition" realm of things. However, many of the staff at PS3 Fanboy have felt the reason they bought a PS3, aside from their blind love for the console by itself, has been ignored. This reason is what made the PS One and PS2 so successful (believe it or not): the JRPG. Only a few have been announced, even fewer coming stateside. While we probably won't see the likes of Agarest Senki or Tears to Tiara here, we'll see Disgaea 3 and Valkyria Chronicles before the end of the year -- however, these all are SRPG's.Over at the PS3Forums, a petition has started and is getting swirled around to many different places, with its final destination being Sony itself. The petition is to get an answer about Sony's stance on the JRPG this generation -- are announcements coming? Will we see White Knight Story, Star Ocean 4, the oft-rumored Shin Megami Tensei PS3 title at all this year? If you love JRPG's, sign their petition. It only takes a few seconds and who knows -- it might actually get us a pretty detailed answer. Especially now that Sony is more eager to secure exclusives from third party developers.
Forum Post of the Day: Invitation requirements
We all know that PuGging instances can be a pain, especially finding a tank. Gelin, a tank onThe Forgotten Coast, says that she checks the armory before she invites. If you don't match her standards for armor, weapons, and spell stats, she will not invite you to a group. As a tank She feels empowered since tanks are rare, and dps is much easier to find. If the original post had been more eloquent, people may have viewed it as insightful, it makes sense to be properly geared before asking for a group. As it stands, the responses have been primarily negative, along the lines that this is a bad attitude to have in the game. This thread is legendary because of Eyonix's response: You have left over talent points. You should not be so judgmental. I wonder what it's like to be knocked off your high horse by the most aloof of the CM's. It must hurt, a wee bit. I've learned to generally check someone's gear out at the beginning of an instance, due to a poor experience with a hunter with empty armor slots. What do you look for in your PuG? Edit: Original post text after the break.
Bartle to old guard: "We've already won"
In a wonderful, feel-good-story-of-the-year type of article, Richard Bartle, the father of online gaming, has written a laudable rant in the Guardian, essentially informing the old school haters that they're officially obsolete. You know the ones -- every reporter making a quick buck off of the party line that videogames are dangerous to our psyches; every politician riding the easy ticket of attacking our hobby in the name of protecting the children; every concerned parental activist group calling for the heads of the developers who worked on our chosen pastime -- Bartle has given them notice. In his delightfully-worded article, Bartle reminds us all that these witch hunts are generational: previously, it was television; before that, the enemy was rock 'n' roll, comic books, even the novel. People fear what they don't understand, and aggression is what they employ to mask that fear. Every previous generation seeks to destroy the entertainment of the new generation, and for our age, it's the videogame that's under fire. Bartle understands this and quite calmly uses this knowledge to signal an end to the previous generation's influence. Yet he doesn't just condemn, he also offers a way out.
Common Sense on cell phone MMOs
The Common Sense Gamer published a reality checking rant on the coming wave of mobile MMOs. The author of the editorial pointed out that limitations in the technology and a lack of platform standards in the industry will only lead to mediocre if projects. He also suggested that users who aren't near wi-fi hotspots won't be able to get much done.He probably hasn't used a 3G phone yet; 3G networks are plenty fast. But for the most part, the rant was insightful -- especially on the issue of standards. All these cell phones use totally different platforms for running games, and they vary widely in performance and power. Is it feasible to develop for a dozen different platforms at once? Most game developers have enough trouble as it is with three!So maybe the best we can hope for is a Snake MMO. Actually, that could be kind of cool.
Should the dead live on in avatar form?
Tragedy struck hard in Second Life this year. I can think of at least three influential residents that passed on in real life - Feliciaa Feaver, Jesse Malthus, and Ginny Talamasca. While some have been honored posthumously, and others are petitioning for a Remembrance Day for all fallen residents, there's a trend going on that really disturbs me.When Jesse was tragically taken from us, his mom decided to continue his work in SL. This meant that she would need items from his inventory, requiring her to log into his account. Every time I saw his name pop up as logging in, I remember recoiling in shock. When Ginny died, it was revealed that there were two people behind her popular clothing line. However, the operator of the Ginny avatar, and the person we came to know and love, was the one taken from us. Yet I still see blog entries on her blog and group notices of new products.Once an avatar's typist is gone, the avatar should be removed after a certain period of time. In Jesse's case, I felt pain every time he was logged in from the afterlife, but in Ginny's case, I feel anger that the name/image is allowed to continue on hawking products. That brings me to my question - Should these avatars live on even though their creators haven't?
Drew Carey goes on dates with fiancee inside Second Life
The next time you see a couple being cutesy in SL, it might just be Drew Carey and his fiancee. According to PARADE Magazine, they use Second Life to go on dates when they're in different cities. While I think that they deserve kudos for finding a way to stay close to each other when away, I do take issue with Drew's explanation.You see, he seems to think that SL is a website that is like a virtual world. For those unaware, you would go to the official Second Life website to download a client for the virtual world. Come on, Drew! That's like saying that The Price is Right is a reality tv program that's like a game show. Are you sure you're not meeting up in Habbo Hotel?
Dvorak: Apple should pull the plug on the iPhone
Prepare to have your feathers ruffled Apple fanboys, John Dvorak -- a name synonymous with curmudgeon -- has called on Apple to "pull the plug on the iPhone" and pass it along to some other "suckers" before it's too late. His case? Essentially, as a newcomer "there is no likelihood that Apple can be successful in a [cellphone] business this competitive." Echoing similar sentiments already shared by Palm's Ed Colligan. Of course, we've already witnessed a newcomer step into the mobile handset business, which Dvorak describes as a "buzz saw waiting to chop up newbies," and emerge as the boutique, go-to provider for high-end handsets -- heard of HTC? Hell, you don't have to be a fanboy or even an iPhone fan to feel the retch of nonsensical nausea welling within. Look, we're not saying Apple's success is guaranteed by any stretch, but let's call this rant what it is: shameless attention whoring. Well, he's got it.[Photo by Jason DeFillippo]
Another side to Chris Hecker's duct tape rant
If you've followed the Game Developers Conference at all, you probably heard about Maxis programmer Chris Hecker comments that the Wii is nothing more than two GameCubes duct tape together (though, to be fair, that's a 0.5 upgrade from comments that the Wii is "GameCube 1.5"). We're willing to wager that "Product X is just two Product Ys duct tape together" is on track to becoming a popular phrase in gaming circles.Kim Pallister of Microsoft Casual Games has risen to Hecker's defense, which ultimately led to an apology we feel was somewhat coerced by his overlords at EA and Maxis. The major point in Hecker's argument is that having an innovative control system "should not give them a 'get out of jail free card' on the fact that they have delivered an underpowered machine," according to Pallister's interpretation. And by underpowered, Hecker is referring to computations and not the graphics system, which puts his rant in line with what he said last year that the PS3 and Xbox 360 also underperform in terms of computational power while focusing on a graphics-heavy system.We're not going to take sides on his point that Nintendo needs to "recognize and push games as a serious art form," though the statement does make for a great discussion. We will say all three companies have pushed for more involvement with independent developers. (Microsoft has Castle Crashers and Roboblitz, Sony has flOw and LittleBigPlanet and Nintendo has Line Rider and possibly Telltale's Sam & Max.)Don't forget about the heap of praise that the IGDA community gave Hecker just last year after winning the Community Contribution Award. Though, to be fair, that award is just two IGF awards duct taped together.
Japanese hardware sales, Feb. 19 - Feb. 25: Angry ranting edition
You know, you know what? We've had it up to here with some of the things we have to deal with everyday, and dammit, we think it's time we let people know. This crap has to stop.Where to start? Let's talk about the freaking CPUs they stick us with here at the Fanboy offices. Intel Core 2 Duo's: pathetic. We mean, what the hell? It's like two normal Intel processors duct-taped together. Look, we need insane processing power to make these blog posts funny and interesting, you know? These conditions are unworkable. And let's not even mention roller coasters. Mechanical and electrical engineers just aren't taking these things seriously enough; they need to start using the medium for proper artistic expression. We need to tell a story full of meaning and character depth during these rides, or people are going to feel unfulfilled and pissed off, like us. And we're really pissed right now.Finally, to Maxis, developers of the best-selling PC game of all-time and the future title Spore, expected to perhaps exceed that mark set by the exemplary Sims some years back: make a game that doesn't suck ass, okay?Ugh, these numbers? Where is the emotion? Where is the meaning? Life is so meaningless ....- DS Lite: 111,814 24,314 (17.86%) - PSP: 66,156 34,054 (33.96%)- Wii: 57,972 20,534 (26.16%) - PS3: 44,000 24,685 (127.80%) - PS2: 15,364 310 (2.06%) - Xbox 360: 3,379 804 (19.22%) - Game Boy Micro: 805 102 (11.25%) - GBA SP: 738 297 (28.70%) - Gamecube: 303 20 (6.19%) - DS Phat: 112 20 (15.15%) - GBA: 25 34 (57.63%)[Source: Media Create]
Spore developer rants on Wii
Chris Hecker didn't pull any punches at GDC's "Game Publisher's Rant" session. The Maxis developer began his "Fear of a Wii Planet" diatribe by declaring, "The Wii is a piece of sh*t."He went on to describe the console as being vastly underpowered, citing low graphical standards and an inability to process complicated AI. According to Hecker's exaggerations, "The way you manufacture a Wii is you take two GameCubes and duct tape." As if that wasn't already enough to break a fanboy's heart, he called on Nintendo to "make a console that doesn't suck ass." His complaints weren't limited to hardware gripes -- he also criticized Nintendo for not pushing games as an art form. Maybe he hasn't seen Electroplankton or the bit Generations games?Hecker's rants from previous years were just as brutally harsh on Sony and Microsoft, but we're sure that will do little to tame the wrath of offended gamers. Bringing Spore to the DS might have earned him enough good will to make it out of the session unharmed, but he might want to avoid walking around GDC alone at night until this cools down.
Apple still doesn't really get email
Fix one problem, and another comes up. Everyone was a big fan of how Apple's .Mac webmail used to sometimes attach a text document when you simply replied to someone. I mean, I know I was utterly overjoyed to go back, copy and paste, remove the attachment, and reply. Wow, that was really easy, wasn't it? Yeah. Well now Apple has fixed that with their shiny new "Web 2.0"-ish email. Unfortunately, there's a new problem. When I reply to certain emails (usually Reply All in a list), the address is often filled out with the person's name, followed by their email address. This makes sense, as pretty much every email system in the world does this. But Apple, ever the innovator, has made this "break" your email. Trying to send will result in an error, claiming quoted contents aren't valid email addresses. Golly Apple, thanks for saving me from my own stupidity! Now I get to manually edit the addresses just to make sure they are correct. Another time waster. Don't get me started on how it's taken our favorite fruit half a decade just to build an almost-usable email client application (certainly won't be business-class anytime this decade). I mean, waiting until 2007 just to have a proper email client? Super. Anyone else not really digging Apple's lame attempts to manage email?
Our Lumines Live! micro-rant
We know, it seems like all the news is about Lumines lately. It'll subside, we promise. Until then, however, we have to put in our two cents on a hot topic. No doubt you've read some of the reports about Lumines Live! and it's evil downloadable content. Either that, or you've discovered it yourself after clearing one round of Vs. CPU mode. We all knew that there was an "Advance" pack coming, but if you were under the impression that the "Advance" pack would make your game complete, you're wrong. Three times wrong. We think it's time for a rant.
The Office upgrade ate two Address Books, or: why I don't touch Microsoft products
So y'know that Office update that came out a few days ago? The one that Spotlight-ified Entourage and added syncing abilities with iCal and Address Book? Yea um, it ate not only my Address Book but my fiancé's which I was subscribed to through .Mac.Syncing setup is brainless and painless - there's a new preference section in Entourage in which you can individually enable syncing with iCal, Address Book and/or Notes through .Mac. Simple enough. A little while after I checked those options, the .Mac syncing engine offered a dialog asking if I would like to merge items between Entourage and Apple's apps, or if I would like to overwrite Entourage. I chose to overwrite, since I didn't have info in Entourage's database and I was simply curious about the app.Somehow, some way, even though I told the engine to overwrite Entourage, my Address Book magically increased to 499 contacts after the first sync operation. Maybe it picked up all those extra friends from MySpace or something during the sync, because last I checked I only had 326 contacts in Address Book. Upon investigation, some of my contacts had split into separate cards, with information either duplicated or obliterated. Even better: I am subscribed to my fiancé's Address Book (with editing rights) through .Mac, as we're helping to keep each other's contacts up to date in preparation for sending out invitations. The Entourage sync not only mangled a seemingly random collection of her contacts, but it blew away all of her groups.Now before you fire off a snarling comment: yes, we have backups. I've turned into quite the backup nazi - but this post is more of a complaint and a warning about this new Entourage feature. Who knows if the mishap was the result of a .Mac syncing error or bug, but - call me biased if you gotta - I have a sneaking suspicion this had to do with an Office update that wasn't quite finished. I've never had an issue syncing anything else through .Mac, and that includes a lot of 3rd party stuff like Yojimbo, SOHO Notes and Transmit favorites.So, boys and girls, the moral of the story is a classic: back your stuff up - and often (sub-moral: don't trust Microsoft, even if it is software from their Mac Business Unit).
