Okay. I use iTunes nearly religously. I use a Mac at the office and at home when doing freelance work. I've bought stuff off of iTunes. So, today, I put down a lovely sum of money for...

A Sansa e280 MP3 player.

Amazed that I didn't get an iPod? I'm a little surprised myself, but here's trick: I rip all my music in iTunes to MP3, and the music I've bought from iTunes can be burned onto disk then re-ripped into MP3 format. Aside from my one audiobook ("Today Matters" by John Maxwell), I'm pretty portable with minimal effort.

"What about the audio quality?" I can hear some of you crying out. Pfff. I rip at a decent quality for one, and two, well, I can't hear the difference. Blame Santana in 93; I do not have golden ears.

I'm not super fond of Windows Media Player 11, so I'm using the free version of Winamp to handle everything and I'm pretty pleased with it. I haven't used Winamp since college, so its kind of like coming back to an old friend there. After taking a look at the Pro version feature set, I might very well end up putting down a whole $20 to get everything it has to offer.

Anyhow, getting an 8 gig player on sale for $159 that's also expandable (takes MicroSD), has a radio-tuner and does voice recording? Nice. Apple's 8g iPod Nano costs $249. Great product? No doubt. But I'm still tech-literate enough to be able to have my cake (iTunes) and eat it (Sansa).

:D

Nice story right here.

I was rather amazed at how many people disagree with him, though. As always, us arm-chair pundits know everything :D

Anyhow, a post I replied to by Lenzy:

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"Wada, I don't think "women and older people" (new breed of gamers) are going to want to play Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy. Stick with the fanbase you have now. Sure, go where the money is, but don't forget the Playstation helped you get where you are today. Things just keep on getting worse for the Playstation 3. Imagine if Bungie came out and said that the Xbox is far too complex....people would be furious!"

and my reply:

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@Lanezy
"Wada, I don't think "women and older people" (new breed of gamers) are going to want to play Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy. Stick with the fanbase you have now."

Why not? If the appeal of the games is both a good story and overall entertainment, then why wouldn't they? That kind of thinking turns, making a genre exclusive to its fans, is one of the reasons formerly popular genres (top-down/vertical/horizontal shooters, fighters, pinball machines, etc) are a shadow of what they once where.

And as far as consoles are concerned, Nintendo helped get Square where it is today. Square could've easily have stayed with them or gone with Sega on the Saturn. Square was a selling point for Sony and the Playstation, NOT the other way round. Saying "Square got Sony where it is today" would be a lot more accurate."

I noticed a common theme was "go hardcore or go home." What is this resistance to opening up? Are h@rdc0r3 l33t gamers afraid of finally realizing we don't control the market anymore? That this hasn't been just our little hobby for a quite a while now? Of course, I find it ironic that they have this standpoint; electronic RPGs are often linear, combat heavy, almost exclusively fantasy (or some fantasy/other-genre mix) genre (always with the swords, always with the magic, etc), option-light substitutes for actual pen-and-paper RPG's that take care of everything but the min/max'ing for you. And you'll notice that that whole industry isn't quite as popular as it used to be, either.

If Square and other RPG makers follow suit, we might see some diveristy try and establish itself. Some of the greatest creativity in terms of gameplay and features becomes possible when there's a large enough audiance to make it safe to try such experiments. Otherwise it'll remain a somewhat niche and rather incestuous genre that only really appeals to its fans and its fans alone. As someone from the fighter community, I'd rather not see that happen when there's a chance for growth in a less performance-demanding genre of gaming.

Read the obituary here.

As a former AES and NGPC owner, as well as having spent far too much time and money in front of MVS machines across this beautiful planet (well, Japan, Hawaii and the East Coast), I bid farewell to my long-loved friend.

For those of us who are sappy about such things, this is indeed a year of transition and moving on. The new generation is finally here, Sega is discontinuing support for the Dreamcast and now SNK is ending support for the Neo Geo. Some of you might not understand the cult-like love many hardcore and niche players had for the Dreamcast (a system that has been called the last true gamer's system by some). Even less might understand the awe and admiration held for a now 17 year old , highly expensive, 16-bit arcade and home cartridge-based system.

That's okay.

The best part of that particular era is becoming available for the various consoles via collections and downloads, in addition to Gametap. If you get a chance to play them, by all means do so. Ignore the graphics unless you plan to compare them to what was then, not now. Look at the detail, the personality, the art, the... dammit... LOVE that the developers lavished into each game made. Be it the original Metal Slug to Top Hunter, or running through Crossed Swords, revisiting the Art of Fighting trilogy, going through the Fatal Fury saga, or enjoying the King of Fighters Orochi or NESTS trilogies, take time to admire and savor what was done. Attempt to triumph over Magician Lord, play through Nam 75 with a buddy, go an inning or two with Baseball Stars 2, or cross blades in the various Samurai Shodown titles. Whatever.  Go through them all, looking back at both part of our rich gaming history and a major influence in my life as a gamer.

Wow. Nice little feature on Next Generation.

Lets sum it up nicely: generally speaking, and keeping in mind there are exceptions, $200 is the magic number for system sales. Both the PS2 and Xbox saw significant increases to their sales after hitting the $199.99+tax sale point, and got better the lower they went.

I thought this would be a nice thing to think about given all the talk of 360 and PS3 sales and such. Its going to be a while before we see either the PS3 or 360 Pro hit the $200 marker (ignoring the 360 Core here). While we could argue that the price point might've moved up some due to time, I don't think its as high as $300, and certainly not $400 or $500.

I've held out for a while that game systems need to hit a certain price point before becoming mass market - this is support for that. Until they hit that magic price point (whatever it is this generation), they're expensive, luxury items for gamers with spare (or saved) cash; niche items at best.

Finally, its here!

Gametap's free, ad-supported service is now here. 31 free games that are changed every week. They also have games for sale if you're so inclined. And of course, if you pay for Gametap (starting at $10/month and gets cheaper if you buy a longer subscription), then you've got a veritable buffet of gaming goodness - 893 games currently available, and more on the way.

No excuse now! Go and have fun! If you have a PS2 pad, go get a PS2 to USB converter. If you have a 360 pad, get the Windows drivers for it! Hurry up! You should be playing Metal Slug! 

Oh for the love of Pete (whoever he is).

Why the hell are they suing Sony? Sony is NOT the owner of AACS; they're only a member of the AACS Licensing body, along with Disney, Intel, Microsoft, Matsushita (Panasonic), Warner Brothers, IBM, and Toshiba. If you're going to sue over it, why not sue the body as a whole? Or are they viewing Sony as a "weak link," legally speaking?

Given how this lawsuit has the potential to affect a lot of other companies and products (both Blu-ray and HD-DVD use AACS!), I do hope the other companies in the consortium lend their support as best they're able... 

Story here.

Long live the PS2, long live the budget system and budget games :D

I didn't see any indication that the US version would have online play or not. Considering that the Japanese version (like SNK's other onlne PS2 games) requires KDDI for online play (KDDI is a paid-for online gaming service, ~$9/month), its doubtful. I would like to point at this as an example of a small publisher not doing online play due to costs; its available in Japan, and the Xbox versions had online play through Live. Both of those are paid services that take care of hosting and all that good stuff for SNK (and even Capcom in Japan, also).

To the best of my knowledge, I don't think any of the SNK games coming out on the Wii will have onlne play, either. The ones coming out on Gametap do, though (of course, that's a $10/month gaming buffet). 

If hosting a game was so cheap and easy like some people think it is, then please tell me why we aren't getting online play here? Don't point at big, blockbuster games from large companies that can afford it (either due to deep pockets initially or mega-sales) or games where the players can set up their own servers; tell me within the context of niche titles from small comanies that won't sell tons of games and don't have another revenue stream associated to the game (microtransactions).

Story here.

Yeah, its a bit late.

My money is on "patent troll," myself. Here's hoping the trial is held somewhere tech-literate if it even makes it that far.

Story here.

One word: bummer.

That being said, its good to know its not going to be a rush job. So when it comes out, it should be nothing less than a JRPG work of art that PS3 owners should be able to happily show off to all their friends. 

Story here.

I've harped on about HDMI and ICT before, commenting how that was the main selling feature for content creators. Well, some more technically inclined folks took a look at it seem to be echoing that.

Its an interesting read, and a look at how these sorts of things get made.

Personally, having read this, I wish they had gone with coax. At least charging $50 for a run of the stuff would make more sense O_o