Nerdology

I have never been this excited about a Halo title.  While this interview is a little inside baseball, it gets me even more excited for this game.

I found this article from April of 2000 just 14 months before SegaNet (the Dreamcast online service) officially shut down… of course no one could have known that at the time.  Sega had resorted (by this time) to refunding the amount you paid for your Dreamcast ($200) if you committed to a 2 year SegaNet contract of over $21.95 dollars a month.

This is a complete review of SegaNet and the Dreamcast to an extent, from the trenches of battle in 2000 just before the launch of the PS2 in America. Fascinating.

Still, while the number of units sold greatly exceeded even Sega’s expectations, there has been some questions of the Dreamcast’s ability to compete with Sony’s PSX2, Nintendo’s Dolphin and the recently announced Microsoft X-Box.

At the heart of those concerns are the superior hardware specifications the other systems boast as compared to the Dreamcast and the fact that each of the other systems will provide a DVD drive.

It seems these concerns were not unfounded…

Sega is clearly showing an aggressiveness that they have lacked in the past. They understand that they are competing against companies with superior hardware specifications and are striking back by providing quality games, making strong partnerships, providing peripherals that no other gaming console provides, a low price, and last but not least they are focusing upon the internet.

Currently there are over one million Dreamcast consoles registered online. Over 250,000 U.S. users utilize their Dreamcast’s internet capabilities.

In contrast, Sony’s PSX2 does not currently ship with a modem. Sony’s online strategy depends almost entirely on their being able to sell products and content to their users. They have made no mention of online gaming capabilities.

Interesint to read about Sony’s online capabilities in 2000 during the PS2 launch were similar to their 2006 launch of the PS3.  Nothing really solid and expecting to sell to their install base.  Very, very interesting.

[it’s thinking]

So this is my second list of the day, but this is a good one.  Things being killed by the internet.  While some of these sound like the rambelings of a crotchety old man there are some that are quite good.  Some highlights:

3) Listening to an album all the way through
The single is one of the unlikely beneficiaries of the internet – a development which can be looked at in two ways. There’s no longer any need to endure eight tracks of filler for a couple of decent tunes, but will “album albums” like Radiohead’s Amnesiac get the widespread hearing they deserve?

34) Mainstream media
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Rocky Mountain News in the US have already folded, and the UK’s Observer may follow. Free news and the migration of advertising to the web threaten the basic business models of almost all media organisations.

44) Trust in Nigerian businessmen and princes
Some gift horses should have their mouths very closely inspected.

My favorite on this whole list:

5) Punctuality
Before mobile phones, people actually had to keep their appointments and turn up to the pub on time. Texting friends to warn them of your tardiness five minutes before you are due to meet has become one of throwaway rudenesses of the connected age.

Thanks Telegraph.

This list was compiled by GameSpot/GameFaqs last month.  Unfortunately the list was made before the Leichenfaust (from the new Wolfenstein) could be added.  Pitty. It’s probably my new favorite weapon.  Shooting at high powered enemies and they float in the air.  Shoot it at weak enemies and they disintegrate, their ashes rising and then getting blown away with the wind.

Aside from that omission (forgivable because it predates the game in reference) the Spread Shot from Contra is also missing.  How can you compile a list of the best weapons without the best weapon.

“We got really gloomy. We started to wonder if everything we were trying to do was just a fool’s errand. When it came to making music games, we couldn’t make any money or even a return for our investors. We were paying the bills, but to go on with the business would have been a departure from the founding premise of the company. It would have been an emotionally and psychologically crushing defeat.”

“A sensible agreement has now been reached so we, as an industry, can get on with other deals. It’s very good to get this sort of arrangement bedded down with YouTube for a few years, as the site is a powerful part of the online world we live in. I hope it is a deal both parties are reasonable happy with and I think we need to look at it positively.”

YouTube will see thousands of music videos return to its site and all they had to do was pay millions of dollars.  Makes sense to me…

Is the final resting place for music videos YouTube? Probably.  They sure as hell don’t get time on television.  Come to think of it, it’s a little hypocritical that MTV even hosts the Video Music Awards since they are the ones that created and then killed the industry.