Sony vs. Microsoft - A couple of interesting stories for the new year!
01-24-09, 07:42 AM
#76
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Re: Sony vs. Microsoft - A couple of interesting stories for the new year!
I am glad Live is a pay service. I want there to be some financial investment on the gamer so banning would carry more weight. If it was a monthly fee i would be admittedly unhappy - but 35-50$ for an entire year is not bad at all.
By requiring some sort of payment it keeps people from just willy nilly creating a new gamertag every time they want to restart and pick on new players. I would actually like it if they didn't give one month free trials to new gamers anymore.
This concern could be addressed if they would straight ban people by IP addresses or entirely ban the console but i know they won't. Because of the Trueskill rankings someone creating a new username essentially gets a clean slate and then griefs all the newcomers on a game.
I also wonder how many more ridiculous mouthbreathers would infest Live if they didn't have to pay and had the anonymity of starting over a new griefing name whenever they wanted.
Finally, paying to buy the first Live "pack" also gives every user a microphone. I can't imagine playing some of the team based multiplayer games with a team that lacks any kind of device to do voice chat.
By requiring some sort of payment it keeps people from just willy nilly creating a new gamertag every time they want to restart and pick on new players. I would actually like it if they didn't give one month free trials to new gamers anymore.
This concern could be addressed if they would straight ban people by IP addresses or entirely ban the console but i know they won't. Because of the Trueskill rankings someone creating a new username essentially gets a clean slate and then griefs all the newcomers on a game.
I also wonder how many more ridiculous mouthbreathers would infest Live if they didn't have to pay and had the anonymity of starting over a new griefing name whenever they wanted.
Finally, paying to buy the first Live "pack" also gives every user a microphone. I can't imagine playing some of the team based multiplayer games with a team that lacks any kind of device to do voice chat.
01-24-09, 01:10 PM
#77
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Re: Sony vs. Microsoft - A couple of interesting stories for the new year!
Every company has to pick and choose what to include to keep costs down. MS only fared decent last generation. Think back to 2004, PS2 has sold nearly 100 million consoles to their 20 million. I would imagine an executive's best case scenario with the 360 in 2005 was to match the sales of the original xbox- which would mean selling to essentially the same people that bought the original Xbox, i.e. people that were already on Live and had hookups ready to go. I can see why they'd leave it out.
On the flipside, why did/does Sony still tout the PS3 as the hi-def experience and not include a $2 HDMI cable or component cables? Because they have to make money on accessories to make up for the losses they post on the console. Charging $30 for a cable that costs $2 to make helps the bottom line, just like the wireless adapter from Xbox.
My biggest gripe this generation is how in the fuck did we go from $30 controllers last gen to $50-$60 controllers this gen? That $20 jump can't be "wireless" since the Wavebird was $35. This is nothing more than an ass-raping the customer.
On the flipside, why did/does Sony still tout the PS3 as the hi-def experience and not include a $2 HDMI cable or component cables? Because they have to make money on accessories to make up for the losses they post on the console. Charging $30 for a cable that costs $2 to make helps the bottom line, just like the wireless adapter from Xbox.
My biggest gripe this generation is how in the fuck did we go from $30 controllers last gen to $50-$60 controllers this gen? That $20 jump can't be "wireless" since the Wavebird was $35. This is nothing more than an ass-raping the customer.
I agree on the PS3 cables. Didn't know that. But are the proprietary or can you just buy any HDMI cable. If it's any HDMI cable then it's really not a big deal. Wait, did you say it doesn't even include component? That's really strange. What does it come with? an RF box? It's like printers not coming with a usb cable. Really strange. I really think the big box stores ask them not to do this so they can sell $50 cables to people who just don't know any better.
I totally agree upscale on the price of the controllers. I think the wiimote being $40 is reasonable considering the tech in there. with the IR and the accelerometers. $20 for the nunchuck is overpriced. $50 for the Xbox controller is way over priced since it's basically like the wavebird. And $50 for the PS3 controller is just ridiculous. It's the same controller we've been buying for what, a decade now?
01-24-09, 04:32 PM
#78
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Re: Sony vs. Microsoft - A couple of interesting stories for the new year!
My wife and I have run into some of this on Mario Kart Wii. Little more than a week ago, she finally earned a star rating. We went online to race, and in one race a pair of guys racing together targeted her. They weren't even driving to race; they just kept ramming into her, knocking her off the track and circling back to keep doing it. Even though it's just a video game, it was so upsetting that she hasn't wanted to race on her license since then for fear of being picked on like that again. It's disappointing there's no way of even reporting such behavior to Nintendo.
