Weekend tech reading: Who killed video games?

Matthew DeCarlo

Posts: 5,271   +104
Staff

Who killed video games? (A ghost story) Here I am: The Worst Journalist In The World. I was once a person who wrote about technology and entertainment; then I figured that, in order to ask better questions while talking to people who made things, I should try making those things myself. Years passed. I worked on some games. Just as weightlifting doesn’t mean anything if it isn’t painful, I could say I drifted toward projects I found morbidly fascinating more than I drifted toward projects I thought would be fun. Insert Credit

Undercover cops and politicians escape BitTorrent lawsuits Court papers filed in one of the mass-lawsuits against BitTorrent users reveal some interesting facts. In an attempt to justify suing dozens of people at once, the attorney claims that this is a practical issue. Apparently the copyright holder has decided to throw out a lot of cases, because the defendants have died, are political or public figures, employed by the army, or part of a covert police operation. TorrentFreak

Police who illegally broke into Gizmodo journalist's house deride seized e-mails as "juvenile" The saga of the lost iPhone prototype -- the 2010 incident at least, not the most recent one -- has finally concluded. On Tuesday, Brian Hogan (who allegedly found the iPhone 4 prototype in a Redwood City bar) and Sage Wallower (who allegedly helped Hogan contact various web sites about the find) pleaded no contest to misdemeanor theft and were sentenced to... EFF

Siri voice command system ported from iPhone 4S to iPhone 4 Developer Steven Troughton-Smith has been working with 9to5Mac exclusively to port the iPhone 4S Siri voice command system to the iPhone 4. Troughton-Smith was able to get the beginning steps of a full port rolling after installing the iPhone 4S Siri and Springboard files onto an iPhone 4. As you can see in the video... 9to5Mac

Security researcher threatened with vulnerability repair bill A security consultant who quietly tipped off First State Superannuation about a web vulnerability that potentially put millions of customers at risk has been slapped with a legal threat demanding he allow the company access to his computer, and warned he may be forced to pay the cost of fixing the flaw. SC Magazine

Researchers add a dash of salt to hard drives for capacities up to 18TB Running out of disk space for your movies and music? There's good news from Singapore. Researchers at the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering have found a way to increase the density of hard disk storage by six times over current drives, all thanks to salt. Ars Technica

U.S. copyright czar cozied up to content industry, e-mails show Top-ranking Obama administration officials, including the U.S. copyright czar, played an active role in secret negotiations between Hollywood, the recording industry and ISPs to disrupt internet access for users suspected of violating copyright law, according to internal White House e-mails. Wired

Self-replication process holds promise for production of new materials New York University scientists have developed artificial structures that can self-replicate, a process that has the potential to yield new types of materials. In the natural world, self-replication is ubiquitous in all living entities, but artificial self-replication has been elusive. ScienceDaily

AMD says S3 doesn’t own patents being asserted against Apple Advanced Micro Devices Inc. said it, not S3 Graphics Co., owns the four patents asserted against Apple Inc. in an infringement case before the U.S. International Trade Commission and wants the proceedings halted. Bloomberg

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So now we're supposed to take into consideration the costs of the plaintiff attorneys?

"Sorry your honor, it would cost us WAAAAY too much money to actually prove wrongdoing on the part of the defendant, can you just rule against them 'cause we said they're guilty?"

If the revolution does come, I hope they just shoot all the lawyers on principle. Even if it fails, America will be better off without them.
 
"Undercover cops and politicians escape BitTorrent lawsuits"

This shows the absolute hypocrisy that is the anti-piracy movement. They will sue someone's grandmother who doesn't even know what bit torrent is, yet cops, servicemen, and politicians can download all the copyrighted porn and other materials they want without fear of prosecution.
 
Better question. Since when are video games dead? These people are as bad as the people claiming Facebook games and ipod touches will replace video game consoles and PCs.
 
burty117 said:
Tekkaraiden said:
yRaz said:
blkm0nk3y92 said:
Who killed video games?
CoD and Pirates.

Consoles killed video games, not pirates.

I find it amusing that people think this is true.

To a degree ,I agree with this. Why don't you?

Consoles have existed since the late 70's (atari 2600) early 80's (NES), if consoles were truly detrimental to video gaming do you not think they would have destroyed the industry long ago?
 
I tried this in a similar thread last week and everyone just glossed over it. I challenge the premise that Video games are "ruined". Can someone tell me how they arrive at this conclusion and why reports like this are wrong, never-mind the anecdotal evidence (Steam,Origin ...etc)
From PC Perspective:
And while most gaming pundits have been telling us for years that PC gaming is dying, the report from DFC tells a different story:

From PC Perspective:
Based on revenue alone, estimates show PC gaming to surpass the sales of console games by 2014 with steady growth. How can this be? Have you stopped by your local Gamestop or Best Buy and seen the shelf space devoted to PC games compared to that devoted to the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Wii?
Here is the key and it is something we have always suspected but haven't really been able to nail down: packaged sales are dying while digital distribution methods and new monetary game mechanics are increasing. Because the industry's most prolific digital sales platform is notoriously tight with sales numbers (Valve's Steam), we have to depend on third party reports from DFC and others. According to this chart, the digital sales of gaming on the PC are skyrocketing and will take PC revenues past consoles in just a few years time.

DFC, a marketing company that specializes in electronic entertainment and emerging trends says otherwise. The whole story can be had here:

http://pcper.com/news/Editorial/PC-Gaming-Surpass-Console-Gaming-Revenue-2015

******** I am not with guest below, I am trying to participate in intelligent discourse...not take shots at Matthew.********
 
Nobody killed video games because they aren't dead....how about some actual tech news and analysis, rather than whatever this article is...? (opinionated-space-filler bologna...? I don't know..?)

Bethesda released Elder Scrolls V video and info recently....don't see anything about that here on techspot.....? Guess thats not really a video game.....??

Should have taken him seriously with the statement "Here I am: The Worst Journalist In The World"...Dead On Matty, less opinion and more facts please....
 
Tekkaraiden said:
burty117 said:
Tekkaraiden said:
yRaz said:
blkm0nk3y92 said:
Who killed video games?
CoD and Pirates.

Consoles killed video games, not pirates.

I find it amusing that people think this is true.

To a degree ,I agree with this. Why don't you?

Consoles have existed since the late 70's (atari 2600) early 80's (NES), if consoles were truly detrimental to video gaming do you not think they would have destroyed the industry long ago?

clarly the consoles is the wurst and is gay and killed gaming because PC maser reese!11!!one!!

No clearly consoles are not the death of gaming, because I still play my N64 and my Gamecube that have tons of great games I couldn't get on PC. The LATEST generation of consoles has definitely started some poor trends in my opinion. We're moving towards more linear games with "streamlined" gameplay because "customers want it" which is really code for "consoles have too many ram limitations for large levels, and the controller doesn't have enough buttons"

Crysis 2 is a great example. "Streamlined" suit controls which really just means a crippled nanosuit with controls that are made to work with the triggers on a game controller. Combined with linear levels that give the illusion of a large level, but only allowing you to access parts of it and redirecting you if you step away from what Crytek says you can go to.
 
Great so we'll sue the family's of 15 yr. olds downloading some songs but no one wants to sue the politicians?????
 
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