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USB 2.0 is backwards compatible with 1.1.

Of course an XBOX clone controller can be used - but that's defeats the purpose of porting as Bioware isn't going to supply you with a controller; nor should you be expected to PURCHASE an addiitional periferal device over an above the odd $50 you just shelled out, just to be able to use the damn software. That's poor business. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Just have the alphabet for everyone without one to use. Who cares if it isn't optimum? Screw everyone else, I've got a Rumblepad. "

I understand your point about the Uncanny Valley (thanks for the link, btw) and I think it is a good one. After all, the very real cues that tip us off when we encounter someone who is socially "different", like a psychopath, are the same ones that will make a near-human character look completely not-human. I also concur that it is a little premature to say there is any evidence of it yet, as we are nowhere near close enough with robotics or animation yet. I haven't played XIII but it got good reviews (apart from David Duchovny's VO). I think you make a good point, though, that it seems to be easier to make an immersive game without trying for photo-realism: after all, the Infocom games managed it without graphics at all. :D The mind is trained to pick up differences and make gneralisations. Any shortcomings of a model will be noted (even if only subconsciously). For example, I am able to tell if a person is Chinese, Japanese, Fillipino, Corean, etc; yet I cannot tell you how I can! I can see the next step in the evolution of graphics, too. It will be supra-realistic. Just like the Ancient Greeks took the superior sculting skills of the Egyptians and, over a couple of centuries (c. 500BCE), created first total absolute reality with their superior materials (bronze instead of sandstone), next they produced works that looked more real than if they had cast a statue from a human mold. (Without going into too much detail, basically they used various optical techniques: they disected the human figure into quadrants, the left was in motion and the right standstill, and they added over-emphasis along the vinculum, so that the chest had an almost clever-made depth, and there was no coccyx to spoil the bifircation of the back plane.) I think it is a cul-de-sac to chase ever-better graphical models. After all, the human eye doesn't even capture everything in the main field of vision. The reason there are such things as optical illusions is because someone has worked out some of the eye's wetware algorithms for short-circuiting the too-time consuning task of rendering the entire field of vision; after all, the attention span restricts what the brain is looking at, and most of the vision is lost within two seconds of the viewing (unlike aural memory, which is more like ten seconds). Maybe if modern polygon sculters took a lead from the Ancient Greeks

You need to take a Turkish disbandment as well.

I have just had word from Aishur, he has been in isolation with a nasty virus (and a bad reaction to his medication as well), so he has obviously not been able to get to a computer. I will immediately take him out of Civil Disorder. I don't think it is fair to do more than that (unless you guys want to roll back a turn ...). I may push the deadline for this turn back, as well, to give him time to get back on his feet, pending consultation. PS I have corrected the Venice Armies mysterious disapearance ... looks like they went for a quick drink and now they're back ...!

Couldn't agree more. I hope Bioware make enough to keep their independence, AND use that independence to bring good quality games to the market. (But 500k units will probably just stop them calling in the Receivers ...)

You just want to be eaten first.

I think Eldar should stop dragging our threads off-topic with his complaints about off-topicality. "

(It's the pickles.)

Really? What a coincidence! I have a theory that I am the only real consciousness in the world and everyone else is a figment of my imagination. (I call it Existentialism.) It also requires absolutely no evidence whatsoever, barring what I can dream up in my head!

ROFLMAO

Scene 31: 'Always look on the bright side of life!' "

And the Georgian Seperatists blow up the ex-Soviet oil production ...

We seem to be now

Except that the only people that will invest in games (marketing publishers) won't play them (and therefore definitely not love them, like developers) so you will get more and more derivative games that show no innovation and are less and less appealing to play. But "safer" investments for them. So Final Fantasy CXCLVIX, then. A bit like now we have people in politics who nobody will vote for, because no matter who you vote for, a politician gets in.

OH NOES!11!!! It's a random ninja attack from left field by a rabid jaguar gorrilla guerilla!

The debate has evolved from ideal forms of government into crime and punishment. Get with the times, old man!

Never played it. Never will.

So, what does that have to do with me? All I care about is getting a good game. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Well, if the game doesn't sell, REGARDLESS OF THE QUALITY OF IT, there won't be any more like it because the developer will likely go out of business AND / OR no other publisher will commission a similar game, for fear of risking their investment. Basic economics. Don't worry about Mets - he just collecting intel and dispensing it through the usual channels without ever experienceing JE's controls first hand. " :D <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Exactly. What side of the argument are you on, anyway? I thought you were arguing against the port!

Never said it was. I was making an economic assessment about how the business plan might easily have been to buy market share with a new game, Jade Empire; under these auspices it can be termed a "loss leader" in reference to the marketing terminology, because it is establishing a new franchise that will not require as much marketing in the future (as it is an established entity in the marketplace).

IIRC the 7% was the net figure given to a developer after everyone else has taken their bit, up to and including the publisher. (The headline figure was a 15% margin, which was referred to as the top end of the scale.) The sunk costs of the publisher (on marketing and whatnot) are taken out of the amount the developer gets, with priority. Obviously if Bioware self-published, they have taken some of the inherent risk and therefore wil not have to shell out as much (no publisher cut and loss of IP), but they still have to pay all the marketing and other upfront costs, not to mention keep the develoeprs alive until the next release.

Not to kickstart the blinking XBox, to kickstart the Jade Empire franchise! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> But JE was a good game. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> But it only sold 500,000 copies.

"I'm sorry Timmy, but you did clearly J-walk." <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Oh, you'll probably get away with crucifixion.