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Why Video Game Movie Adaptations Need New Respect 283

Posted by Soulskill
from the no-more-fighting-game-movies-please dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Hollywood has yet to find any video game property it is willing to treat with the same respect as J.R.R. Tolkien or J.K.Rowling, arguably still following the principles that led to the appalling Super Mario Bros. movie in 1992: 'A game lacks the complexity that a movie requires.' Yet a modern gaming masterpiece such as Mass Effect has the depth and breadth to deserve better treatment in the proposed trilogy. Is Hollywood again going to disrespect fans who, in this case, have as much right to see a good plot respected as the readers of Lord Of The Rings? This article discusses why and how Hollywood should grow up regarding these adaptations."

Comment: Re:FTFS (Score 1) 403

by Enderwiggin13 (#33827154) Attached to: Apple vs. Google TVs
The problem with TVersity and PS3Media Server is that they require your desktop to be on to transcode everything. I store my media on a NAS and I even have to run Twonky on the NAS to get it to talk to the 360's custom uPnP thing. I'm holding out for the Boxee Box so it can stream online and local network content without having a go-between.

Comment: Linksys WRT54GL (Score 1) 2

by Enderwiggin13 (#33807286) Attached to: Wireless Routers, which one would/do you use?
I still swear by the old form factor blue WRT54G routers. You can still find the L version (running the original linux firmware) on Amazon for somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 but I don't think Cisco is making any new ones. Drop the newest version of DD-WRT on it and it does everything an entry level commercial router will do.

+ - Wireless Routers, which one would/do you use? 2

Submitted by MOInsIT
MOInsIT writes "I recently bought a wireless router for my apartment because the landlord does not want me to run Ethernet, and I am not impressed with the current one. It continually reboots itself with no warning. Both my wife and I play World of Warcraft, so you can imagine how annoying this gets to be in the middle of a raid and suddenly both of us lose connection because the router decided it wanted to reboot. After doing some research on the particular model we purchased I found this is a common problem with this router. I decided I would buy a new router, like a Linksys/Cisco, since those have always been a good router, but after reading reviews on a multitude of sites, I'm not sure if that is the best choice for consumer grade routers anymore, as they were reported constantly reboot as well if you didn't port forward the WoW Ports to your computer, obviously this is a problem since I have two computers behind the router trying to access one game.

So my question to /. is: What wireless router that is currently available on the market would you use if you have two computers both trying to access the same game and you want a steady connection, something that won't reboot for no apparent reason at all?"

+ - Private Packet Data Network?

Submitted by Squeebee
Squeebee writes "I'm looking into building a system for handheld devices on ships, but naturally Wi-Fi is going to be a nightmare on any large steel vessel. There's a lot of devices out there with built-in GSM radios that could be used on land for packet data, but a ship at sea is out of range of any traditional carriers. I don't need to communicate with the world at large, so I don't need something like a satellite to GSM gateway, but I am wondering if there's anything available off-the-shelf to setup a GSM cell on a ship and configure GSM devices to use it for packet data between devices and to a local server."

Comment: Re:So the solution is to doom everyone to the slow (Score 5, Insightful) 223

by Enderwiggin13 (#33785422) Attached to: Lawrence Lessig Reviews <em>The Social Network</em>
We're talking about two different things here. You're talking about the end user's connection. Net Neutrality is about the content providers' connection.

I have no problem with tiered bandwidth plans. I play online games and stream movies and TV shows over Hulu and Netflix so I gladly pay for the top tier service to have the most available bandwidth. My parents check email and read the news online so they have the basic tier. There's no need for everyone to have a 30/10 Internet connection.

To quote SaveTheInternet.com
"Net Neutrality means no discrimination. Net Neutrality prevents Internet providers from blocking, speeding up or slowing down Web content based on its source, ownership or destination....The free and open Internet brings with it the revolutionary possibility that any Internet site could have the reach of a TV or radio station. The loss of Net Neutrality would end this unparalleled opportunity for freedom of expression."

Since you cite Comcast as the example, they just bought NBC. Without Network Neutrality, what's to stop Comcast from throttling the ABC and CBS websites unless they pay for top tier service? The lack of neutrality undermines competition and traps us in a system where a few powerful corporations control the content we see and hear. When was the last time you heard independent music on a radio station that wasn't in a college town? ClearChannel decides what music you want to hear and then puts it on repeat.

The success of the Internet itself and the countless success stories that have arisen from the Internet are because of the unfettered access it gives you to the rest of the world. Anyone can create something and share it with everyone without a corporation deciding to charge them or even prevent them from sharing because it doesn't agree with the corporation's viewpoint.

Comment: Re:My concerns about network neutrality. (Score 5, Informative) 223

by Enderwiggin13 (#33784268) Attached to: Lawrence Lessig Reviews <em>The Social Network</em>
Network neutrality isn't about unabated access to download copyrighted content, it's about keeping the Internet a level playing field. Without network neutrality, big companies like Microsoft, Google and Apple can pay ISPs to put their sites on the premium tier so that you get fast access to them, while poor startups and normal people with brilliant ideas will be relegated to the slower tier. I've even seen concern about ISPs one day offering packages a la cable TV - you can get Google, Yahoo and MSN with the basic package but then you'd have to add a sports/tech/music/etc. package to access those sites. It's not even limited to websites. ISPs could grant you HTTP access with the basic package and then you'd have to add FTP, NNTP, VOIP and other "value add" services". I realize that's hyperbole and possibly FUD but it's not the type of Internet I'd like to use. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_neutrality

+ - Xmarks may not be dead after all

Submitted by gatorfan
gatorfan writes "Xmarks announced it is shutting down in January of next year, that was reported a couple of days ago. Well since the out cry of people willing to pay for the service was so profound, they have since posted a pledge that users can sign if they are willing to pay for the service.

http://blog.xmarks.com/?p=1945

I was wondering if this would be something you guys would like to do an update to the post from earlier this week to get the word out. The post I am referring to,
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/09/28/1548245/Bookmark-Synchronizer-Xmarks-Hangs-Up-Their-Hats?from=rss

Thanks for your consideration.

Ryan
Devoted Xmarks user"
Google

+ - iPhone 4 fails to slow Android demand for long->

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes "Apple's rollout of the iPhone 4 in June temporarily slowed down demand for Google Android smartphones, but a new study shows consumers are again very hungry for Android devices.

ChangeWave Research, which last week released survey results showing explosive demand growth for Android among businesses, is now revealing findings from its mid-September consumer survey based on 4,000 responses. Of those people planning to buy a smartphone in the next 90 days, 37% said they would prefer to have the Android OS on the device. That's up from 30% in both March and June, and represents a six-fold increase from a year ago.

Meanwhile, demand for the iPhone fell from 50% in June to 38% this time around. A drop-off was not unexpected since demand peeked when the iPhone 4 was debuting, says Paul Carton, VP of research for ChangeWave."
Link to Original Source
Censorship

+ - Stop the Internet Blacklist->

Submitted by woulduno
woulduno writes "Just the other day, President Obama urged other countries to stop censoring the Internet. But now the United States Congress is trying to censor the Internet here at home. A new bill being debated this week would have the Attorney General create an Internet blacklist of sites that US Internet providers would be required to block.

This is the kind of heavy-handed censorship you'd expect from a dictatorship, where one man can decide what web sites you're not allowed to visit. But the Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to pass the bill this week — and Senators say they haven't heard much in the way of objections! That's why we need you to sign our urgent petition to Congress demanding they oppose the Internet blacklist.

http://demandprogress.org/blacklist/"
Link to Original Source
Games

+ - NBA Jam: Best Wii Sports Game Since...Wii Sports->

Submitted by Buffalo55
Buffalo55 writes "You know a video game’s excellent when the skeptics cannot put it down. This was last week’s NBA Jam test. We introduced the game to a group of anti basketball friends to see if they’d enjoy some rim rattling, backboard shattering “Boom-shaka-laka!” Three hours later, we had trouble prying the remotes from their hands. The last time we had this much multiplayer fun on the Wii? Wii Sports, the 2006 video game that came bundled with the console."
Link to Original Source

Suddenly, Professor Liebowitz realizes he has come to the seminar without his duck ...

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