RE How to Kick the Retail Habit

[Joe 98]

I don't trust mail order so delivery time is irrelevant.

And I am in Sydney.
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[Leslie]

I am with Joe in that I think digital download has promise.

But, I don't have ANY problem with the speed of the common no frills mail service. I mail things private mail all the time. It always gets to my friends rather fast.

I love several products from Matrix Games. I have personal issues with some of their forum community. It balances out. I just buy their games now. I talk about their games somewhere else is all.

I think Hubert Cater is an awesome designer. His Strategic Command was a very impressively priced, incredibly easy to play, superb example of how you can make a great game solo.
I like Battlefront products. But I found grief with their forum community, and so I decided to talk about their games somewhere else.

I suppose that example could occur anywhere with anyone.

I feel "uncomfortable" with Wargamer having so many in your face ad spot micro forums.
I suppose those ad spot micro forums pay the bills.
Wargamer almost went down the toilet for inability to pay the bills.
It's like the ads in a magazine. You can't really get around them.
The alternative is a magazine that looks like the ASL Annuals or ASL Journals. No advertising, and a real kick in the chops price tag.

Retail shelf space will always only work with products that are mass appeal. If you are not shovelling the product out the door in Hasbro type numbers, chances are a retail shelf spot means you had to give your product away for peanuts.

I don't think PC games are dying (where retail shelf mode is concerned), I think PC games are evolving (where retail shelf mode is concerned).
It's not like the PC game or the console game (as we know them today) have been around forever.

The internet has not yet been fully realised yet either I think.
We have too many modes, all trying to be everyone else.
I can play a game on a pda, a hand held console, a console, a PC, a cell phone, about the only thing left is my frig. And even that can order my groceries.

I can watch tv on my computer, play DVD on my dvd player, or my game console, or in my car (well the kids can ).
I understand dvd players are now expanding formats to allow DivX. That means you might not even eventually require dvds.

Our tech is just about ready to unify I think.

I am waiting for when it all starts merging.
Given enough time, eventually everything will be mainstream, and there won't be any need to use the term mainstream.

[Fyron]

Leslie said:
I understand dvd players are now expanding formats to allow DivX. That means you might not even eventually require dvds.

There is no need for DVDs now. You can burn regular CD-Rs as VCDs (or SVCDs) and play them on most DVD players made in the last few years. VCDs store the video/audio in an uncompressed format, so you typically need 3 or 4 of them for a movie, depending on length. Being able to use a compressed format such as DivX would mean you can get away with 1 or 2, depending on how badly you wish to mangle the video and audio streams. A format like Xvid would of course be far better to get widespread adoption of, but like the poor quality MP3 format, DivX is too widespread...

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[Leslie]

Regarding anything cd oriented.

Format aside, it's about cost factor assessment for me.
One cd = 700 megs of storage
One dvd = 4.7 gigs of storage
And that is current mainstream dvd disks. They have more recently made much larger capacity dvd disks and burners more available recently.

Data is just data in the end. How much data do you have, and how do you want to store it. And what do you want to run it.

Friend has suggested I get a dvd player that plays DivX. But that just means yet another machine sitting around.
My computer will run any manner of data. I can with the right program, play anything my computer can run, on my tv if I have the right hardware to send the signal.

Current computer isn't up to that. I am thinking of changing that statement at the end of the year though.
Given enough time, I expect to be able to play a game, and see it on my tv, or play a movie, from any digital source, and see it on my tv.
Don't feel like using my tv as a web browser screen though. And I don't feel like using it as a monitor for a word processor.

As it currently stands, I don't see any attraction owning a PS 1 or 2, or XBox, and I really don't really want a hand held doodad. If I have gotten out of my chair and walked away from the computer, chances are I have decided I don't want to play a game, I have something else I want to be doing

The contest between console and PC is a dumb one that console can't win. My PC will always possess several magnitudes more functionality than a console. Consoles are of limited use, and they don't play the other guys games yet.

The fact that shelf space is being crowded out by console titles and making it hard for PC titles, just means PC titles need to say "to heck with that store".
Who says I have to, absolutely have to, buy my PC games at an EB? If they went to only console, they will only be selling console.
Means they won't be selling PC. That's about it though isn't it.

PC games enjoy a perk that console doesn't enjoy. PC games are just data. As long as you put it on a storage device a computer can run, you have no problem.

PC doesn't "need" retail. Retail is just retail. It's more "visible" than online. That just means those that sell PC need to accept that.
Make it more "visible".

[JDC]

When I wrote a column for Wargamer, I pushed indies very strongly. However, a column only stays on the front page for 4 days tops and many readers go straight to the forums anyway.

Dave is correct, a well-supported, well-advertised website devoted to indies is a must.

[Jim_Zabek]

Not to sound too contrary, Jim, but actually your column stayed on the page perpetually - you might recall your image on left hand side (5th Column) linked to your last article

These days Scott Udell's Road to War covers much of the wargaming/indie news.

[JDC]

Yeah, like they knew to click on a pic.

After reading reviews on other sites and seeing reader feedback, we may be missing a point. Are we sure readers want in-depth reviews or subjective pap? It seems the latter. They clutch at subjectivity because they need reinforcement of their own concepts - or they have short atttention spans.