The lack of NPC's in this version of the castle reminded me of an eeriness that existed in Super Mario 64, something I haven't felt in Sunshine or Galaxy. The feeling of being thrown into this new world without any allies or clear direction on completing the objective. At the time it felt exciting and scary, maybe I was just young...
I think Dark Souls is one of those few games that does a perfect job of projecting the emotions of the hero and the atmosphere of the world onto the player's own emotion and perception. It could have used more guidance at the onset, and it doesn't clearly convey the type of game you're about to play (I was expecting something like God of War meets Skyrim), but once I pushed past the first region or two, it became one of my favorite games. Learning more about the lore took it up a few notches.
For those interested, here is a really interesting video of Gabe Newell at the Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs talking about some of the in-game economic problems Valve has faced in the past few years. I think he briefly mentions Yanis somewhere in the middle of the video.
Aside from the theory that people are going to stop buying goods because of expectations that they will get cheaper, I thought the price of consumer products were lowering because of cheaper energy, which would decrease COGS and improve margins/prices, not affect revenue?
When viewed through these lens, many of the seemingly ancillary Google business units start to make strategic sense. Android (control the device), Chrome (control the browser), Fiber (control the tubes).
As an enterprise dev mgr who has been thinking about prototyping an app to do exactly this (well, actually the opposite -- to guide warehouse staff in the kitting process for manufacturing), I'm curious: where have you seen indications of Glass evolving toward the enterprise? I haven't seen it anywhere, but Google has tons of AR competition in the industrial space already, many of which are FAR more capable than Glass, which is 1) fragile, 2) feature-limited, 3) low res crappy display, 4) not at all intended to work autonomously.
Just like the music industry, I think more writers are going to become acclimated to the book-signing aspect of the industry in order to support their themselves financially. Subscription based models and piracy that originated from the disruptive nature of new technology sounds like it would discencetivize writers from creating new works, but I think if you model the economics of future distributions, it will eventually favor the writers that create quality work. The best example I can think of is the existing state of stand-up comedy. Louis CK, Aziz Ansari, Joey Diaz can release a $5 special DRM free with low capital expenditures, and still make a significant payout. This model cuts out most of the pre-existing middlemen, and all that's left is artist and the audience.
Well known artists with a fanbase I'm sure are ok with charging $5, but authors spending years researching need that upfront money, and hopefully 25.99$ hardcover sales, followed by 7$ paperback sales. If they want to do this for a living I should say.
I started getting into startups around when Lean Startup was the hottest thing out, led by Eric Ries. He was signing books after a talk and I asked him to sign my iPad case.
