as an aside

, I think that was PIXAR's success with the sequel to Toy Story(a monstrously successful movie in it's own right) , was that they took the same approach as a video game company would which is to save unused ideas for use later and to keep improving the product.

From what i've been able to glean from listening to commentary tracks, most of the characters, situations, gags, etc. were things planned for the original Toy Story movie but were cut for various reasons. Mostly time. One thing that always amazes me about Toy Story is how fast it moves. snap snap snap It's a short movie, but you feel like you've been a lot of places.

I've seen it a lot lately. My kid loves it so... i've seen it a lot. it's good, it really holds up.

when you see a whole series and are deciding which one to get...

For video games, always get the "2"

For movies, always the first one is the best.

There are notable exceptions, though, actually i can think of a lot of sequels, movie sequels that are better than the original.

But with video games, almost always you want to get the second one. That's how games are, they improve. For the sequel, the developers put in all the stuff that they had to cut out to make the deadline on the first game.

Oftentimes, by the third in a aseries, the game is larded down with features, controls, super-moves(meta-controls) and and is overall less fun to play.

im not sure i made that clear enough

Valve circumvents piracy with Steam. They do it by making it almost as easy to go legit. Click a button and the download begins, it's just about that simple. And they throw additional features into the bargain.

Also i believe the Steam service is free. It costs money to buy games of course but measure that against having to go out into the real world to a game store, buy a physical media, come back, install the game, update drivers, and play the game.

The downside is not having a physical media for the game. i can see that being a big deal for some people. it's completely virtual. You don't 'have' anything. Which is true.

But the upside to that downside is that it's not constrained to any one computer anymore. You can go to another computer, download Steam, install it, give it your password, and have access to all your games, with the correct drivers to work on the new computer.

This is really pretty cool and a true shift in the way we do things.

Steam

is wonderful. I think i 'get' Steam now. Or maybe they've added so many features that they're useful to somebody.


I think of Steam as my "Game Job"

It's so well-organized. Everything is cross-referenced. And worst of all, buying games is easy. Of course that's best for them. What Valve did is they made they're system slightly less easy than pirating games. They realized that's their competition. And they also realized that most people- probably the mass of people, won't pirate software if a legitimate, and equally easy system exists.

And, actually, itunes is a pretty successful example of that. but Steam. They actually seem to offer a lot of features- friends list, achievements, etc. I actually like that Steam takes care of updating your drivers automagically- the games just run.

and they make it so darn easy to buy games. You have to exert self-control.
Also, having all the demos available in one place for games. You used to have to go hunting all over the web.

in the old days...
of the internet...

Anyway, Steam is your "Game Job" You belong to workgroups, You can arrange meetings in different games, your own avatars remain. A meta-level game...
It shows you all your friends' status in real-time.

It's an insanely well-organized Job, i myself have worked at plenty of jobs that could have benefited from this kind organization, or any organization at all.

But it seems something like a Job. i don't know. maybe it's a 'Leisure Organizer'.