Predictions for 2011

I was watching Buzz Out Louds prediction show and it inspired me to write a few of my own.

1. RIM will finish development of their new OS for phones. It'll be similar to the OS used for the Playbook.

2. RIM will be bought by HP. HP will see the direction that RIM is going with the new OS and buy them to expand their user base. OR HP will sue RIM because the new OS for the Playbook (the multi-tasking), is to much like WebOS, and that will give them an "IN" to buy them.

3. Between Android 3.0, Windows Phone 7 and RIM (when they change their OS), and maybe WebOS, they will chip away at the iphone. More people will see these OS' are better than ios...apple will try and make a new OS but only its core fanboy users will stick with them.

4. 3D TV will still not be a big hit. We'll see small sets that you don't need to use glasses, but they'll be to small and expensive for the masses.

5. We still won't have cars that drive themselves but we'll have tech in cars that bring that idea closer. For instance we'll have more sensors on cars so if a car is in your blind spot and you try and get into its lane you won't be able to turn the wheel and their will be an audible sound. Their will be more cars with sensors in the front so if a car stops short in front of you your car will also stop.

6. Unfortunately GenosTV will try and come out (www.genostv.com) but Comcast will try and stop it.

7. Microsoft will buy OnLive (or Otoy "www.otoy.com") and put it into their next Xbox. You'll still be able to buy games if you like, but for a little extra money per month you'll be able to stream games. They'll also add some of the technology to Windows so you can stream your desktop where ever you are. Also they may put it into the next version of Windows Server so employees at companies can stream their work desktops where ever they are.

8. Microsoft will make it so you can use Kinect with the PC (not just for gaming). Depending on if they do it right will tell if it catches on or not. They'll also add some good decent voice recognition to Windows 8 (kind of like what they did with Sync and Kinict).

9. End of the year Google will finally buy Spotify (Unless Microsoft or apple beats them to it). If apple buys them they'll just shelve Spotify like they did with LaLa.

10. T-Mobile will finally buy Sprint. They'll make CDMA/GSM phones for a while, but thats just until they put a GSM tower where ever their is a Sprint CDMA tower then they'll stop making phones with CDMA chips in them and concentrate on GSM. They'll keep the CDMA network up until the last of the phones that just use CDMA are gone, then they'll switch off the CDMA network all together (I'm guessing late 2012-mid 2013).

11. SyFy channel will loose all its core sci-fi viewers and change its name yet again to the MISC channel.

12. I think the Amazon will put a Pixel Qi display which can use both LCD and E-ink technology. I would say they'll use a color E-ink display but I don't think the color is good enough yet or the refresh rate fast enough. Maybe they'll make 2 diffterent kindles, one with Pixel Qi and one with color E-ink? The color E-ink would be good for magazines and text books without using a lot of battery life with and LCD display, while the Pixel Qi display would be good a tablet/book reader.

13. I think someone (maybe Microsoft) will come out with gun peripheral that can be used with Kinect. MS will make the drivers so other companies can make the peripherals, they'll see they can make great games with Kinect and peripherals.

14. Microsoft or another company will make a handheld gaming machine based on Windows Phone 7. It'll have a similar controller layout as the 360 and companies will make some great games for it. It'll have an Nvidia Tegra 2 chipset and dual core processor.

Thats enough for now, if I think of more I'll add them.

The new age of poker

Poker has become huge in the past few years. Poker has always had its popularity in time, but recently it becoming huge. Dozens of online poker sites, TV poker shows, tournaments that hundreds of people join in with prizes up to millions of dollars. Poker proes are becoming celebrities. People are getting the bug to join in and win big money in these tournaments. Joining a tournament is getting easier too. You can buy your way in or you can play satellite games sometimes for little money.

I have even gotten the bug, I don't expect to play in a tournament though, but I do like to play for fun. Poker is a game of luck, but also takes skill. You can win by getting good cards, but you can also win hands by out witting other players.

This is the new age of poker.

What is the future of the MMO?

MMO’s are one of the most famous type of game.  Every year at least a half dozen MMO’s come out.  Some you have to pay a monthly fee to pay, some are free to play and you buy the game in the store and you can play for free.  What I want to talk about though is what is the future of MMO’s? 

Right now most of the MMO’s out their have the same fighting style, you click on someone, click on a power, it does the power, click on another power, the power is done, and keep doing that until the monster is dead.  Most people will say that's getting boring and combat needs to have a little more variety and control.  Some people want want to be able to evade, aim and hit specific body parts.  Also the types of quests you get in an MMO haven’t changed.  Go kill 30 spiders, go bring this to someone else, and sometimes you get a quest that tells you to make sure someone gets to town safely, also once you do a quest it resets itself so someone else can do it.  How about quests like sneak in a castle and kill the king without being seen?  Or rescue someone without setting off any alarms?  You can sneak up behind guards and kill them as long as no noise is made.  Also Mobs, they just walk around in the same 10 foot area, and when you kill one another spawns.  How about having monsters actually walking around, maybe looking for food, or maybe sleeping.  They don’t need to spawn, right their.  I know you developers want to keep mobs around so the next person can find them easy enough.  Well make it more difficult.  A lot of animals in the real world do stay around specific areas that their familiar with, that’s why people know where to hunt them.  It could be the same in a game.  You can even have animals give birth to replenish their species and sure make it possible to kill off a species.  These ideas could be to difficult to do, but I think its just that developers are just playing it safe.  Single player games they can try different things because the game has a definite end but an MMO is suppose to go on for years so they have to use a little more imagination or play it safe. 

I think the future of MMO’s are good if their can be change and innovation.  Games like Age of Conan have shown that an MMO can evolve, but its still a baby step.  The combat is different and good, but still the mobs stand around for the most part.  Their are other games coming up that look promising so we’ll have to see how well they do.  I don’t think a shooter MMO will very well wither.  I think a game that has a battle system that has a simulated aim system that you can tweak and make head shots.  The idea I have is, maybe like an space shooter, you press tab and it shows the closest target to you and maybe even points you in the direction, but if you want you can aim better to do a head shot or shoot a body part.  This would give the shootertard a chance to do well and give the person who does well with shooters a chance to take better shots.  Also this way a person who isn’t as good can also maybe be a scientist or a technician and also give suppressive fire and be a diversion, while the person who is able to do head shots and what not can be the sniper or the front line guy.  These games will make people use good tactics, use good tactics and different tactics, if you can sneak up on people, if you can take out people silently, if you can dodge, the game will be more challenging and more fun.  I think if shooters stayed run and gun, find keys and open doors, people would have lost interest.  Games do need a change every once in a while.

IF their aren’t any changes in MMO’s then maybe they’ll just loose popularity.

Product reviews and how to use them

Most people when they look at reviews they take them to heart.  For food and and furniture that may be ok, but for tech and cars I’d use reviews as a template.    When I look at reviews I read what the reviewer has to say but then I also read the average user rating.  Reviewers only get to use a product a couple days so they don’t if it can handle the long run.  For instance a friend of mine bought a bluetooth headset and every magazine gives it a high rating, but if you read what average users say about it, their rating is much lower.    Using the main review as a template is a good way to see what the product has to offer and get a basic idea but reading the average user rating actually will give you a better idea if the quality of the item is good enough or not. 

EA Take two takeover

I'm kind of mixed on this idea. On one hand if EA buys take two it could hurt the future games that come out from that company. EA tends to play it safe when it comes to making video games while Take Two just goes all balls out. On the other hand maybe EA will let Take Two do its own thing and since there will be EA money maybe there will be more games from Take Two?

The thing I think should be done is Microsft should just drop the whole buying Yahoo at the moment and just buy Take Two. This would be good for 2 reasons. 1. MS tends to take more chances when it comes to video games. 2. They can have all future Take Two games just on the Xbox 360...maybe even ditch GTA 4 on the PS3 before it comes out. Next year or so if Yahoo is still on the market then Microsoft can put it back in its crosshairs.

What do you think?

Into the minds of Heroes

Heroes is one of the best shows on TV, its nothing like other mutant shows and movies. It goes into the trials and tribulations of budding heroes who are just finding their powers.

What do you think is happening in heroes? Do you think Kensei is going to be good or evil? Will Sylar get his powers back? Since Peter absorbs powers what will happen to him when/if he meets the brother and sister? Tell me what you think and any other questions you may have.