Persistent, Niggling Questions

[Nate the Great]

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/04/30/ru...itial-release/

I'm just gonna quote on this one:

"Japanese retail news blog Sinobi (translated by Andriasang) reports Nintendo has a somewhat surprising supply strategy for its upcoming, three-dimensional remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. According to the blog, Nintendo's initial shipment of the title to retailers will be "extremely small." Furthermore, Nintendo supposedly isn't letting retailers order extra units of the game, and is allotting a limited number of copies for all retailers, regardless of their respective size.

It seems bananas to limit supply on the 3DS' most anticipated title to date, but Sinobi suggests this could be a reaction to the overstocking of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, which ended up in Japanese bargain bins faster than the franchise is likely used to. If that's the case, then Nintendo is forgetting one very important factor: Spirit Tracks is a pretty okay game, while Ocarina of Time is the best game ever made."

PNQ1: Is this a valid criticism?
PNQ2: If a retailer wants to buy X units and a game company is able to manufacture X units, should the game company be obligated to sell them X units?
PNQ3: Isn't there a certain ratio of "number of pre-orders" to "number of games sold in the first three months of release" that's pretty consistent? If X million people have preordered OOT 3D, should this be considered a hint to Nintendo to manufacture 5X (or whatever) copies of the game?

[NAHTMMM]

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

PNQ1: Is this a valid criticism?

Never played any of the games, but the implied logic seems sound to me.

PNQ2: If a retailer wants to buy X units and a game company is able to manufacture X units, should the game company be obligated to sell them X units?

Not unless they have an agreement to that effect. The retailer can make it clear to the consumer that the company is the bottleneck, though.

PNQ3: Isn't there a certain ratio of "number of pre-orders" to "number of games sold in the first three months of release" that's pretty consistent? If X million people have preordered OOT 3D, should this be considered a hint to Nintendo to manufacture 5X (or whatever) copies of the game?

I would guess that that ratio varies from one game to the next. That said, I don't think of Link and Zelda as being a niche game series (strong, broad name recognition), so I would expect the actual number in place of your 5 to be fairly large.

[Nate the Great]

In watching the sfdebris review of "The Maquis" something suddenly occurs to me...

PNQ: Okay, the Federation/Cardassian treaty made a border that put Federation colonies on the Cardassian side. Were there any Cardassian colonies that were put on the Federation side?

I mean, if the border was set to be more or less a straight line, presumably the line was set to split the difference and maintain an equal number of planets/area of space, right? So why was the border set to disrupt a bunch of Federation colonies, but not Cardassian?

[Nate the Great]

Once again I read an article warning us about the fact that nuclear disposal site warning signs will be unintelligible a thousand years from now...

PNQ1: Hasn't it been proven that widespread printing has slowed down the evolution of the English language dramatically? Yes, new words are invented, but will old ones like "radioactive" really disappear into the mists of time and become meaningless?
PNQ2: Don't government radioactive disposal sites have to be inspected at regular intervals? It's not like we lock up nuclear waste into a vault, toss the key into a junk drawer, and walk away, right?
PNQ3: Okay, forget words for now. Are you telling me that the radioactive symbol itself will become meaningless gibberish at any point in the future?

[Nate the Great]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spinning_Dancer

An optical illusion of a woman in silhouette spinning on one foot. The article claims that depending on where you observe it from, the dancer could be spinning clockwise or counterclockwise. Specifically one could take the foot touching the ground to be the left or right.

PNQ: Try as I might, the lower foot is clearly her left and she's spinning clockwise (if seen from above). Can anyone see her spin counterclockwise with the lower foot being her right?

I see the extended leg sweep from the right to the left and the vertical leg hop up and down as the foot sweeps from right to left. The other way is not presenting itself, it doesn't matter where I'm viewing it from.

EDIT: There's a YouTube video explaining how to do it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udfDv...layer_embedded

[Nate the Great]

Not so much a PNQ as a tech support question. I'm contemplating buying this:

http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0352098

You see, my DVD player is in the computer, but I want the ability to send the video signal about ten feet over to the big TV by the couch. That's not the problem. I'm really wondering...

PNQ: Could I use the additional VGA port on the card to run two computer monitors at once to have a larger desktop?

[Nate the Great]

I've been watching some New Super Mario Bros. Wii gameplay...

PNQ1: Does four-player co-op really work as an enjoyable experience for all?

The footage I saw seemed to imply that there was always going to be one player far ahead and one player straggling behind. Someone is always going to be stealing the powerups, and someone is always going to be mucking up the plan by warping ahead (pipes, whatever) before someone else is ready.

Furthermore, given my bile for the two generic Toads as Players 3 and 4...

PNQ2: Would a focused two-player mode go over better?