Guild Wars on a portable. EEE?

In Japan they say that the PC is dying. The Japanese who are completely obsessed with small things, are starting to use their mobile phones, and palm computers for web browsing, messening, email and so on.
Even in the game spectrum, it seems like they favor the small portable devices like Nintendo DS and PSP, over the bigger and stationary and powerful machines like 360 and PS3.


In the west its not not like that. We do like small things, and things do get smaller. But we havent quite found the golden spot. Laptops are getting cheaper, but they are still to big, bulky, heavy and power consuming for really being mobile.
And devices like black berry and certain mobile phones are still not well suited for gaming.


Guild Wars on a portable. There is no way that it can run on a DS right? Or a PSP? I guess it could run on a laptop, but I dont really think it would be that mobile.
Imagine if you could take guild wars with you. On the toilet, in the car, on the job, in your pocket. everywhere. It would be like a dream, yes?

I recently(and by recently I mean right now) stumbled over this cool mini laptop, from Asus, called EEE. I thought that it was just another little gadget that had no real need, but this actually is a real computer, in an incredible small size, and it comes for an affordable price, from what I have heard.





the specifications:

-900 gram
-7" screen with 800*480 resolution
-webcam
-wifi
-512/1024 DDR2 667 MB RAM (upgradeable up to 2GB)
-2/4/8 GB Flash HDD (upgradeable via SD cards)
-700mhz Celeron M (overclockable to 900mhz at this moment)
- 3 hours of battery life while watching movies/surfing wireless
- Xandros Linux / XP version coming soon but can be installed already ofc.


Now of course this does not sound like enough to run GW! But I saw this video of some guy freaking playing HL2 on it and it looks great: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UixLlpMgJqA


It just made me think about how wonderful it would be to have GW with you.. litterly everywhere. wireless online around the house or on the job or in a cafee.
its the size of an DVD box. its incredible:O

I heard that its actually out in stores in america. I wonder if anyone has one, or if they have tried it?



But furthermore, I actually wanted to ask something else with this topic - Would you even want to play GW in public or be able to carry it everywhere with you(if you could)? I mean... I think I would be kinda embarrased to play it on the job or while I was waiting on the buss or something. Im not sure.

what do you think? is gaming something you do at home in front of the old big computer or is it cool to play everywhere?

*will read after this post*

Asian woman: EVERY TING SO TINY! *looks in shirt*

Thank you Family Guy.


Okay, so what's this reasonable price you speak of? And that drink is interesting. If the battery life is actually three hours, it's worthless for gaming.

The EEE's battery life barely hits 3 hours.

You're not going to be able to play guild wars for any period of time, not to mention that you basically don't even have enough space to install guild wars on a 4G.

Not to mention that guild wars is barely playable at 1024x768 so playing it at 800x400 with a terrible frame rate would be basically useless unless you're just walking into mobs and letting 7 other people do the work for you.

brings new definitions to the words cry and creepy

I am all for portable computers, but this just doesn't cut it. I'm looking forward to wearables, actually. Being able to attach the screen to your glasses is the way to go, IMO. Some of those tiny lens-screens have relatively high resolution, up to 1024x768, IIRC.

I think they will need to be a bit more powerful yet to kill desktops

Not a fan of gaming on the move, i wouldnt even take my DS on a bus or w/e. This thing just screems "rob me" in a Scottish city tbh -.-.

I want a wrist one... like Leela. Or any other generic sci-fi thing. I'm sure someone in Japan has made one already. Why can't they start making ones in the size we have better?

Yeah, I wouldn't mind a wrist-thingy like Leela has for generic uses (PDA, phone, messenger, browser, etc), but for gaming and other multimedia, I'm all about the eyepiece.

When I'm home, I'm probably in my room, on PC. So I can play GW if I want to. If I'm not home, there is a reason why I'm not home. So I won't have time to play GW or any other game. Especially not on something so small as that EEE thingy (I allready have problems with all the panels when I'm monking, playing on that would be major fail).

Lunch break at your restaurant you're eating at, planes/cars when going somewhere for vacation, basically any time you could use a gameboy.

EEE PCs are about $300-$400 dollars IIRC.

IIRC? And that's not bad.

I dont think we are there yet, as far as all technological fronts are concerned.

The EEE notebooks maybe cheap but they are still quite low end. Its use would be very specific and I dont think they are suitable for GW1 as it is today.

The software and universal wireless broadband has to be there. If you want to play a complicated interface game like GW on a small computer, you would also need a way to easily interface with the software. If the screen is so small, you are not going to be happy trying to click on a small UI control. Some natural interface like voice recognition would be more suitable.

If I recall/remember correctly.

I'd consider one, but I already has a laptop that goes with me everywhere. No real need for more portable goodness.

Once the 45nm chips start rolling out you'll be able to play games like GW on your wrist watch. The question is though; would you want to? Personally I need a big-ass screen or it's just not worth it. Smaller isn't always better.

I disagree, I think smaller is where the main stream technology is heading towards. But as you pointed out, the interface needs also to be usable. For example, if I can easily use voice controls/motion controls on GW, and can see through special Virtual Reality 3D glasses, I'll go for it, why not?

But like I said, all these software/hardware/networking technology have to all advance to a state that it becomes a common reality to the "man on the street".

I don't understand, personally I find the idea of playing a game like guild wars, wow, HL2 or any other game of this magnitude on a hand held device rather stupid. Look at the screen size of your average cell phone, PDA, gameboy, PSP and you have your answer, look at the button sizes. With something that small controlling the game is almost impossible, how are you gonna move, orient your line of sight, and cast spells and select people at the same time like you can with a desktop or a decent laptop. Japan doesn't have any say over what technology is dieing or not, I mean I can say cell phones are dieing, people are gonna start using chips implanted in their head to communicate, and play games. I would put money on it, that you will see absolutely no change in the way we play games as a whole, the computer itself may get smaller, the way we interact may change, but what we see probably wont, in fact im willing to bet it would get bigger in the future. Also I think the reason japanese people use smaller gadgets and stuff is becuase of the lack of space over there, and not having a desk and stuff just for a computer, tv, ect... saves valuable space.

I'm not trying to sound like an ass hole so if I come across that way forgive me.

As neat and compact as the EEE laptop is, are you really gaining much by having it that small? You will still want to carry it around in a bag that also has room for your mouse, charger and cables, extra storage and software etc, you might as well buy a second hand normal size laptop and have something a bit more powerful.

I don't see PCs dying... I see people owning a PC and a laptop. There's a lot of things you can't do on the portables as they don't have the power. Even something like the EEE is underpowered and needs another 5-10 years before it can run today's stuff. The small stuff is fine for simple things, but you need the big powerhouses as well for everything else.

If it happens, when it happens, portable GW will be awesome as long as:
Whatever platform it runs on doesn't use that idiotic little gray touchpad to replace mouse functions. (Gawd I <3 my DS and its infinitely more intuitive touchscreen, WYPIWYG FTW)
Whatever platform it runs on has awesome wireless capability (though there are many other factors beyond the platform's wireless capability, I must admit)
Whatever platform it runs on can be used comfortably without setting it down on a desk or table.

They can cram a fair amount of power into a small package these days. I could see shelling out 500+ dollars for a portable that can be a handheld, with processing power sufficient enough for Guild Wars and a few other things, if you try to think more along the lines of a gaming/internet machine and not a swiss army knife jack-of-all-trades master of none laptop like you see today.

Well that's the Japanese...personally I am not so worried about the Japanese market seeing what China is doing.

I am not looking to play on handhelds that's for sure. What's the point of great graphics if it's all so bloody small. Even the PSP rates as substandard for me for gaming.

I HAVE THAT MOUSE

omg so cool

7" screen?

gtfo.

Hmm, pretty sure some of us thought of something diff in that first sentence. Meh, uncalled for sorry :P

Wouldn't work, turn out horribly ;P Nothing to worry about tbh.

I doubt those kind of machines will have the graphics processing capability to play modern games within the next few years. I also think it would be a somewhat unnecessary step, people will be looking to develop, and wanting, a better way of viewing the kind of information displayed commonly on those screens in a few years. Im thinking along the lines of some kind of holographic system or a system that sends the images directly into your visual processing centre, although these are probably further off than I hope (and not neccessarily because of technological limitations(yes I'm saying you should all get over it and have the chip implanted in your blood stream already, you superstitious...)).

IMO the size of the screen on devices designed to be placed in your pocket will never be able to provide an acceptable gaming experience with a game like GW. They may have their own simpler games developed, and things like the DS's Wi-Fi, but I don't think they would be able to (and I wouldn't really desire them to) be capable of running games directly comparable to GW.
I just don't see being able to fit the kind of info you need in an MMO onto a screen that size. You generally would want a compass, a chat box, health bars, menus, and of course some kind of main visual display of the action. There's no way you'd see all that at once (as I believe necessary) without a magnifier of some kind, which would render the compactness of the device meaningless, and to do so would also require a huge screen resolution.

Emmm I can play GWs on my laptop if I chose to, but it would suck for interface unless I had a mouse and I would need an internet connection.

Unless you can suggest a way to get an internet connection on a bus, at your local pub or at university where they'd let you suck up the bandwidth with an MMO...

...I dont see it happening!

Its one thing to put an offline game onto a portable device, but an online dependant game is a completely different matter because you need an internet connection.

And most free-to-use wireless connections are going to have limits on bandwidth and their going to get annoyed if you start eating it up with an MMO (you would soon get MAC address blocked). Plus there arent alot of free-to-use wireless networks outside of universities or government buildings or schools in the UK or the US I expect (unlike japan)

End result is you could get an MMO onto a portable device like a DS or a PSP, but you would have to play at home or a friends house. Which would completely kill the point of it if you could just use a PC at home and get far better results and interactivity.

The standard size for desk top pc would take up 2/3 of the living space in most Japanese houses. That's why everything over there have to be tiny.

lol

The second generation EEE is said to have a 8.9 Inch screen. I dont know where the speakers will be then(?)... Apparently the next EEE might also use a 45nm processor, which is said to be 10 times as power efficent.



I think that more and more people are getting broadband, and wireless internet is getting faster, cheaper and better and its up in more and more places.

Dont they have wireless internet in places like Starbucks now?
You wouldnt need fast internet, to check your mails, browse youtube, check guildwarsguru.com or play GW for like 15 minutes or something...



but also just having it around the house. if your making dinner, you can chat with the guild.. or if your in the bathroom. its the size of a dvd box. you can bring it to bed...

cheap, long battery life, and powerful. the second ideration is said to be quite a bit more powerful, when it will be revealed at CES in a few days time.


Apple is also said to have a ultra macbook pro mini that is similiar in size. Does probably cant run GW though

I suspect the marked will explode this year. EEE was already the most wanted laptop this holiday. I think people are tired of Iphones and blackberry and that stuff. It just does not cut it.


often a real laptop with a 17 inch screen is also just not mobile enough for using apps like skype, word and so on. it gets hot, it easily breaks, it has short battery life, it makes alot of noise, its expenssive...

Apparently someone got Crysis to run on it.

really? lol. they mod the hell out of that thing. check out this guy who put on a touch screen on it. its really cool: http://youtube.com/watch?v=3VaerIGpO5Q

I'll post the link if I can find it.

Edit - I was wrong, it was Oblivion they got running 15-30fps as well...not so bad

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/sho...769538&page=24

somebody make me a time machine so i can go to the future and play guild wars 2 on my wristwatch while checking my email, the weather, and looking for a good restaurant and a nice hotel to stay in!!!!!!

Meh, the new Dell XPS lappys are small as hell, light as hell, get a s*load of battery time (my gf has one and it ran GW for 8 hours straight), have a great resolution and screen.

Its maybe 2" bigger in length and width dimensions than that crap ASUS there. Portable gaming to me is old school anyways. The older you get the less of a usefull thing it becomes. Like someone said before me, when your out as an adult, there is a reason you are out, and if you are not forced to go out (work, where you wouldn't be using a PSP anyway), then you are out doing things.

I am quite happy not having to play Guild Wars when I take a crap or am grocery shopping...

I have an EEE 4G with a Patriot 16gb SD card and have installed XP Pro on its main memory.
Guild Wars is able to run from the card fairly well; with "-dx8" and "-noshaders" and all the minimum graphics settings, I can get around 25-30fps, but the point isn't graphics or eyecandy, it's because I'm a diehard gamer and I need a pocket-sized MMO fix.

I just wanted to confirm GW's playability with you all.

(btw Second Life and City of Heroes also play on the EEE)

Slightly off topic, but I think it would be cool if they made a portable version of Guild Wars that would allow you access to towns your character had visited. What I imagine is a stripped down version that you could warp from city to city and do tasks that you can do in a city.

That is, you could chat, merch, ID stuff, create builds, salvage, apply runes, access storage, craft armor & weaps, buy & sell with other players, etc. Essentially, everything short of "playing the game".

Say you're stuck at the tire place. Flip open your cell phone and create a build, chat with your guildies, or organize your storage. It's not as cool as, you know, killing stuff, but it could be a fun use of time in the right circumstance.

I'd imagine that the size would be great if you were a salesman who is out meeting clients all the time. All you need is for Office and email and a browser to be able to run on the thing. Near full sized laptops (12.1") that weight 2.6lbs are also going to be hot on the trot. (Panasonic Toughbook W7)

For games, either you gotta get games specifically designed for that size screen and interface like the DS or PSP has, or you're getting something that is neither here nor there.

Even better: http://www.oqo.com/products/model02/specifications.html

I don't see desktops dying. They are popular amongst gamers, particularly FPS gamers, and besides, the Japanese not liking desktop computers has no bearing on computer gaming. Now if all of a sudden Blizzard, BioWare, Bungie, Epic, etc, decided they were going to move over to tiny handheld devices (aside from portability, something that isn't really relevant to computer usage, they are utterly inferior to desktops), then I could see a disaster in the gaming industry.