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User: Aphoxema

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  1. Re:5 dollar patch on BioShock 2's First DLC Already On Disc · · Score: 1

    It wouldn't be so bad if I had any suspicion that it wasn't entirely their intent to, well, rip people off.

    "I noticed there was a bit of confusion about our Sinclair Solutions Tester Pack file size, and I wanted to clear things up for you. The way our engine and game structure works is that people need to have the exact same content for people to play together. One of the challenges with post launch content for MP is that it can split the player base, and we want to avoid that whenever possible. For this content, creating the DLC package the way we did allowed for us to not split the player base – so whether you purchase the new content or not, you can still play with your friends."

    No one was concerned about POST LAUNCH CONTENT. The whole reply made perfect sense if it were not for the context.

  2. Re:5 dollar patch on BioShock 2's First DLC Already On Disc · · Score: 1

    Dramatic much?

    It's more fun that way.

    Go take a class on economics. Learn about supply and demand. If they can make more money by charging extra for the added content, they will.

    Don't be so presumptuous, I've already taken economics. I know very well they'll resort to most anything they can to make money; what that involves makes all the difference when it comes to PR.

    Otherwise they'll do something different. This is neither ethical not unethical. It's basic business.

    I assure you it has very much to do with ethics, and business is a realm that even in it's most primitive form surpasses anything describable as "basic".

    Oh, and the "something different" they'll do next time? Wait to release the already-finished content until after the initial release, so people like you will think the extra cost is somehow justified.

    Justified, hardly, but a little less arrogant.

    I wish I could remove the checkbox for "post anonymously".

  3. Re:5 dollar patch on BioShock 2's First DLC Already On Disc · · Score: 2, Insightful

    On-Disc DLC is often stuff that was cut from the core game for financial reasons, then bankrolled by rolling it out into a DLC Pack - the levels were 3/4 done, but the money wasn't there to finish them? Sell 'em to the publisher as on disk/day 1 DLC so they'll give us the money to finish them. Most of the time, the option isn't 'We have 15 levels done on the disc, let's make 5 of them DLC' it's 'We have 15 levels mostly done, and only enough money to pay people to finish 10 of 'em - make 'em DLC, the publisher will fund them that way'

    And that's cool, if that's what it takes to get the job done. This is different; the job was already done. They didn't even try to disguise it.

  4. Re:5 dollar patch on BioShock 2's First DLC Already On Disc · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It's not about a promise. What 2K is doing is testing the boundaries by seeing what in addition they can charge you for, where it becomes less physical and more abstract, where the demarcation is between the consumer and the producer.

    This is a matter of ethics because it tests the concept of what is right and wrong ("Ethics are for Everyone, Morals are for Me").

  5. Re:2k on BioShock 2's First DLC Already On Disc · · Score: 2, Insightful

    DLC is a great idea, despite being unable to resell it. Expansions and sequels have always been a big deal, but clearly the producers don't want to play the same game that consumers do.

    Some hard lessons are going to be learnt before DLC becomes a tool that is used fairly. Just wait until DLC becomes integral to gameplay instead of optional... THAT will piss off just a few people.

  6. Re:probably cut features to make the deadline on BioShock 2's First DLC Already On Disc · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This apparently isn't a patch, though. It's only a "key" to "unlock" the content already available and clearly capable of operating.

  7. Re:5 dollar patch on BioShock 2's First DLC Already On Disc · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The amazing part was the extent to which the fanboys went out of their way to justify this pricing model, and lashed out at people who felt they were duped and set out complaining about it.

    It really is shocking that anyone can appreciate when someone resorts to duplicity.

    If I sold you a car and it had a cupholder with a lock on it, and you had to pay me any amount of money at all for me to take that lock off so you have a place to conveniently set your drink, would you feel right about it? Worse yet, lets imagine that there's laws mandating that you're not allowed to drill or cut that lock off, even though it was sold to you with your car.

  8. Re:5 dollar patch on BioShock 2's First DLC Already On Disc · · Score: 4, Funny

    Dude, sweet! Can you even put DLC in my DLC so I can get boned while I'm getting boned?

  9. 5 dollar patch on BioShock 2's First DLC Already On Disc · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Double dipping.

    If this were an update after release, it would make sense. I wish Resident Evil 5 had done the same instead of requiring people to purchase the DLC to view others who had the costume packs. But this is different... it was already on the disk!

    That means they were planning all along on making an already completed work a cost accessory.

    When I think DLC, I think of things that were created or finished after the final release. Maybe things that were meant to be a part of the final product but were left out due to lack of necessity or space constraints (unlikely with Blu-Ray) that would be released through download for free.

    Essentially, they charged players 5 dollars for a patch to correct a bug in the game; access to the existing content was broken. They have the right to choose to do business this way, but that doesn't make it any less bullshit and this practice isn't going to impress customers.

    Now, cue the jackasses thinking they did the right thing. I'll cut out my kidney with a disposable drinking straw if anyone can reasonably argue this as ethical.

  10. Re:They are not that dangerous. on Scientology Tries To Block German Documentary · · Score: 1

    Antitheism is the next, logical step to atheism. Secularism simply isn't "good enough".

    Memes are the most powerful abstract possible. They exist through imagination and as long as someone shares the belief the meme exists. The meme becomes more powerful as more people believe in it. Multiple memes can coexist across the same people, or even distribute between different groups.

    As we grow more intelligent and sentient, we paradoxically matter less, individually, in what we think as we become interdependent on beliefs. Instead of a war between like-minded people, we now have constant mingle of battling concepts. We become tools of our own runaway imagination.

    So, there's two ways to make sure the ideas we agree with win... destroy the people who carry the thoughts or destroy their competing ideas by changing their mind. Murder is infinitely easier to accomplish.

  11. Re:A point to note on Scientology Tries To Block German Documentary · · Score: 1

    But I think the main problem is our brains lack of being able to verify a sense, and instead it just injects said sensory response into our consciousness to be dealt with, usually in a very confusing way.

    A basic CRC check should resolve that.

  12. Re:A point to note on Scientology Tries To Block German Documentary · · Score: 1

    A cult is a business that makes money and gains power from people with a small schizophrenic delusion that partially detaches their inner model from reality.

    If you think you can understand reality you are deluded. Humans have only five senses that are there only because of evolution and help us survive in OUR world. What senses do we lack that would make our understanding of the universe different?

    Knowing reality is impossible.

    I certainly agree, but at some point you must start taking reality for granted.

  13. Re:A point to note on Scientology Tries To Block German Documentary · · Score: 1

    Atheists are certainly just as capable of murder as theists, but atheists and theists both are able to choose to murder for reasons other than religion.

  14. Re:Religious nuts destroyed live-and-let-live on Scientology Tries To Block German Documentary · · Score: 1

    Allow me to agree with you less anonymously.

  15. Re:They are not that dangerous. on Scientology Tries To Block German Documentary · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What is the body count for Scientology?. Ok.

    Now, what is the body count for christianity, islam, and judaism?. Aha ...

    Obviously we should be fighting both, then.

  16. Re:After 50 years? on SETI Is 50 Years Old; No Sign of ET · · Score: 1

    The payoff is incalculably huge [...]

    Unfortunately, I can't agree with that. Discovery of extra-solar life would be exciting and novel, but as far as the fate of Humanity is concerned it wouldn't be terribly useful. Should we discover evidence of distant, sentient life in our galaxy, we will not be able to practically communicate with them because causation is a whore. Relativity is a punk ass bitch that pretty much dictates that we'll never leave our system. The only hope we can have is what we currently accept as truth in conventional physics are wrong.

  17. Re:And here I thought people bought the Wii on How Sony and Microsoft Hope To Crack the Motion Control Market · · Score: 1

    The suggestion is the $100 is for a bundle of the Move controller, subcontroller and the PS Eye. Without the PS Eye that leaves the shelf price at possibly about $50-$70.

  18. Re:that explains the heat sink with the new i7 on MIT Scientists Make a Polyethylene Heatsink · · Score: 1

    And obviously they're behind because they haven't yet moved on to brushed aluminum.

  19. Re:that explains the heat sink with the new i7 on MIT Scientists Make a Polyethylene Heatsink · · Score: 1

    Pepsi is not new technology. EXTREME energy drinks are, hence they come in brushed aluminum cans.

  20. Re:that explains the heat sink with the new i7 on MIT Scientists Make a Polyethylene Heatsink · · Score: 1

    Everybody thought it was plastic, but it was just new technology.

    Uh Duh. New technology is always plastic, then brushed aluminum, then glass. Rinse and repeat.

  21. Re:Dimension, Not Direction on MIT Scientists Make a Polyethylene Heatsink · · Score: 1

    [...] If they ever come up with a material that only conducts heat in one direction (a thermal "diode", if you will) then that solves our energy woes.

    And the destruction of the Earth! BWAHAHAHAHA!

  22. Re:Article is wrong. on MIT Scientists Make a Polyethylene Heatsink · · Score: 1

    Thermodynamics are overrated and inconvenient for science fiction. Fuck it, fuck relativity and causation! It's all too boring!

  23. Re:Paper is just as bad! on Professors Banning Laptops In the Lecture Hall · · Score: 1

    Same thing, I have dysgraphia and it's impossible to read my own writing... especially when it's hastily scrawled out trying to keep up with the torrent of information most of my teachers provide at once. I just sit back, listen, and think about what is being discussed. If I need to know anymore, I have the books I paid out the ass for and everything available on the internet.

  24. Re:cancer worries on Doctors Skirt FDA To Heal Patients With Stem Cells · · Score: 1

    It's not just about losing weight... Hell, it's not about losing weight at all! How much and what you eat is irrelevant compared to the necessity of regular activity on your health. The number on your scale Does Not Fucking Matter. What exercise is important for is virtually every function of every system of the body. Be careful when you help to inform people otherwise; you might be helping to give them an early heart attack with misinformation. You don't have to be an Olympic athlete or even once experience getting high on exertion, just a 20 minute walk every day would massively benefit people who've gotten too comfortable with their computers and could help them avoid diabetes, cardiac muscle damage or loss of kidney function. Even things we take for granted, like pooping or sitting can be made far more comfortable by improving digestion and building new blood capillaries.

  25. Re:LOL on Ubisoft's Authentication Servers Go Down · · Score: 1

    The only people who can play the game right now are pirates.

    And the people who have it on 360 an PS3.