Now see? There you go with that mantra "It's just good business" and "maximizing profit". Yeah, I have no idea what I'm talking about. Would you rather hear it from an artist? Then will you believe me? Stop listening to RIAA propaganda and think for yourself.
"The best price is that optimal point on the curve which generates the highest profits."
It cracks me up how one of the main things that I say is bad is the exact thing you say back to me as good. Just because something has text books and schools to teach it doesn't mean it's a good thing. They also teach how to use psychology to manipulate people into buying things they don't actually want or need... and they use this knowledge on children. Is that a good thing? I'm, sure you probably do, after all its "just good business" right? Your quote is EXACTLY what I'm talking about. You're talking about schools that teach how to overcharge someone to just the right extent that they don't actually get pissed enough to not buy your product while maximizing profit. I'm sorry but that's just wrong. It may be how things are, but it's wrong.
"Are you sure you're not confusing net profits and gross sales? If you're not making any money on that $0.05 sale, volume doesn't make a difference."
Actually volume CAN make a difference. The cost to produce is a finite number and once you have made that back from sales the remainder is basically profit. Sure this is a simplistic description but you get the point. We're in a world where the listening audience is no longer millions it's hundreds of millions and with the increase in listeners is an increase in sales. Remember, internet downloadable sales has virtually nil overhead. No more for one song than 1000 songs. No packaging, no shipping, no store staff. So once the song is produced the expenses drop drastically. But since the price to BUY them has gone up the profits soar... and we get screwed.
You don't have to charge an outrageous amount to profit. You can also profit buy making a good product that sells more.
Ya know it really pisses me off when I hear how the "artists" need to get paid for their work so we need to stop pirating their CD's. This has very little to do with the artists and a lot to do with greedy corporations that are desperately trying to hang on to a defunct business model. It's been proven time and time again by people in the industry (to include artists) that the recording industry screws over their artist's big time. Most of the profits go to the recording company and NOT the artists. I didn't stop buying CD's because I could download them; I stopped buying CD's along time ago when I noticed how much the recording industry was screwing ME over by price gouging me into oblivion. I got sick and tired of being charged outrageous prices for something that cost them pennies to make and the easier and cheaper it got to make the more they charged. Now you've got selling downloadable music online, how much cheaper can you get?? Yet it cost even MORE to buy it!!
Here's a way to sell music that would seriously work. If you charged a monthly fee of say $10 or $15 to have access to any music you wanted as much as you wanted how many people do you think would do it? Most probably. I know everybody is thinking OMG no way! You'd go out of business! No you wouldn't. Think about it, how many people actually buy music right now? How many people would subscribe to this service... every month. So you have Joe average that buy's maybe a CD every few months, if that. Or... $15 EVERY month like clockwork. The customer gets what he wants, music. The recording industry gets steady monthly income guaranteed. A lot more people would go for this than currently buys CD's. Sounds like more monthly income to me.
Or how about this, how much music would YOU buy if it cost 5 cents a song to download? The cost would be so negligible that people would buy songs on a whim, constantly. Instead of buying 10 songs a month at $1 a song they might buy 100 songs a month. Sure that's only $5 vs $10, but how many MORE people would be doing it? Probably 10 times as many. Now you have just increased profits 5 fold while making your customers very happy.
What the market will bear is complete bullshit. I am sick of hearing that mantra to justify screwing people out of their hard earned money. "It's just good business". Bullshit. It's fucking people over. All of this boils down to maximizing profit which means selling the biggest piece of crap you can while not completely pissing off your customer. When did this become GOOD business? Can any of you deny that this is EXCTLY what the recording industry does? How often do we see CD's come out that have MAYBE one or two good songs and the rest is crap? That's pretty must SOP if you ask me. Look, I have absolutely not problem paying a fair and reasonable price for something. If the recording industry would wake up and accept that the people have caught on to their tactics and aren't going to take it anymore Things would get much better. As long as they continue to do this and there are easier ways to get the music people are going to do it. And there is absolutely NOTHING the RIAA can do about. They may think they can but they are fooling themselves. All they are doing is pissing people off.
People these days amaze me with their "please give me my 50th lvl char 5 mins into the game without me actually having to LEARN the game" mentality. Damn near nothing and I mean nothing negative said so far on this list and I actually read through it, is in anyway accurate or informed. Everyone on here that has something negative to say has a) not actually tried to LEARN the game and/or b) has the attention span of a 5 year old.
Example:
"trying to do something like shoot a sheep with your crossbow only to receive an error message"
If you had actually tried for more the 5 minutes and more than just an elf you would have discovered that ELVES can't kill small furry creatures. Everyone else can and does, sometimes to an annoying degree. Why can't elves kill furry creatures? If you have to ask that then just go play Wow because you know nothing about the Tolkien world.
"I got 2 characters to level 5 before losing interest. I've been playing MMO's since 2001, and not since Dark Age of Camelot has there been a more annoying world chat channel."
First off, do you know how little time it takes to get to 5th lvl? Maybe 30-60 mins? My god if you can't stick with a character for that long you don't deserve to be playing ANY game. What you need is a game that starts up and once you've created you character it just has a big message that scrolls across the screen that says "YOU WIN!!"
As for the chat channels, RTFM! The chat channels are HIGHLY customizable if you would just take the time to LEARN it. Oh WOW new concept, learn the game!! Every complaint mentioned regarding the chat channels is addressed in the game. Is it to much to ask you to simply take the time to learn how to PLAY?
"Why does somebody with a really long name and title make it harder to right click on anything around them?"
Once again, learn the game, if you took the time to look at your customization options you would see that ALL of those things are set-able, don't' want the floaty names? Hit the "N" key. OH MY GOD THE NAMES WENT AWAY! Don't' want to see you helmet or the other player's names? How about your cloak or shoes? Turn them off. All set-able.
"Played a hobbit minstrel for about 3 weeks. To do damage to a monster or beast I was playing a guitar at it. A mother fucking guitar. To do damage."
Um... then don't play a minstrel dumbass. Nobody is forcing you to.
Look, I've played both games from stress beta on. LOTRO is by FAR a better product at launch than WoW ever was and believe me that surprised the hell out of me. People keep talking about polish and your right LOTRO had plenty of bugs to work out but if you compare it to WoW when it first came out it smokes it hands down. People keep trying to compare a NEW game to one that's been out for over 2 years. Duh, the older one is going to be more polished.
"Wow, a comprehensive review of the game and there's no mention of PvP. 'Nuff said, I suppose! Warhammer Online, here I come!/punts a hobbit"
And that is exactly why you won't find PvP in LOTRO. Doesn't fit the genre. Please, oh please go play another game!
"...Until one day Bilbo in the company of some dwarves (who were going to get back some beer a dragon had stolen from them) crossed those mountains and smelled the pie..."
Ok, now that was just damn funny! LOL But actually I like the idea of having quests that AREN"T all about just going to kill this thing or that. I actually tried seeing how far I could get without having to kill something. Granted it was after I had taken a character through the intro area (once you have taken a character though it the rest of you new chars on that server can skip the into area) so I was able to skip the intro area. But once in the new area I was able to get to almost 15th level without having to swing my sword, just crafting quests, delivering pies or the mail, find the hiding hobbit etc. Things like that. It was a nice change from the regula
Slashdot Mirror
Now see? There you go with that mantra "It's just good business" and "maximizing profit". Yeah, I have no idea what I'm talking about. Would you rather hear it from an artist? Then will you believe me? Stop listening to RIAA propaganda and think for yourself.
l ove/print.html
http://archive.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/06/14/
"The best price is that optimal point on the curve which generates the highest profits."
It cracks me up how one of the main things that I say is bad is the exact thing you say back to me as good. Just because something has text books and schools to teach it doesn't mean it's a good thing. They also teach how to use psychology to manipulate people into buying things they don't actually want or need... and they use this knowledge on children. Is that a good thing? I'm, sure you probably do, after all its "just good business" right? Your quote is EXACTLY what I'm talking about. You're talking about schools that teach how to overcharge someone to just the right extent that they don't actually get pissed enough to not buy your product while maximizing profit. I'm sorry but that's just wrong. It may be how things are, but it's wrong.
"Are you sure you're not confusing net profits and gross sales? If you're not making any money on that $0.05 sale, volume doesn't make a difference."
Actually volume CAN make a difference. The cost to produce is a finite number and once you have made that back from sales the remainder is basically profit. Sure this is a simplistic description but you get the point. We're in a world where the listening audience is no longer millions it's hundreds of millions and with the increase in listeners is an increase in sales. Remember, internet downloadable sales has virtually nil overhead. No more for one song than 1000 songs. No packaging, no shipping, no store staff. So once the song is produced the expenses drop drastically. But since the price to BUY them has gone up the profits soar... and we get screwed.
You don't have to charge an outrageous amount to profit. You can also profit buy making a good product that sells more.
Ya know it really pisses me off when I hear how the "artists" need to get paid for their work so we need to stop pirating their CD's. This has very little to do with the artists and a lot to do with greedy corporations that are desperately trying to hang on to a defunct business model. It's been proven time and time again by people in the industry (to include artists) that the recording industry screws over their artist's big time. Most of the profits go to the recording company and NOT the artists. I didn't stop buying CD's because I could download them; I stopped buying CD's along time ago when I noticed how much the recording industry was screwing ME over by price gouging me into oblivion. I got sick and tired of being charged outrageous prices for something that cost them pennies to make and the easier and cheaper it got to make the more they charged. Now you've got selling downloadable music online, how much cheaper can you get?? Yet it cost even MORE to buy it!!
Here's a way to sell music that would seriously work. If you charged a monthly fee of say $10 or $15 to have access to any music you wanted as much as you wanted how many people do you think would do it? Most probably. I know everybody is thinking OMG no way! You'd go out of business! No you wouldn't. Think about it, how many people actually buy music right now? How many people would subscribe to this service... every month. So you have Joe average that buy's maybe a CD every few months, if that. Or... $15 EVERY month like clockwork. The customer gets what he wants, music. The recording industry gets steady monthly income guaranteed. A lot more people would go for this than currently buys CD's. Sounds like more monthly income to me.
Or how about this, how much music would YOU buy if it cost 5 cents a song to download? The cost would be so negligible that people would buy songs on a whim, constantly. Instead of buying 10 songs a month at $1 a song they might buy 100 songs a month. Sure that's only $5 vs $10, but how many MORE people would be doing it? Probably 10 times as many. Now you have just increased profits 5 fold while making your customers very happy.
What the market will bear is complete bullshit. I am sick of hearing that mantra to justify screwing people out of their hard earned money. "It's just good business". Bullshit. It's fucking people over. All of this boils down to maximizing profit which means selling the biggest piece of crap you can while not completely pissing off your customer. When did this become GOOD business? Can any of you deny that this is EXCTLY what the recording industry does? How often do we see CD's come out that have MAYBE one or two good songs and the rest is crap? That's pretty must SOP if you ask me. Look, I have absolutely not problem paying a fair and reasonable price for something. If the recording industry would wake up and accept that the people have caught on to their tactics and aren't going to take it anymore Things would get much better. As long as they continue to do this and there are easier ways to get the music people are going to do it. And there is absolutely NOTHING the RIAA can do about. They may think they can but they are fooling themselves. All they are doing is pissing people off.
People these days amaze me with their "please give me my 50th lvl char 5 mins into the game without me actually having to LEARN the game" mentality. Damn near nothing and I mean nothing negative said so far on this list and I actually read through it, is in anyway accurate or informed. Everyone on here that has something negative to say has a) not actually tried to LEARN the game and/or b) has the attention span of a 5 year old.
/punts a hobbit"
Example:
"trying to do something like shoot a sheep with your crossbow only to receive an error message"
If you had actually tried for more the 5 minutes and more than just an elf you would have discovered that ELVES can't kill small furry creatures. Everyone else can and does, sometimes to an annoying degree. Why can't elves kill furry creatures? If you have to ask that then just go play Wow because you know nothing about the Tolkien world.
"I got 2 characters to level 5 before losing interest. I've been playing MMO's since 2001, and not since Dark Age of Camelot has there been a more annoying world chat channel."
First off, do you know how little time it takes to get to 5th lvl? Maybe 30-60 mins? My god if you can't stick with a character for that long you don't deserve to be playing ANY game. What you need is a game that starts up and once you've created you character it just has a big message that scrolls across the screen that says "YOU WIN!!"
As for the chat channels, RTFM! The chat channels are HIGHLY customizable if you would just take the time to LEARN it. Oh WOW new concept, learn the game!! Every complaint mentioned regarding the chat channels is addressed in the game. Is it to much to ask you to simply take the time to learn how to PLAY?
"Why does somebody with a really long name and title make it harder to right click on anything around them?"
Once again, learn the game, if you took the time to look at your customization options you would see that ALL of those things are set-able, don't' want the floaty names? Hit the "N" key. OH MY GOD THE NAMES WENT AWAY! Don't' want to see you helmet or the other player's names? How about your cloak or shoes? Turn them off. All set-able.
"Played a hobbit minstrel for about 3 weeks. To do damage to a monster or beast I was playing a guitar at it. A mother fucking guitar. To do damage."
Um... then don't play a minstrel dumbass. Nobody is forcing you to.
Look, I've played both games from stress beta on. LOTRO is by FAR a better product at launch than WoW ever was and believe me that surprised the hell out of me. People keep talking about polish and your right LOTRO had plenty of bugs to work out but if you compare it to WoW when it first came out it smokes it hands down. People keep trying to compare a NEW game to one that's been out for over 2 years. Duh, the older one is going to be more polished.
"Wow, a comprehensive review of the game and there's no mention of PvP. 'Nuff said, I suppose! Warhammer Online, here I come!
And that is exactly why you won't find PvP in LOTRO. Doesn't fit the genre. Please, oh please go play another game!
"...Until one day Bilbo in the company of some dwarves (who were going to get back some beer a dragon had stolen from them) crossed those mountains and smelled the pie..."
Ok, now that was just damn funny! LOL But actually I like the idea of having quests that AREN"T all about just going to kill this thing or that. I actually tried seeing how far I could get without having to kill something. Granted it was after I had taken a character through the intro area (once you have taken a character though it the rest of you new chars on that server can skip the into area) so I was able to skip the intro area. But once in the new area I was able to get to almost 15th level without having to swing my sword, just crafting quests, delivering pies or the mail, find the hiding hobbit etc. Things like that. It was a nice change from the regula