A lot of companies have similar strategies. The require you to have the credit card on file even if you're using a free part of their service; which means the "convenience" of one click purchases will be accidental often enough.
Microsoft has figured out that they can do whatever they want with impunity. Governments either are afraid and drop cases (US) or their judgements are ignored long enough that they are moot (EU).
The only thing that is working right now is the decline in Windows users; too many outside of corporations are just not interested anymore, they'd rather use a phone. Microsoft realizes that their monopoly is finally being broken up from the grass roots and is scared, which is why they are pushing this 10 so hard because it's supposed to tie the phone and desktop and console together.
I've never had a phone demand an update to continue functioning. They ask to update, and I get the opportunity to say yes or no, and even if I say no they continue to work.
Well, Windows 8 wasn't that bad for me, and 8.1 was better. The big flaws were the stupid metro interface and removal of a usable start menu; the smaller flaws are just dumb microsoft things you find in every release. As far as desktop goes though, it's crashed much less then Windows 7 for me, takes up less memory, has some improved apps, and doesn't have that windows 7 glossy look.
All the updates seem to have the same titles too. "Important update to Windows 64-bit systems" or "Important driver update to Windows 64-bit systems", or stuff like that (I can't check actual titles at work without having internet explorer). This is how the stealth update for the Windows 10 advertisement/malware showed up on everyone's computer, which required that you learn the actual update number so that you could disable it.
"Many games" are on several platforms, but not necessarily the games everyone wants. Sure, tons and tons of games on smart phones, but all of them utter crap. Steam Machine is a dream, it will have a small subset of Steam games but it will be a long time before it has enough higher quality games that people will pay attention. Most PC games in the last ten years are tied heavily DirectX, and they just don't work as well when running under WINE.
It's not just the hood on the cable that would do this, you could easily press that button with a finger while plugging it in. Or you could press it accidentally while working on a box above or below it. Don't know if you have to hold the button in for 10 seconds before it wipes to factory default, but even without the hood there it seems like a big goof.
But hey, it's Cisco. They use the design principle that people will buy their stuff anyway so why bother trying.
However they were fixable. This meant that there could be a profitable business devoted to typewriter repair. This also points to the idea that typewriters were worth repairing! At the time when typewriters were in common us, nobody I knew of ever threw one away, they were *valuable*. Money used to be considered an important thing to have, and throwing a way a typewriter and buying a new one was stupid if you could save money and have it repaired instead, or at least donate the typewriter to a charity. It's a completely different way of thinking than today.
A sealed case means next to zero recycling. Don't be fooled by companies claimed that they'll recycle it if you return parts to them. It's all intended for landfill in a third world country. If we could replace batteries at least we'd be able to remove the battery first and have it separated into a more hazardous pile.
Part of the point of having repairable goods is that we would produce less waste. We're returning to 70s essentially and treating everything as garbage to be tossed out the car window when we're done with it.
If someone buys a $500 dress or suit, they tend to keep it, store it in a plastic bag even if it's outgrown (in hopes that maybe someday we can fit back in). But if we buy a $500 phone most of us dump in a year or two. This is not just planned obsolescence, but conspicuous consumption since these are almost all fashion statements rather than productivity helpers.
I did point out that you get this Steam DRM even on a physical purchase of DVD in a box.
The Steam Subscriber Agreement is not on the box by the way, or in the box. You see it after you have purchased and attempted to install your first game that requires Steam, and most stores will never give you a refund at that point. The first Steam game I had did not come with a warning when I purchased it.
In the normal game market, before DRM and Steam, games were sold. We were allowed BY LAW to give them away or resell them. Games were treated like books. After DRM the law has not changed but the sellers have managed to nullify the law with digital means. However the games have never said "you are renting this game", they all act as if you purchase the game rather than a right to use it under restricted conditions (especially if you purchased a box containing a DVD).
On GoG you can lend a game away, legally, as long as you don't keep a copy of it. The only snag is that it's tied to your account still so you have to ensure that you never accidentally play it while someone else that you lent the game to is playing it.
But cyclists can not just make up their own rules. Like "it's ok to run a stop sign because otherwise we'd have to stop." The advantage of traffic laws is that traffic runs smoother, and more people get to live. If they don't like it, then petition to change the rules instead of ignoring them like the militant anarchists that they are.
If you've got 300 games and only 20 you'd buy again, then you are the perfect customer for Steam. They had a statistic about how many games were purchased from them but were never played, and it was surprisingly high. Most of my games I have replayed, up in the 90% range.
As for price, it took Half Life 2 well over 5 years before the price dropped to $10. Valve is extremely stingy about sales with their own games, and stingy with sales for top tier games as well. Their sales are on the very old stuff, independent games, etc. For awhile they had DLC for Skyrim that still costs more than the cost of Legendary Edition of Skyrim. Today cost of legendary edition is still $40, that is overpriced and you can get it for half of that at Amazon. It's not that cheap. The point of DRM is to keep the prices high by killing off lending, gifting, and reselling.
Steam does not have reduced prices for AAA games. It has reduced prices for old games and some independent games - prices that are matched or beaten by GOG.com by the way. For their own games, Valve is extremely slow about lowering the price over time. I have never lost a CD/DVD or failed to have it read. However I have had game companies go out of business since I've purchased their products, and they still work for me because they didn't have a DRM that was hostile to the customers.
The point of DRM is not to prevent piracy. The sole point of it is to prevent resales and keep the prices high. Resold games, or games gifted to family and friends, or games just given away, is the gaming industry's biggest fear even though it is legal and ethical and moral.
Yes there will be work arounds. This means pirated software, finding cracks online in the dark alleyways of the net, opening yourself up for malware. Probably someone much worse than Steam will get their game list, what if it were Origin?
No, they have no contingency. Offline mode doesn't work so well at times. As well, you must be online to install the games. That means if the computer dies and there's no Valve, then you lose the games.
Steam games are not MMO always-online games, you can't really compare the two categories. In one camp, if the server goes down it's pointless to play anymore anyway as there are no other players, and as well there are concerns about other cheating so you need game verification; in the other case you have the friggin single player game on DVD that you paid $60 for so it should let you play any time you want and on any platform you want and in any country you want.
It's OUR game that we paid for, having to ask permission is ridiculous.
Naw, Windows doesn't mandate a walled garden, Linux doesn't mandate a walled garden, even Apple's computers don't mandate a walled garden, if they did then everyone would be complaining loudly. Is it too much to ask to allow open applications in the smart TV market, especially with a company that's playing catch up?
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A lot of companies have similar strategies. The require you to have the credit card on file even if you're using a free part of their service; which means the "convenience" of one click purchases will be accidental often enough.
Microsoft has figured out that they can do whatever they want with impunity. Governments either are afraid and drop cases (US) or their judgements are ignored long enough that they are moot (EU).
The only thing that is working right now is the decline in Windows users; too many outside of corporations are just not interested anymore, they'd rather use a phone. Microsoft realizes that their monopoly is finally being broken up from the grass roots and is scared, which is why they are pushing this 10 so hard because it's supposed to tie the phone and desktop and console together.
I've never had a phone demand an update to continue functioning. They ask to update, and I get the opportunity to say yes or no, and even if I say no they continue to work.
Well, Windows 8 wasn't that bad for me, and 8.1 was better. The big flaws were the stupid metro interface and removal of a usable start menu; the smaller flaws are just dumb microsoft things you find in every release. As far as desktop goes though, it's crashed much less then Windows 7 for me, takes up less memory, has some improved apps, and doesn't have that windows 7 glossy look.
All the updates seem to have the same titles too. "Important update to Windows 64-bit systems" or "Important driver update to Windows 64-bit systems", or stuff like that (I can't check actual titles at work without having internet explorer). This is how the stealth update for the Windows 10 advertisement/malware showed up on everyone's computer, which required that you learn the actual update number so that you could disable it.
"Many games" are on several platforms, but not necessarily the games everyone wants. Sure, tons and tons of games on smart phones, but all of them utter crap. Steam Machine is a dream, it will have a small subset of Steam games but it will be a long time before it has enough higher quality games that people will pay attention. Most PC games in the last ten years are tied heavily DirectX, and they just don't work as well when running under WINE.
Lower cost? Have you actually compared.
It's not just the hood on the cable that would do this, you could easily press that button with a finger while plugging it in. Or you could press it accidentally while working on a box above or below it. Don't know if you have to hold the button in for 10 seconds before it wipes to factory default, but even without the hood there it seems like a big goof.
But hey, it's Cisco. They use the design principle that people will buy their stuff anyway so why bother trying.
However they were fixable. This meant that there could be a profitable business devoted to typewriter repair. This also points to the idea that typewriters were worth repairing! At the time when typewriters were in common us, nobody I knew of ever threw one away, they were *valuable*. Money used to be considered an important thing to have, and throwing a way a typewriter and buying a new one was stupid if you could save money and have it repaired instead, or at least donate the typewriter to a charity. It's a completely different way of thinking than today.
A sealed case means next to zero recycling. Don't be fooled by companies claimed that they'll recycle it if you return parts to them. It's all intended for landfill in a third world country. If we could replace batteries at least we'd be able to remove the battery first and have it separated into a more hazardous pile.
Part of the point of having repairable goods is that we would produce less waste. We're returning to 70s essentially and treating everything as garbage to be tossed out the car window when we're done with it.
If someone buys a $500 dress or suit, they tend to keep it, store it in a plastic bag even if it's outgrown (in hopes that maybe someday we can fit back in). But if we buy a $500 phone most of us dump in a year or two. This is not just planned obsolescence, but conspicuous consumption since these are almost all fashion statements rather than productivity helpers.
I always include an armed bear.
But if you lose all your data because it was in the cloud, or it is compromised, who do the business guys blame?
Since we know for a fact that Obama came to earth from Krypton, any birth certificate is ipso facto a forgery.
The problem with America are people who know how to use sarcasm and irony?
Or "I can't get out of my car, due to the fact that I'm currently riding a bicycle..."
I did point out that you get this Steam DRM even on a physical purchase of DVD in a box.
The Steam Subscriber Agreement is not on the box by the way, or in the box. You see it after you have purchased and attempted to install your first game that requires Steam, and most stores will never give you a refund at that point. The first Steam game I had did not come with a warning when I purchased it.
In the normal game market, before DRM and Steam, games were sold. We were allowed BY LAW to give them away or resell them. Games were treated like books. After DRM the law has not changed but the sellers have managed to nullify the law with digital means. However the games have never said "you are renting this game", they all act as if you purchase the game rather than a right to use it under restricted conditions (especially if you purchased a box containing a DVD).
On GoG you can lend a game away, legally, as long as you don't keep a copy of it. The only snag is that it's tied to your account still so you have to ensure that you never accidentally play it while someone else that you lent the game to is playing it.
But cyclists can not just make up their own rules. Like "it's ok to run a stop sign because otherwise we'd have to stop." The advantage of traffic laws is that traffic runs smoother, and more people get to live. If they don't like it, then petition to change the rules instead of ignoring them like the militant anarchists that they are.
Don't forget the mildew that comes after that.
If you've got 300 games and only 20 you'd buy again, then you are the perfect customer for Steam. They had a statistic about how many games were purchased from them but were never played, and it was surprisingly high. Most of my games I have replayed, up in the 90% range.
As for price, it took Half Life 2 well over 5 years before the price dropped to $10. Valve is extremely stingy about sales with their own games, and stingy with sales for top tier games as well. Their sales are on the very old stuff, independent games, etc. For awhile they had DLC for Skyrim that still costs more than the cost of Legendary Edition of Skyrim. Today cost of legendary edition is still $40, that is overpriced and you can get it for half of that at Amazon. It's not that cheap. The point of DRM is to keep the prices high by killing off lending, gifting, and reselling.
Get a replacement at GOG.com for a cheaper price than Steam and without any DRM.
Steam does not have reduced prices for AAA games. It has reduced prices for old games and some independent games - prices that are matched or beaten by GOG.com by the way. For their own games, Valve is extremely slow about lowering the price over time. I have never lost a CD/DVD or failed to have it read. However I have had game companies go out of business since I've purchased their products, and they still work for me because they didn't have a DRM that was hostile to the customers.
The point of DRM is not to prevent piracy. The sole point of it is to prevent resales and keep the prices high. Resold games, or games gifted to family and friends, or games just given away, is the gaming industry's biggest fear even though it is legal and ethical and moral.
Yes there will be work arounds. This means pirated software, finding cracks online in the dark alleyways of the net, opening yourself up for malware. Probably someone much worse than Steam will get their game list, what if it were Origin?
No, they have no contingency. Offline mode doesn't work so well at times. As well, you must be online to install the games. That means if the computer dies and there's no Valve, then you lose the games.
Steam games are not MMO always-online games, you can't really compare the two categories. In one camp, if the server goes down it's pointless to play anymore anyway as there are no other players, and as well there are concerns about other cheating so you need game verification; in the other case you have the friggin single player game on DVD that you paid $60 for so it should let you play any time you want and on any platform you want and in any country you want.
It's OUR game that we paid for, having to ask permission is ridiculous.
Naw, Windows doesn't mandate a walled garden, Linux doesn't mandate a walled garden, even Apple's computers don't mandate a walled garden, if they did then everyone would be complaining loudly. Is it too much to ask to allow open applications in the smart TV market, especially with a company that's playing catch up?
That's because cycling culture refuses to obey traffic laws.