While I definitely agree with your overall sentiment, do you really want to take the time to fill out an advertising preference form (which would require registration) for every bloody site on the internet? I sure don't...
What do you object to in a default install of Windows? Does having Minesweeper on your machine bother you that much? The crapware on a new computer is all installed by the OEM to subsidize the hardware costs. If you install a fresh copy of just the operating system, it's actually rather clean and nice.
I think your beef is with whoever built your computer. They bundled all the extra crap.
I completely agree with you, and I hate the strategy. I also wonder how many sales it has cost. I personally picked it up for 360 on release day, but I would've happily paid for a 360 version and the PC version (like I did with COD4) if the PC version wasn't a complete piece of afterthought shit. Sometimes I like to just grab my controller and sit on the couch playing with a handful of people and sometimes I like playing 64 player maps on my PC. Since the PC version is just a crappier port that will be easier to hack than the console versions, they only got one sale from me.
Sure, I'm not boycotting the game completely, but I would've spent $120 instead of $60. I know at least a dozen of the guys that I regularly game with would've as well. I wish there was a way to independantly and reliably figure out how many sales they lost by not making a decent PC game that someone could rub a suit's nose in. Just like folks above have pointed out, the sad fact is that now the suits will just say that the PC isn't worth developing for at all...
Dude, you're trying to inject logic into a discussion with a truther. You're going to get better results trying to move a building with your forehead...
I genuinely can't imagine anything more boring than a 3 hour virtual meeting to discuss possible changes to a game's search algorithm. I mean, besides the obvious 4 hour virtual meeting...
However, I wonder about a different scenario that would make MS even more money. A 15 year old kid wants a 360 for Christmas, so he tells mom and dad "make sure it's a new one, because a used one might not work online." Mom and dad don't really understand why, but they know a used system will dissapoint junior, so they spring the extra few bucks for a new system that generates revenue for MS instead of saving a few bucks and getting those used consoles that are going to be collecting dust on GameStop's shelves.
I think it would be interesting to see which of the two situations happened more, but I suppose there's not a good way to gather that data.
It's only 30 bucks to remove the crapware. For $149 they were also buying a year's worth of antivirus and anti-spyware software and having it installed and properly configured to run scans as often as the customer would like. I used to work for Geek Squad, and for customers that don't know anything about computers, it's worth every penny. Otherwise they will be coming back over and over for virus removal, which is an astronomical $199.
When my credit card company detects a charge that might be fraud, they send a robo call telling me to call the number on the back of my card to discuss a possible fraud issue. I like that a lot better than having someone I can't verify call me and ask for personal information. When I call the number printed on my card I can be reasonably certain that I know which company is going to be on the other end of the line. If an attack is so advanced that a thief knows the number printed on the back of my card and has the means to intercept me when I dial that number there's probably nothing that can stop it. That's why I monitor my card statements online. You can't be liable for fraud you report in a timely manner.
That's exactly right. Battlefield 2 was a perfect example of this. If you wanted a ranked server that would report your stats back to EA, your server company had to pay licensing to EA. If you wanted a clan server that wouldn't report stats, anyone could download the server software. You could choose to run an older version of the game, or mods, or whatever you wanted. So, people can play BF2 on custom servers forever if they'd like, but if they want to take advantage of the official ranking system they have to give EA some more money. That's about as win/win as it's going to get between a gamers and suits.
It's not cheating to count cards, but a casino is private property and can ask anyone to leave at any time. If you don't leave when they ask you to, you're trespassing and will get arrested. So, while counting cards isn't against the rules, a casino will kick you out if you're making money from them based on your skill. They love the one random grandma that comes in and wins a million bucks on her first pull of the slot machine because she'll never win again and they can advertise her success to bring in a million suckers that will lose. If a person is winning based on skill, they can continue to win. That's not profitable for the casino, so they kick you out.
What's more inherently professional about an email than a message on Facebook? If you're simply sending a message, you can make it precisely as professional over Facebook as an email. They're both just systems for sending text...
No, domain squatting adds absolutly no value to the system and you are a fucking douchebag if you think it does. Sure, it's legal. But that doesn't mean you're not an asshole if you're a domain squatter. Stop splitting hairs. You're a domain squatter if you buy a domain that you don't intend to bring to market with a relevant web page. Call it "domain speculation" or whatever the hell else you'd like to call it, but it makes you an asshole who makes the internet a slightly more annoying place.
I agree, and I want to request that my body be given to a practical joker in the anatomy class. It'd be great if my hand ended up in his roomate's fridge or something.:)
Well, the one nice thing about hipsters is that they have some level of reasoning. Just nail one to the front door with a sign that reads "no Pabst" and you shouldn't have to deal with any others.
Here's your trivia for the day. The pitches of the NBC chimes are G, E, then C. What's NBC's parent company? Why, the GE Corporation. Somebody got paid a shit ton of money to make that three note pun.
You could fry eggs on my old 12" PPC powerbook when it was running Ubuntu. Those PPC laptops always ran hot in my experience, but I only let Ubuntu run for about 10 minutes before I turned the machine off, reformatted, and stuck OS X back on it because I was afraid it would fry my processor. On my newer 15" macbookpro Ubuntu runs well, though. It still runs hotter than OS X and Windows 7, though. On that machine, battery life goes OSX > Win7 > Ubuntu, but I haven't spent any time trying to optimize battery life for any of the OSes because I'm generally near a power outlet and prefer reading or playing DS on planes.
As has been pointed out countless times in this thread already, it's not extortion. It's a violation of the Fair Debt Collections and Practices Act. Any company in violation gets hit for $1,000 per violation.
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While I definitely agree with your overall sentiment, do you really want to take the time to fill out an advertising preference form (which would require registration) for every bloody site on the internet? I sure don't...
What do you object to in a default install of Windows? Does having Minesweeper on your machine bother you that much? The crapware on a new computer is all installed by the OEM to subsidize the hardware costs. If you install a fresh copy of just the operating system, it's actually rather clean and nice. I think your beef is with whoever built your computer. They bundled all the extra crap.
I completely agree with you, and I hate the strategy. I also wonder how many sales it has cost. I personally picked it up for 360 on release day, but I would've happily paid for a 360 version and the PC version (like I did with COD4) if the PC version wasn't a complete piece of afterthought shit. Sometimes I like to just grab my controller and sit on the couch playing with a handful of people and sometimes I like playing 64 player maps on my PC. Since the PC version is just a crappier port that will be easier to hack than the console versions, they only got one sale from me. Sure, I'm not boycotting the game completely, but I would've spent $120 instead of $60. I know at least a dozen of the guys that I regularly game with would've as well. I wish there was a way to independantly and reliably figure out how many sales they lost by not making a decent PC game that someone could rub a suit's nose in. Just like folks above have pointed out, the sad fact is that now the suits will just say that the PC isn't worth developing for at all...
Dude, you're trying to inject logic into a discussion with a truther. You're going to get better results trying to move a building with your forehead...
I genuinely can't imagine anything more boring than a 3 hour virtual meeting to discuss possible changes to a game's search algorithm. I mean, besides the obvious 4 hour virtual meeting...
However, I wonder about a different scenario that would make MS even more money. A 15 year old kid wants a 360 for Christmas, so he tells mom and dad "make sure it's a new one, because a used one might not work online." Mom and dad don't really understand why, but they know a used system will dissapoint junior, so they spring the extra few bucks for a new system that generates revenue for MS instead of saving a few bucks and getting those used consoles that are going to be collecting dust on GameStop's shelves. I think it would be interesting to see which of the two situations happened more, but I suppose there's not a good way to gather that data.
Wait, you're saying it's fair to charge one person more than another when they buy a shirt based on how much money they earn? How is that fair?
Is anyone here suprised by the fact that security isn't something anyone can buy?
No kidding, she'll stop bringing nachos and mountain dew to the basement.
Or to scare people away from buying used 360s which don't add any revenue to MS. Is the $50 you save worth the risk of being banned from XBL?
The same people that can be convinced to strap a bomb to their own ass and detonate it will be scared off by bomb detectors? I find that unlikely...
It's only 30 bucks to remove the crapware. For $149 they were also buying a year's worth of antivirus and anti-spyware software and having it installed and properly configured to run scans as often as the customer would like. I used to work for Geek Squad, and for customers that don't know anything about computers, it's worth every penny. Otherwise they will be coming back over and over for virus removal, which is an astronomical $199.
When my credit card company detects a charge that might be fraud, they send a robo call telling me to call the number on the back of my card to discuss a possible fraud issue. I like that a lot better than having someone I can't verify call me and ask for personal information. When I call the number printed on my card I can be reasonably certain that I know which company is going to be on the other end of the line. If an attack is so advanced that a thief knows the number printed on the back of my card and has the means to intercept me when I dial that number there's probably nothing that can stop it. That's why I monitor my card statements online. You can't be liable for fraud you report in a timely manner.
That's exactly right. Battlefield 2 was a perfect example of this. If you wanted a ranked server that would report your stats back to EA, your server company had to pay licensing to EA. If you wanted a clan server that wouldn't report stats, anyone could download the server software. You could choose to run an older version of the game, or mods, or whatever you wanted. So, people can play BF2 on custom servers forever if they'd like, but if they want to take advantage of the official ranking system they have to give EA some more money. That's about as win/win as it's going to get between a gamers and suits.
It's not cheating to count cards, but a casino is private property and can ask anyone to leave at any time. If you don't leave when they ask you to, you're trespassing and will get arrested. So, while counting cards isn't against the rules, a casino will kick you out if you're making money from them based on your skill. They love the one random grandma that comes in and wins a million bucks on her first pull of the slot machine because she'll never win again and they can advertise her success to bring in a million suckers that will lose. If a person is winning based on skill, they can continue to win. That's not profitable for the casino, so they kick you out.
Umm... If you suck at FPS games and can't get better, you deserve to be schooled. Go play a game that doesn't require skill...
I agree, but people keep putting a fucking apostraphe in the word "casinos." That's starting to bug me...
What's more inherently professional about an email than a message on Facebook? If you're simply sending a message, you can make it precisely as professional over Facebook as an email. They're both just systems for sending text...
No, domain squatting adds absolutly no value to the system and you are a fucking douchebag if you think it does. Sure, it's legal. But that doesn't mean you're not an asshole if you're a domain squatter. Stop splitting hairs. You're a domain squatter if you buy a domain that you don't intend to bring to market with a relevant web page. Call it "domain speculation" or whatever the hell else you'd like to call it, but it makes you an asshole who makes the internet a slightly more annoying place.
I agree, and I want to request that my body be given to a practical joker in the anatomy class. It'd be great if my hand ended up in his roomate's fridge or something. :)
Well, the one nice thing about hipsters is that they have some level of reasoning. Just nail one to the front door with a sign that reads "no Pabst" and you shouldn't have to deal with any others.
What if you put HAL into the box with Schroedinger's cat?
Here's your trivia for the day. The pitches of the NBC chimes are G, E, then C. What's NBC's parent company? Why, the GE Corporation. Somebody got paid a shit ton of money to make that three note pun.
You could fry eggs on my old 12" PPC powerbook when it was running Ubuntu. Those PPC laptops always ran hot in my experience, but I only let Ubuntu run for about 10 minutes before I turned the machine off, reformatted, and stuck OS X back on it because I was afraid it would fry my processor. On my newer 15" macbookpro Ubuntu runs well, though. It still runs hotter than OS X and Windows 7, though. On that machine, battery life goes OSX > Win7 > Ubuntu, but I haven't spent any time trying to optimize battery life for any of the OSes because I'm generally near a power outlet and prefer reading or playing DS on planes.
As has been pointed out countless times in this thread already, it's not extortion. It's a violation of the Fair Debt Collections and Practices Act. Any company in violation gets hit for $1,000 per violation.