Whether we like it or not, it happens. Fire the people making a bunch of money and hire younger people or outsource to cut costs.
I guess I am new to this industry, but I have seen this multiple times. I always thought making more money had to do with delivering good products on a good time, and not firing people to make up the difference. I guess I am still new since I think that idea is messed up.
Do not think that just physical copies will be good either. Many games, like Spore for example, require a connection to the EA server in order to play the game.
There is no way that the Spore server will be up in 20 years. EA has already gotten rid of the Maxis team even if EA continues with development for Spore if that is any indication of what will happen.
Now, Call me crazy, but to avoid this, the digital distribution people should really instead allow for that copy on your hard drive to be on there, and it would be the same as if you bought the game and patched it with a no-cd crack. Doing it that way would ensure that even if anything happened to the company, the end user could still enjoy what they paid for.
With digital distribution, from what I have seen, that is the biggest fear for most people, is when the company goes out of business.
Now some of the bigger companies will, hopefully, keep the servers up longer, but as we found out with EA, even popular games like Madden 09 get the axe on the server.
Like I mentioned before, if there was a way to get/play the game even when the company (or team behind the game) is no longer in business, I personally feel that digital distribution will have a much better chance. Until we have a guarentee, then it is us taking the chance, and some of us are not willing to take that chance.
Yeah, see, I don't drag and drop files into their respective executable to open the file. Some people do, and rock on. I always just setup the default program to open it with (which is normally setup anyway) and then roll from there.
For the guy that said something about internet connection, I will give you a good example: Wireless connection goes out on your Macbook. Without hitting up Google (since in that situation, you would not be able to) What do you check?
I am sure you can answer it, and by all means do it since it would be a great piece of information, but the point I was making seemed to get changed a little. I was using it as an example to show that not every single thing about the Mac is built to "just work". Obviously, not everything in Windows is that way as well. That is simply because over time, all computers will eventually mess up. When your computer messes up, some computers are much easier to solve an issue for, and some computers it is almost cryptic to get to the options needed in order to fix the issue. I am not talking about setting it up, but fixing it when it breaks.
I do also have to ask: Where are you buying Windows based computers from where they are not working out of the box? Honestly, I would go to that company and say something. That is the point of buying a build that comes pre-loaded already, so that you don't have to do anything. You mentioned that the place you got it from did not include some software. Do not take this in any other way than it is, the place you bought your computer from did not include software. Simple as that. Different OS's require different pieces of software to run, and to accomodate that, the place you got your computer from, if it includes software, should include the software it claims to come with. It is very unfortunate that the place did not give that to you, but that is blaming an OS for an issue with a place that builds computers.
One of 3 things:
1.) You are my new best friend
2.) You motivated me to be an astronaut
3.) mod parent up
Take your pick (I am hoping you pick 1)
I agree that we need to start looking towards the stars. There is an entire galaxy out there just waiting for us. If we all stop and complain about tax dollars, before we know it, that will extend to items such as: "well our tax dollars are not paying for xxxx since we are paying for this other stuff".
Of course we are still in our infancy for space travel as we have only made it to the planet next to us, and did it with a robot. How are we going to extend this? We have to bite our bottom lip, everybody pitch in some money, and accept that in this day and age on Earth, nothing will just "collectively" happen without some type of currency getting handed back and forth. This is not a bad thing, as if it gets us to where we need to go, than so be it. I can accept that more money is getting taken out of my paycheck to know that it is going to better serve mankind through expanding our future.
We are outgrowing this planet if you could not tell from over population and pollution. It is starting to be time for humans to expand. Right now all we know is that the only life in this star system is on Earth, which gives us lots of room to expand. Sure, there is going to be lots of science involved, but we are getting closer and closer to that moment every single day.
No, that number makes perfect sense:
$1000 writing the letter
$600/hr for 40 hours (gotta stretch it). You know, research, hit youtube to watch other dancing toddlers for "research"; stumble across "sittin on da toilet" and watch because it is stupid, but funny and you boss is not looking; decide that it is time to hit up/. since boss is not working the rest of the day; etc for 40 hours
And then $375,000 for douche bag tax on Universial for being a bunch of dirty douches.
Yeah, all the numbers work out perfect.
If these big companies think it is cool to charge the &@%^# out of the small time people, especially with this situation on YouTube, i.e. the people that made the video, not YouTube, than the lawyers are going to do it right back at them. I think it is stupid, but hey, I am hoping they get it, since at least somebody has figured out a way to smack these big companies in the face for overcharging people. If iTunes charges 0.99 a song, I will pay you 0.99 if you find my pirated music. It is not my problem you have a huge legal department. Don't charge me when you decided to hire 75 lawyers to write a letter, that was your dumb choice, not mine.
I have no idea what Windows apps you are using where drag and drop does not work. I have never run into a Windows application where drag and drop does not work. I have used multiple different gui's for *nix systems and also have not run into any drag and drop issues.
I am also curious to know which Windows or *nix products you refer to when you say that they do not work as intended. When you say drag and drop is hit or miss, than I am very, very curious what applications you are running since I have been a *nix, Windows, and Mac user for years and have not run into issues like that since Windows 3.1 and early versions of *nix gui's like Ubuntu.
Also, I was under the assumption, correct me if I am wrong, that OSX now works with Intel based chips, which would mean that if we are looking at it strictly from a OS standpoint, Apple has no control over hardware. Since you went into issues that Windows has, I am going to assume you went on a basis of OS only and not a full hardware and software standpoint.
I am also curious as to what this "Apple way" is when it comes to software "Just Working". Getting an internet connection working again on a Mac is always fun. There are variables to every single computer and Macs will not always "Just Work". Sure, many times Windows is the same, but to assume that you can buy a computer and never have an issue, excuse me, but that sounds a little naive.
All computers will run into issues regardless of where you buy them from. It could be a Mac, it could be Windows, it could even be one of those eeePC netbooks that was bundled with Linux. There is no way to avoid issues. I will never dispute that the Windows OS has issues. It has plenty of problems, but the approach this post took makes Apple out to be the computer company that will never break.
Unfortunately, Macs will break. Don't feel bad, Windows based breaks as well. There is nothing you can do about it. Your Mac will break. This is the kicker though, when your machine breaks, which it will, they all break after so many years, you need to ask yourself: which one will cost you more in the long run to repair?
Now the people that come back and say, "I can afford it", you might as well buy a Dellienware.
Dude, if they did Spiderman 2099, that would be stellar.
The thing about Spiderman is that the comics have been around for so long that it would not be difficult at all to "reboot" the series since there are so many different directions it could go in.
One side is basically CEA not getting their dues. Setting up shop in a suite is essentially similar to setting up a small booth for the price of a suite and food.
How fair is it to the other companies that had to pay the dues that there are companies displaying products without paying the 10,000 fee?
Me, personally, I am an indie game developer. I am sure you have all heard of me. What? You have not heard of me? That is probably because I do not have the money to pay to get myself publicity through channels such as E3 or other means like that. I can see where the publicity is good for the people that do not have the money.
One thing I did not see mentioned: Did these smaller companies make previous arrangements with CEA before booking the suites to show their products? If they DID make previous arrangements with CEA to display their items at CES and then just did not pay the fees, and instead just held their own display in a suite, than that is wrong.
They also do not state what kind of suites these guys were staying in. It could have been the cheap 150 a night rooms, or it could have been a penthouse. That piece of information also makes a difference. Let me explain: a penthouse is super expensive. I am sure if you shopped around, you could finda penthouse for 1000 a night. Let's see, one week is 7 days, which is 7000 if you do good shopping. If you can afford that, then save a little more and you will be good to display.
Like I said, it truly depends on a couple factors: were they displaying this stuff in nice suites that could help prove that they could have afforded the 10,000 if they had gotten cheaper rooms? Did they make previous arrangements with CEA and then display items in their rooms?
There is just too much information left out of this and it is clearly one sided with the lack of information.
One of the sources asked if there were any restrictions to being in the room, but if I were to call one of those places right now and ask what restrictions I had for a show, the hotel clerk may not be able to realize that I am actually a business.
Do not get me wrong, I am not one sided here. I come from the side of the person that would be paying for the $150 room and not being able to afford the 10,000 fee. With how many small companies they said had to leave (I think it was around 30), that means that there is an incredibly small chance that all of those companies were staying in Presidential Suites or something like that.
Also, somebody else in the comments pointed out that hotel room showings were pretty standard and normal for these shows. That is where it does flip the script a little bit.
I am saying that this sucks for both sides. The smaller companies have to pack up their stuff when they have been accustomed to being able to do the hotel room showings and not told ahead of time that they can't do them.
On the same note: I am sure it is not cheap to be able to take over a portion of Vegas to throw together a massive show like CES. Where does that money come from? I bet alot of that money comes from vendor fees. If 30 vendors did not pay the fee, that is $300,000 that CEA could use to continue the show.
It is always a good idea to have multiple e-mails addresses. My main personal one is g-mail. I also have one on my own domain for business. I do have a couple yahoo ones for porn since I don't care how much spam gets flooded into those
Honestly, I am more excited about the HP and Lenovo tablet pc's that were shown at CES this year.
Both of those look pretty sick, and the HP 1 in particular is pretty cool. It works as a laptop, but then you can twist the screen to have the screen over the keyboard to make it s tablet pc (check google to see videos of it, there are a couple videos out there).
I have no clue why people buy into the Apple hype every single time one of their products is on the horizon. Seriously, there are other options besides buying into the Apple hype.
I agree with this. Whether we like it or not, since EA holds the rights to NFL, if you want to play a NFL game, you have to play by EA's rules.
When they shut down the servers for 09 and under, they want you to go and buy Madden 10 if you want to play online, which is going to be your only choice.
Or EA could stop being stubborn with m$ and let m$ handle those servers since m$ did offer to do that for them way back in the day.
Well seeing as I have an old furnace in my condo that is in an odd place, if they use that on my place, they would end up searching through because there were high heat signatures in a closet in my condo.
Think about that. If they were allowed to just point this at my condo, I could get my entire house searched because my condo's furnace is in a wierd place (it is on the main floor in a closet).
As the article even states, "The Supreme Court announced the following rule: “when . . . the Government uses a device that is not in general public use, to explore details of the home that would previously have been unknowable without physical intrusion, the surveillance is a “search” and is presumptively unreasonable without a warrant.” Because infrared temperature sensing was not in “general public use,” the thermal imaging was a “search” that required a warrant. "
Regardless of whether or not the price has gone down, if the item is still not in "general public use", then we are looking at the same situation. Price of a device should not matter at all about whether or not an item is in "general public use".
Whether they like it or not, whether the price has gone down or not, until the item is in general public use, they need a warrant.
Slashdot Mirror
Doesn't this mean it will be easier to track activity online?
./ and looking at skeezy porn
I don't even want my roommates to know which websites I go to let alone M$.
I hope M$ like looking at logs upon logs of me going to
Well I have a 5 year old laptop that had a perfectly good battery, and then I put Mandrake 10 on it.
The battery did the same thing they are describing here for Windows 7.
Where is my ars article about Mandrake 10 killing laptop batteries of 5 year old computers?
Whether we like it or not, it happens. Fire the people making a bunch of money and hire younger people or outsource to cut costs.
I guess I am new to this industry, but I have seen this multiple times. I always thought making more money had to do with delivering good products on a good time, and not firing people to make up the difference. I guess I am still new since I think that idea is messed up.
Let me add as well: Free as in Free Spiritted person, or Free as in Food Samples at the grocery store on Sundays?
Do not think that just physical copies will be good either. Many games, like Spore for example, require a connection to the EA server in order to play the game.
There is no way that the Spore server will be up in 20 years. EA has already gotten rid of the Maxis team even if EA continues with development for Spore if that is any indication of what will happen.
Now, Call me crazy, but to avoid this, the digital distribution people should really instead allow for that copy on your hard drive to be on there, and it would be the same as if you bought the game and patched it with a no-cd crack. Doing it that way would ensure that even if anything happened to the company, the end user could still enjoy what they paid for.
With digital distribution, from what I have seen, that is the biggest fear for most people, is when the company goes out of business.
Now some of the bigger companies will, hopefully, keep the servers up longer, but as we found out with EA, even popular games like Madden 09 get the axe on the server.
Like I mentioned before, if there was a way to get/play the game even when the company (or team behind the game) is no longer in business, I personally feel that digital distribution will have a much better chance. Until we have a guarentee, then it is us taking the chance, and some of us are not willing to take that chance.
WTF DUDE!
You said you would save me some pizza!!!
I am one of the people in my company whose job is to help ensure that it IS easy for the end user to do stuff so that us programmers do not have to.
No, I am not a script kiddie. I am a web based programmer and the scripters do scripts for me.
You would think that would pay more than 40k in the midwest, but that is not the case unless you have some insane amount of experience.
Yeah, see, I don't drag and drop files into their respective executable to open the file. Some people do, and rock on. I always just setup the default program to open it with (which is normally setup anyway) and then roll from there.
For the guy that said something about internet connection, I will give you a good example: Wireless connection goes out on your Macbook. Without hitting up Google (since in that situation, you would not be able to) What do you check?
I am sure you can answer it, and by all means do it since it would be a great piece of information, but the point I was making seemed to get changed a little. I was using it as an example to show that not every single thing about the Mac is built to "just work". Obviously, not everything in Windows is that way as well. That is simply because over time, all computers will eventually mess up. When your computer messes up, some computers are much easier to solve an issue for, and some computers it is almost cryptic to get to the options needed in order to fix the issue. I am not talking about setting it up, but fixing it when it breaks.
I do also have to ask: Where are you buying Windows based computers from where they are not working out of the box? Honestly, I would go to that company and say something. That is the point of buying a build that comes pre-loaded already, so that you don't have to do anything. You mentioned that the place you got it from did not include some software. Do not take this in any other way than it is, the place you bought your computer from did not include software. Simple as that. Different OS's require different pieces of software to run, and to accomodate that, the place you got your computer from, if it includes software, should include the software it claims to come with. It is very unfortunate that the place did not give that to you, but that is blaming an OS for an issue with a place that builds computers.
One of 3 things:
1.) You are my new best friend
2.) You motivated me to be an astronaut
3.) mod parent up
Take your pick (I am hoping you pick 1)
I agree that we need to start looking towards the stars. There is an entire galaxy out there just waiting for us. If we all stop and complain about tax dollars, before we know it, that will extend to items such as: "well our tax dollars are not paying for xxxx since we are paying for this other stuff".
Of course we are still in our infancy for space travel as we have only made it to the planet next to us, and did it with a robot. How are we going to extend this? We have to bite our bottom lip, everybody pitch in some money, and accept that in this day and age on Earth, nothing will just "collectively" happen without some type of currency getting handed back and forth. This is not a bad thing, as if it gets us to where we need to go, than so be it. I can accept that more money is getting taken out of my paycheck to know that it is going to better serve mankind through expanding our future.
We are outgrowing this planet if you could not tell from over population and pollution. It is starting to be time for humans to expand. Right now all we know is that the only life in this star system is on Earth, which gives us lots of room to expand. Sure, there is going to be lots of science involved, but we are getting closer and closer to that moment every single day.
No, that number makes perfect sense: /. since boss is not working the rest of the day; etc for 40 hours
$1000 writing the letter
$600/hr for 40 hours (gotta stretch it). You know, research, hit youtube to watch other dancing toddlers for "research"; stumble across "sittin on da toilet" and watch because it is stupid, but funny and you boss is not looking; decide that it is time to hit up
And then $375,000 for douche bag tax on Universial for being a bunch of dirty douches.
Yeah, all the numbers work out perfect.
If these big companies think it is cool to charge the &@%^# out of the small time people, especially with this situation on YouTube, i.e. the people that made the video, not YouTube, than the lawyers are going to do it right back at them. I think it is stupid, but hey, I am hoping they get it, since at least somebody has figured out a way to smack these big companies in the face for overcharging people. If iTunes charges 0.99 a song, I will pay you 0.99 if you find my pirated music. It is not my problem you have a huge legal department. Don't charge me when you decided to hire 75 lawyers to write a letter, that was your dumb choice, not mine.
I have no idea what Windows apps you are using where drag and drop does not work. I have never run into a Windows application where drag and drop does not work. I have used multiple different gui's for *nix systems and also have not run into any drag and drop issues.
I am also curious to know which Windows or *nix products you refer to when you say that they do not work as intended. When you say drag and drop is hit or miss, than I am very, very curious what applications you are running since I have been a *nix, Windows, and Mac user for years and have not run into issues like that since Windows 3.1 and early versions of *nix gui's like Ubuntu.
Also, I was under the assumption, correct me if I am wrong, that OSX now works with Intel based chips, which would mean that if we are looking at it strictly from a OS standpoint, Apple has no control over hardware. Since you went into issues that Windows has, I am going to assume you went on a basis of OS only and not a full hardware and software standpoint.
I am also curious as to what this "Apple way" is when it comes to software "Just Working". Getting an internet connection working again on a Mac is always fun. There are variables to every single computer and Macs will not always "Just Work". Sure, many times Windows is the same, but to assume that you can buy a computer and never have an issue, excuse me, but that sounds a little naive.
All computers will run into issues regardless of where you buy them from. It could be a Mac, it could be Windows, it could even be one of those eeePC netbooks that was bundled with Linux. There is no way to avoid issues. I will never dispute that the Windows OS has issues. It has plenty of problems, but the approach this post took makes Apple out to be the computer company that will never break.
Unfortunately, Macs will break. Don't feel bad, Windows based breaks as well. There is nothing you can do about it. Your Mac will break. This is the kicker though, when your machine breaks, which it will, they all break after so many years, you need to ask yourself: which one will cost you more in the long run to repair?
Now the people that come back and say, "I can afford it", you might as well buy a Dellienware.
Wow, yeah. Mod Parent up.
You hit every single item I was going to say.
I personally use a Linux laptop for my laptop, but that is because I use it for programming and, well, I like my c++ options in Linux.
My main pc is W7.
I agree that it is all based on getting something for your needs instead of getting something to just have it.
I need more mod points to mod you up on this post. He is a total douche cake.
You should have said that earlier. I tried to go to my bank account with the password Chuck Norris and got roundhouse kicked to the face.
Both. Chuck Norris is the most interesting man in the world.
Dude, if they did Spiderman 2099, that would be stellar.
The thing about Spiderman is that the comics have been around for so long that it would not be difficult at all to "reboot" the series since there are so many different directions it could go in.
I already took out the trash, and I will win that battle!
One side is basically CEA not getting their dues. Setting up shop in a suite is essentially similar to setting up a small booth for the price of a suite and food.
How fair is it to the other companies that had to pay the dues that there are companies displaying products without paying the 10,000 fee?
Me, personally, I am an indie game developer. I am sure you have all heard of me. What? You have not heard of me? That is probably because I do not have the money to pay to get myself publicity through channels such as E3 or other means like that. I can see where the publicity is good for the people that do not have the money.
One thing I did not see mentioned: Did these smaller companies make previous arrangements with CEA before booking the suites to show their products? If they DID make previous arrangements with CEA to display their items at CES and then just did not pay the fees, and instead just held their own display in a suite, than that is wrong.
They also do not state what kind of suites these guys were staying in. It could have been the cheap 150 a night rooms, or it could have been a penthouse. That piece of information also makes a difference. Let me explain: a penthouse is super expensive. I am sure if you shopped around, you could finda penthouse for 1000 a night. Let's see, one week is 7 days, which is 7000 if you do good shopping. If you can afford that, then save a little more and you will be good to display.
Like I said, it truly depends on a couple factors: were they displaying this stuff in nice suites that could help prove that they could have afforded the 10,000 if they had gotten cheaper rooms? Did they make previous arrangements with CEA and then display items in their rooms?
There is just too much information left out of this and it is clearly one sided with the lack of information.
One of the sources asked if there were any restrictions to being in the room, but if I were to call one of those places right now and ask what restrictions I had for a show, the hotel clerk may not be able to realize that I am actually a business.
Do not get me wrong, I am not one sided here. I come from the side of the person that would be paying for the $150 room and not being able to afford the 10,000 fee. With how many small companies they said had to leave (I think it was around 30), that means that there is an incredibly small chance that all of those companies were staying in Presidential Suites or something like that.
Also, somebody else in the comments pointed out that hotel room showings were pretty standard and normal for these shows. That is where it does flip the script a little bit.
I am saying that this sucks for both sides. The smaller companies have to pack up their stuff when they have been accustomed to being able to do the hotel room showings and not told ahead of time that they can't do them.
On the same note: I am sure it is not cheap to be able to take over a portion of Vegas to throw together a massive show like CES. Where does that money come from? I bet alot of that money comes from vendor fees. If 30 vendors did not pay the fee, that is $300,000 that CEA could use to continue the show.
and when one of these falls through and needs to shut down its servers, then what happens to all of the movies that I just purchased?
As EA games has proven by turning off the Madden 09 servers, a big company can just up and decide to shut off certain servers.
It is always a good idea to have multiple e-mails addresses. My main personal one is g-mail. I also have one on my own domain for business. I do have a couple yahoo ones for porn since I don't care how much spam gets flooded into those
Honestly, I am more excited about the HP and Lenovo tablet pc's that were shown at CES this year.
Both of those look pretty sick, and the HP 1 in particular is pretty cool. It works as a laptop, but then you can twist the screen to have the screen over the keyboard to make it s tablet pc (check google to see videos of it, there are a couple videos out there).
I have no clue why people buy into the Apple hype every single time one of their products is on the horizon. Seriously, there are other options besides buying into the Apple hype.
Listen here Mow: does it look like he said Mow. Is he drinking milk out of a saucer boy?
I agree with this. Whether we like it or not, since EA holds the rights to NFL, if you want to play a NFL game, you have to play by EA's rules.
When they shut down the servers for 09 and under, they want you to go and buy Madden 10 if you want to play online, which is going to be your only choice.
Or EA could stop being stubborn with m$ and let m$ handle those servers since m$ did offer to do that for them way back in the day.
Well seeing as I have an old furnace in my condo that is in an odd place, if they use that on my place, they would end up searching through because there were high heat signatures in a closet in my condo.
Think about that. If they were allowed to just point this at my condo, I could get my entire house searched because my condo's furnace is in a wierd place (it is on the main floor in a closet).
As the article even states, "The Supreme Court announced the following rule: “when . . . the Government uses a device that is not in general public use, to explore details of the home that would previously have been unknowable without physical intrusion, the surveillance is a “search” and is presumptively unreasonable without a warrant.” Because infrared temperature sensing was not in “general public use,” the thermal imaging was a “search” that required a warrant. "
Regardless of whether or not the price has gone down, if the item is still not in "general public use", then we are looking at the same situation. Price of a device should not matter at all about whether or not an item is in "general public use".
Whether they like it or not, whether the price has gone down or not, until the item is in general public use, they need a warrant.