I opted to go the streaming route and I'm exactly in this spot right now (wishing I did the disc thing instead). I sorta was hoping we'd see something change in the months since the announcement with the addition of more content on streaming, etc, but its just not there yet. And unfortunately, I never watched enough discs to justify any of their DVD plans (redbox is much more cost effective for me) so over the last couple weeks I've been giving serious consideration to parting ways with Netflix altogether and looking other alternatives for streaming and movies (including, just doing without).
Exactly what I've been telling everybody I know who's talked about this with me. The folks they lost are customers completely gone, but there seem to be A LOT of people who have effectively downgraded, myself included. And they're not sharing those numbers. So not only did you lose customers and have your revenue go to zero, another portion (how big is anybody's guess) are paying less on both accounts (my father in law never used streaming so now he's actually saving a couple bucks a month).
The funny thing is, how do you get those customers back? You'd probably have to throw a promo their way to try and lure them back (cause I know a lot of really pissed ex-Netflixters) further slashing your profits.
And I think they're very arrogant. They're perceived response when people started complaining seemed to be "pfft, we know some of you will go but we'll be fine". I'm not so sure y'all will.
I think Netflix should very publicly throw Hastings out on his ear, run a likely expensive "we f'd up and we're sorry" campaign and raise the prices slightly for combo-service (I don't doubt they needed to increase) and offer customers who left and/or downgraded in the last 3 months some significant incentive (one month maybe three of free or reduced cost service, free upgrade to 2 or 3 disc at a time service) to come back. In fact, offer it to all Netflix customers cause they should be thanking they're loyal fans for not leaving them. I doubt they'll do any of that cause their current leadership seems pretty clueless.
We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week, but all the decision of that officer have to be ratified at a special biweekly meeting. By a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs, but by a two-thirds majority in the case of more.
Yeah but they're now a kinder gentler AT&T cause the new "death star" logo is much less threatening looking that the logo of old. The new one looks kinda like a Christmas ornament.
Netflix has made a business decision to run there infrastructure on Silverlight and consequently has probably serviced a large number of their customers. As much as I'm a linux/open source backer, at the end of the day, companies make decisions, some bad, some good. If there are so many folks wanting to view movies on their Linux boxes, let Netflix know. Contact them. If they get enough response, maybe they'll implement it. If not, discontinue the service until they add a linux compatible client. If they ask why you're canceling tell them.
Unfortunately, I suspect that providing a linux compatible client is going to only add a minuscule boost to sales. Most linux users will figure out a work-around if they care that much about it like dual-booting or virtualizing. Smart for Netflix IMO and sucks for a small segment of its customers. Thats just life.
Cause if the games is based on his life, last time I played GTA:SA he was a homicidal maniac, shoot random people and running down women and children, cause thats kinda all you can do with it once you beat the game. Should be easy to prove too if I submit my memory card in as evidence where it clearly states that he's killed however many thousand pedestrians and gangsters.
Surprised he's suing too, cause last I checked when I was done with the game he was a billionaire due to big bets at at the OTB and the ability to restore the previous game whenever those big bets lost.
One could also argue that if you're paying for a license of RHEL and assuming its something in a data center, you should be able to afford to buy some modern hardware.
While I understand where you're coming from, I'm assuming that AC/DC wants those hoards screaming kids with their parents. To tap into a generation after generation years later means lots of residual $$.
I was always a big fan of Syndicate. At the time it was pretty revolutionary in that you could pretty much interact with the entire environment in one way or another long before you hit the GTA series and what not.
I'm sure there'll be a lot more that folks can think of out here in Slashdot land.....
But see. These are reasons why you should try throw a few extra bucks at the brick and mortar store from time to time. It costs money to provide that service of being able to checkout the thing before you buy, etc.
Just something to keep conscious of. If it costs you a few bucks more, help em out.
At the same time, admittedly there have been times I've checked it out in the store and they can't match so I buy online. There was a lcd tv I was going to buy a while back that neither Best Buy or Circuit City brick-and-mortar were even willing to try to match to Amazon's deal (CC and Bestbuy wanted ~$2k, amazon wanted ~$1500), plus amazon was throwing in a blu-ray player.
I gave them both opportunities to match but they didn't want "to consider amazon their competition". Circuit City didn't let me down either, every time I shopped there the clerks usually drove me batty and caused me to shop elsewhere. Well sorry guys, I bought it online, and amazon did a pretty fantastic job. Had they come close (within $100-200 or so), I would have probably bought it at one of the two. Especially since I didn't know about the BD player deal till around checkout time.
So anyway, consider chucking a few bucks to your local retailer from time to time if its in the ballpark, otherwise, they may not be there down the road. Price isn't always everything.
Same boat over here. I have no problem paying for games (though I rarely buy them when they first come out). I believe whole heartedly in supporting creative software developers who put out useful/interesting/fun/etc software.
I do have a problem with the state of DRM. Consequently, I haven't even bothered to look at GTA IV or Red Alert 3 for me. In fact since that seems to the de facto standard on most PC games (or so it seems) I've just stopped buying PC games outright. It doesn't help that a lot of the games suck now either (FPS bore the hell out of me and that seems to be another trend).
I agree that the cost for "new" games is too much. What to do? Just wait the 6 months to a year for them to drop down to the $20 price point. If its game I love, maybe I'll pony up the extra cash in advance, but frankly most games don't fall into that category. At $20 if it sucks, I don't care too much. Frankly I have more important things to worry about than gaming, so if I "deny myself" for a bit, its usually for the better anyway.
Something tells me that the folks involved aren't going to forget this lesson very soon.
You'd need to verify that there is some working gray matter upstairs during the interview process, but so long as they know its an f'up, and why it was one, I can sorta justify they won't make that same mistake down the road on my dime.
And then like any good thief they'll go and throw out or use your laptop for target practice. I think laptop LoJack for Laptop would probably be a better service if they're going through the trouble of putting a WAN card in and what not.
They must have something like that already, right?
I have the solution though. To get around the problem with the long cable and pulley, we can use rocket propulsion on the bottom of the elevator cart.
Also since the shaft it will travel may encouter some problems with radial velocity and all that engineery stuff I know barely enough to be dangerous about, we should cut that out and just create a cart that doesn't need that.
Yeah, a rocket propelled shaftless space elevator. Where's my damn X-prize or whatever money for being so smart....
Just wait till both the phone system (taking out the security system perhaps) and the servers crash on the same day....
My condolences to you. Tell them they need consultants now, but its their call in the end. Then when the day of reckoning hits, remember "I told you so". (Actually for the record, while I told you so is good for personal morale, many bosses don't like having somebody point out the egg on their face)
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I opted to go the streaming route and I'm exactly in this spot right now (wishing I did the disc thing instead). I sorta was hoping we'd see something change in the months since the announcement with the addition of more content on streaming, etc, but its just not there yet. And unfortunately, I never watched enough discs to justify any of their DVD plans (redbox is much more cost effective for me) so over the last couple weeks I've been giving serious consideration to parting ways with Netflix altogether and looking other alternatives for streaming and movies (including, just doing without).
Exactly what I've been telling everybody I know who's talked about this with me. The folks they lost are customers completely gone, but there seem to be A LOT of people who have effectively downgraded, myself included. And they're not sharing those numbers. So not only did you lose customers and have your revenue go to zero, another portion (how big is anybody's guess) are paying less on both accounts (my father in law never used streaming so now he's actually saving a couple bucks a month).
The funny thing is, how do you get those customers back? You'd probably have to throw a promo their way to try and lure them back (cause I know a lot of really pissed ex-Netflixters) further slashing your profits.
And I think they're very arrogant. They're perceived response when people started complaining seemed to be "pfft, we know some of you will go but we'll be fine". I'm not so sure y'all will.
I think Netflix should very publicly throw Hastings out on his ear, run a likely expensive "we f'd up and we're sorry" campaign and raise the prices slightly for combo-service (I don't doubt they needed to increase) and offer customers who left and/or downgraded in the last 3 months some significant incentive (one month maybe three of free or reduced cost service, free upgrade to 2 or 3 disc at a time service) to come back. In fact, offer it to all Netflix customers cause they should be thanking they're loyal fans for not leaving them. I doubt they'll do any of that cause their current leadership seems pretty clueless.
"Papers please..."
You've got it all wrong.
We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week, but all the decision of that officer have to be ratified at a special biweekly meeting. By a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs, but by a two-thirds majority in the case of more.
Now we see the violence inherent in the system.
Yeah but the skiiing rocks if the right time of year and area of the state.
I'm just a Klingon from a dishonored family.
He's just a Klingon from a dishonored family. Just stab him in the heart, so he can reach Stovokor.
Sorrry, couldn't resist, you inspired me.
Yeah but they're now a kinder gentler AT&T cause the new "death star" logo is much less threatening looking that the logo of old. The new one looks kinda like a Christmas ornament.
I agree whole heartedly with everything you say.
Netflix has made a business decision to run there infrastructure on Silverlight and consequently has probably serviced a large number of their customers. As much as I'm a linux/open source backer, at the end of the day, companies make decisions, some bad, some good. If there are so many folks wanting to view movies on their Linux boxes, let Netflix know. Contact them. If they get enough response, maybe they'll implement it. If not, discontinue the service until they add a linux compatible client. If they ask why you're canceling tell them.
Unfortunately, I suspect that providing a linux compatible client is going to only add a minuscule boost to sales. Most linux users will figure out a work-around if they care that much about it like dual-booting or virtualizing. Smart for Netflix IMO and sucks for a small segment of its customers. Thats just life.
Surprised he's suing too, cause last I checked when I was done with the game he was a billionaire due to big bets at at the OTB and the ability to restore the previous game whenever those big bets lost.
On a more serious note, this guy's a jackass.
I know its feasible and all with auto-pilot, but I'd think that'd never happen. Well unless you were paid to by Lao-che...
One could also argue that if you're paying for a license of RHEL and assuming its something in a data center, you should be able to afford to buy some modern hardware.
I think we should just put up the Apple cube, with some Borg mechanics on the outside....
While I understand where you're coming from, I'm assuming that AC/DC wants those hoards screaming kids with their parents. To tap into a generation after generation years later means lots of residual $$.
Well it is called the "Massive Ordanance Penatrator". Sounds like there's some insecurities somewhere...
> what is a grue?
You know what had another thought. What about E.T. for the 2600? Didn't that set the precedent for totally retarded games?
I'm sure there'll be a lot more that folks can think of out here in Slashdot land.....
But see. These are reasons why you should try throw a few extra bucks at the brick and mortar store from time to time. It costs money to provide that service of being able to checkout the thing before you buy, etc.
Just something to keep conscious of. If it costs you a few bucks more, help em out.
At the same time, admittedly there have been times I've checked it out in the store and they can't match so I buy online. There was a lcd tv I was going to buy a while back that neither Best Buy or Circuit City brick-and-mortar were even willing to try to match to Amazon's deal (CC and Bestbuy wanted ~$2k, amazon wanted ~$1500), plus amazon was throwing in a blu-ray player.
I gave them both opportunities to match but they didn't want "to consider amazon their competition". Circuit City didn't let me down either, every time I shopped there the clerks usually drove me batty and caused me to shop elsewhere. Well sorry guys, I bought it online, and amazon did a pretty fantastic job. Had they come close (within $100-200 or so), I would have probably bought it at one of the two. Especially since I didn't know about the BD player deal till around checkout time.
So anyway, consider chucking a few bucks to your local retailer from time to time if its in the ballpark, otherwise, they may not be there down the road. Price isn't always everything.
Same boat over here. I have no problem paying for games (though I rarely buy them when they first come out). I believe whole heartedly in supporting creative software developers who put out useful/interesting/fun/etc software.
I do have a problem with the state of DRM. Consequently, I haven't even bothered to look at GTA IV or Red Alert 3 for me. In fact since that seems to the de facto standard on most PC games (or so it seems) I've just stopped buying PC games outright. It doesn't help that a lot of the games suck now either (FPS bore the hell out of me and that seems to be another trend).
I agree that the cost for "new" games is too much. What to do? Just wait the 6 months to a year for them to drop down to the $20 price point. If its game I love, maybe I'll pony up the extra cash in advance, but frankly most games don't fall into that category. At $20 if it sucks, I don't care too much. Frankly I have more important things to worry about than gaming, so if I "deny myself" for a bit, its usually for the better anyway.
Something tells me that the folks involved aren't going to forget this lesson very soon. You'd need to verify that there is some working gray matter upstairs during the interview process, but so long as they know its an f'up, and why it was one, I can sorta justify they won't make that same mistake down the road on my dime.
And then like any good thief they'll go and throw out or use your laptop for target practice. I think laptop LoJack for Laptop would probably be a better service if they're going through the trouble of putting a WAN card in and what not.
They must have something like that already, right?
Hey thats similar to my personal favorite as my uid suggests....
I have the solution though. To get around the problem with the long cable and pulley, we can use rocket propulsion on the bottom of the elevator cart.
Also since the shaft it will travel may encouter some problems with radial velocity and all that engineery stuff I know barely enough to be dangerous about, we should cut that out and just create a cart that doesn't need that.
Yeah, a rocket propelled shaftless space elevator. Where's my damn X-prize or whatever money for being so smart....
Just wait till both the phone system (taking out the security system perhaps) and the servers crash on the same day....
My condolences to you. Tell them they need consultants now, but its their call in the end. Then when the day of reckoning hits, remember "I told you so". (Actually for the record, while I told you so is good for personal morale, many bosses don't like having somebody point out the egg on their face)