On the other hand, MGS4 alone is a pretty compelling reason to buy a PS3 and its open source leaning philosophy is certainly something I find much more attractive then Microsofts archaic propriatary schemes.
Again, as the owner of two 360s, I dont understand why anyone would be buying one now (as it slowly slides into obscurity). Seems like the PS3 is the obvious choice for the next couple of years.
Also the 360 already has two RPGs from Mistwalker (Hironobu Sakaguchi) which gives them a really large Final Fantasy pedigree. I think this new found love for Microsoft has mroe to do with Microsofts willingness to reach deeply into its coffers in order to make headway in the Japanese market. Well more so then any "love" for them by ANY developers.
One problem is its considered a "game" by the general populous. When they log in and find there is no actual "game" there, they feel a little cheated. I think this has been a large part of Seconds Life's reputation as a vast nothingness.
Its a good game, the best strategy game I have ever played on a console, but its still a long way from the "full blown" Civilization experience (and it doesnt "really" do anything new). Personally I am primarily still a PC gamer, but I am less interested in where I play my games then I am in what experience I have playing them. I find consoles (I own 360s) still too limiting and controlled an experience (still feels heavily slanted "for children"). They are still more like training wheels for gamers who will eventually move up to PC (especially in terms of the XBOXLive experience), then true substantial experiences of thier own (although they are getting close).
Ive played this game, it made me sleepy. I suspected they were gonna have a problem when after so many years of development and so much hype, the final product made me say . . . meh.
You dont want Civ Revolutions on the PC. Its Civilization made for a console, its just a simpler more "kiddie" friendly version of the game, ported to use a controller. The console is the reason it exists, porting it to PC would be silly and redundant.
I own two 360s and have had at least one since January of 2006, so I am not a "hater" or anything. I just wonder how relevent the console really is at this point in its lifecycle. The PS3 is coming on hard with free online play, media options that are improving with nearly every patch and a game library that is finally becoming interesting. Microsoft have entered "cash in" mode on the 360 and dont seem to be interested in doing much to improve the experience any more, while SONY seems to be finally hitting thier stride. I just dont see who is still buying 360s, or why they would buy one now?
Good points, also remember in the entertainment business (which gaming has been shoe-horned into) marketing determines sales, not the quality of the product.
Data collection in this context doesn't really bother me (as long as its consensual), but game spyware or ANY KIND OF DRM that interferes with the performance of my machine, or my enjoyment of the game, by gimping abilities inherent to PC gaming or simply creating an experience that is so convoluted it actually hampers my experience, is intolerable. I will no longer purchase any games with today's DRM crap included. EA should know, I got a bootlegged copy of Mass Effect, PRECICELY because they included that DRM scheme (seems I will be forced to do the same for SPORE). I am a grown man with a decent income who has no problem paying for games (unlike back in college). I actually prefer to purchase games because it's just easier. However when forced to choose between buggy and invasive DRM riddled software, or downloaded a bootlegged copy, I will choose the "clean" product every time.
I dunno, fun game but I dont see a movie being much more then a second rate Tarrentino rip off. Also, am I the only one that thought Max Payne was modeled on Michael Madsen?
Your assuming I would have purchased your game in the first place, which in my experience is very rarely true. Look developers can continue to scare themsevles to death with stories about how thier fans are a bunch of "thieving", "leeching", "scumbags" (strange industry that sees its target demographic that way - talk about entitlement?) but the truth remains that many people have done very well in the PC gaming business over the last 20 to 30 years, without DRM, without spyware, regkits and the thousands of other "invasive gimps" that are slowly killing this industry.
If you are a game developer and like developing your content for PCs, I would suggest you take a more respectful and open minded view of the opinions of your potential customers. I would also humbly suggest that developers and publishers concentrate more on creating innovative, interesting and entertaining software and less time worrying about "pirates", the boogieman or any other over hyped threat. I am seriously afraid that the PC gaming industry is literally scaring itself to death.
I agree to an extent. E3 was obviously the spin off from CES which is a show intended for manufactures and distributors to interact with the retail buying chain. A show for Panasonic to show Best Buy all the cool stuff it wants to sell through thier chain this year. Over the years, CES has taken a larger "marketing hype" role where an attepmt is made to create "buzz" about a product in the mind of actual consumers and not just the retial buyers. This leap is what both created E3 and seemingly will lead to its downfall.
There is very little reason for retail buyers to come to E3 to view the products offered by producers (Software is an entirely different animal the electronics), so the real benefit of E3 was to bypass the "buyers" and use the media to reach the consumers directly. Again to create "marketing buzz" in consumers (not the retail buyers) for products still in the manufacturing chain. The real problem now is, this is no longer necessary either.
Publishers spend so much money constantly pimping and hyping thier titles (in many cases more then they spent actually developing the game) and have so, so, so, so many outlets with wich to try generate that buzz, that by the time E3 rolls around most of the products shown are already on the verge of being "pimped out". E3 is dying becuase it is just another marketing outlet (an extrememly slow and expensive one) used to reach consumers and as such, its just archaic and superfolous in an industry that is mainly focused on marketing saturation already (with innovation and development taking a distant back seat).
You get what you pay for, that counts for developers too, and really any form of labor. Outsourcing is cheaper certainly, but the reason may be more then simply fat lazy western decadence.
You make a reasonable argument on why its wrong to violate copyright. That does not mean its "stealing."
When you pirate a work, you must by definition make a new copy. That copy can only be legally produced by the copyright holder. It would make no sense to simply destroy it, and so ownership of it reverts to the one legally able to produce it in the first place. Most of the time illegally-produced copies get destroyed anyway, but that need not be the case.
In any case, you now have a copy of the software that belongs to the copyright holder. By not returning the copy to them or buying it outright, you are in fact depriving them of something: a copy to sell or otherwise do with as they will.
And so, piracy equals theft.
Possession of something that should lawfully belong to someone is not theft on its face. The means by which one takes unlawful possession indicate different crimes.
If one physically takes possession of something belonging to another person through force or stealth, this is called theft.
If one obtains property of another through a transaction that used an excess of deceit to the point that the transaction is considered invalid, this is called fraud.
If one makes a copy of media that is copyrighted without the consent of the copyright holder to an extent that is considered unlawful (one has the right to make backup copies under the fair use doctrine and until the 90s one could make copies if one did not receive financial gain from the copies), this is called copyright violation
If one purchases or otherwise obtains property in a transaction that would normally be legal, but the goods are stolen, this is called purchasing stolen goods (and is only a crime if done knowingly).
If there is a civil dispute over property ownership and the possessor of the goods is found to not be the proper owner, this is not considered theft or even a criminal matter (generally).
There are a number of other variations on the above. Simple possession of another person's rightful property does not necessarily constitute theft.
There is no question that there is a large difference between larceny or fraud and copywright violation. What is saddening really, is that people today have been programmed to believe that content creators should (morally) be intitled to income from works, ad infinitum.
Yes a man is entitled to the fruit of his labors, but at some point expecting one to sell the fruit over and over without having to produce any more labor, is just completely counter productive to society and really the fundmental ideas of property.
Its long off topic here, but copywright, trademark, IP and patend law need some serious revisions. We need as a culture to re evaluate the actual value proposition offered society by some of our more illogical and just obtuse structures in that area (but I guess most slashdoters already know that LOL).
I prefer the term "stealing games" myself. It fits well, does away with the positive connotations that the term "piracy" has gained in some circles, and -perhaps most important- it really makes the pirates mad.
I would prefer "avoiding game breaking DRM" as this is the most common motivator for the "pirates" I know personally. I understand that creators need to be compensated for thier work and I also understand that piracy does exist.
However in my opinion these developers have allowed themselves to be "conned" by alot of statistics into believing a simple cough is full blown lung cancer, no surprise these statistics are usually supplied by the companies selling solutions (cures) to save teh developers from thier own fans.
As a PC gamer I am tired of being treated as a suspect by publishers. I am tired of getting gimped games that are hampered or sometimes even broken by poor DRM implentations. Most of all though, I am tired of having to get "bootleg" copies of games just because I lost my original CD, or some registration code.
PC gaming may be one of the first areas of modern commerce where the industry actually, simply scared itself to death.
Fox News has been pretty unashamed about believing that thier viewers are idiots, they dont even pretend to respect them. Really Jack Thompson is a perfect "expert" for them. Just like thier political "experts", hes really just a guy with a specific personal agenda, who actually knows very little about the subject hes discussing. He would fit in perfectly with the rest of Roger Aisles minions.
I would guess that Activision brings more diversity to Vivendis catalogue of games. To spread the risk and funding across more titles, the benefits of scale.
Very well explained. I think alot of the confusion comes from the belief that Blizzard was somehow an "independant" developer previously when that hasnt really been the case since the mid-90s.
Slashdot Mirror
Bioware is actually a Canadian company as I recall . . .
I actually saw one for $35.00 the other day on pricewatch LOL;
http://http//www.pricewatch.com/dvd_cd_drives/blu-ray.htm/
On the other hand, MGS4 alone is a pretty compelling reason to buy a PS3 and its open source leaning philosophy is certainly something I find much more attractive then Microsofts archaic propriatary schemes.
Again, as the owner of two 360s, I dont understand why anyone would be buying one now (as it slowly slides into obscurity). Seems like the PS3 is the obvious choice for the next couple of years.
Also the 360 already has two RPGs from Mistwalker (Hironobu Sakaguchi) which gives them a really large Final Fantasy pedigree. I think this new found love for Microsoft has mroe to do with Microsofts willingness to reach deeply into its coffers in order to make headway in the Japanese market. Well more so then any "love" for them by ANY developers.
I liked your post until you said "shizniz" . . . sorry
As far as I am concerned they havent made a good FF game since the merger. I simply dont think they are capable of producing those games anymore.
One problem is its considered a "game" by the general populous. When they log in and find there is no actual "game" there, they feel a little cheated. I think this has been a large part of Seconds Life's reputation as a vast nothingness.
Its a good game, the best strategy game I have ever played on a console, but its still a long way from the "full blown" Civilization experience (and it doesnt "really" do anything new). Personally I am primarily still a PC gamer, but I am less interested in where I play my games then I am in what experience I have playing them. I find consoles (I own 360s) still too limiting and controlled an experience (still feels heavily slanted "for children"). They are still more like training wheels for gamers who will eventually move up to PC (especially in terms of the XBOXLive experience), then true substantial experiences of thier own (although they are getting close).
Yeah AoC does have the biggest boobies in gaming . . .
Ive played this game, it made me sleepy. I suspected they were gonna have a problem when after so many years of development and so much hype, the final product made me say . . . meh.
You dont want Civ Revolutions on the PC. Its Civilization made for a console, its just a simpler more "kiddie" friendly version of the game, ported to use a controller. The console is the reason it exists, porting it to PC would be silly and redundant.
I own two 360s and have had at least one since January of 2006, so I am not a "hater" or anything. I just wonder how relevent the console really is at this point in its lifecycle. The PS3 is coming on hard with free online play, media options that are improving with nearly every patch and a game library that is finally becoming interesting. Microsoft have entered "cash in" mode on the 360 and dont seem to be interested in doing much to improve the experience any more, while SONY seems to be finally hitting thier stride. I just dont see who is still buying 360s, or why they would buy one now?
Good points, also remember in the entertainment business (which gaming has been shoe-horned into) marketing determines sales, not the quality of the product.
Data collection in this context doesn't really bother me (as long as its consensual), but game spyware or ANY KIND OF DRM that interferes with the performance of my machine, or my enjoyment of the game, by gimping abilities inherent to PC gaming or simply creating an experience that is so convoluted it actually hampers my experience, is intolerable. I will no longer purchase any games with today's DRM crap included. EA should know, I got a bootlegged copy of Mass Effect, PRECICELY because they included that DRM scheme (seems I will be forced to do the same for SPORE). I am a grown man with a decent income who has no problem paying for games (unlike back in college). I actually prefer to purchase games because it's just easier. However when forced to choose between buggy and invasive DRM riddled software, or downloaded a bootlegged copy, I will choose the "clean" product every time.
I dunno, fun game but I dont see a movie being much more then a second rate Tarrentino rip off. Also, am I the only one that thought Max Payne was modeled on Michael Madsen?
Your assuming I would have purchased your game in the first place, which in my experience is very rarely true. Look developers can continue to scare themsevles to death with stories about how thier fans are a bunch of "thieving", "leeching", "scumbags" (strange industry that sees its target demographic that way - talk about entitlement?) but the truth remains that many people have done very well in the PC gaming business over the last 20 to 30 years, without DRM, without spyware, regkits and the thousands of other "invasive gimps" that are slowly killing this industry.
If you are a game developer and like developing your content for PCs, I would suggest you take a more respectful and open minded view of the opinions of your potential customers. I would also humbly suggest that developers and publishers concentrate more on creating innovative, interesting and entertaining software and less time worrying about "pirates", the boogieman or any other over hyped threat. I am seriously afraid that the PC gaming industry is literally scaring itself to death.
Yes, absolutely it does in my opinion. A combination of the two would have been the smarter move in my opinion.
I agree to an extent. E3 was obviously the spin off from CES which is a show intended for manufactures and distributors to interact with the retail buying chain. A show for Panasonic to show Best Buy all the cool stuff it wants to sell through thier chain this year. Over the years, CES has taken a larger "marketing hype" role where an attepmt is made to create "buzz" about a product in the mind of actual consumers and not just the retial buyers. This leap is what both created E3 and seemingly will lead to its downfall.
There is very little reason for retail buyers to come to E3 to view the products offered by producers (Software is an entirely different animal the electronics), so the real benefit of E3 was to bypass the "buyers" and use the media to reach the consumers directly. Again to create "marketing buzz" in consumers (not the retail buyers) for products still in the manufacturing chain. The real problem now is, this is no longer necessary either.
Publishers spend so much money constantly pimping and hyping thier titles (in many cases more then they spent actually developing the game) and have so, so, so, so many outlets with wich to try generate that buzz, that by the time E3 rolls around most of the products shown are already on the verge of being "pimped out". E3 is dying becuase it is just another marketing outlet (an extrememly slow and expensive one) used to reach consumers and as such, its just archaic and superfolous in an industry that is mainly focused on marketing saturation already (with innovation and development taking a distant back seat).
I just cant fit 40 rods in my wallet!
What, you actually believe those no-experience foreign sweat shops with mile-long resumés are going to cut development costs while delivering a superior product ? Ever heard of EA and Activision ? Ever seen them release a top-quality product
You get what you pay for, that counts for developers too, and really any form of labor. Outsourcing is cheaper certainly, but the reason may be more then simply fat lazy western decadence.
You make a reasonable argument on why its wrong to violate copyright. That does not mean its "stealing."
Possession of something that should lawfully belong to someone is not theft on its face. The means by which one takes unlawful possession indicate different crimes.
There are a number of other variations on the above. Simple possession of another person's rightful property does not necessarily constitute theft.
There is no question that there is a large difference between larceny or fraud and copywright violation. What is saddening really, is that people today have been programmed to believe that content creators should (morally) be intitled to income from works, ad infinitum. Yes a man is entitled to the fruit of his labors, but at some point expecting one to sell the fruit over and over without having to produce any more labor, is just completely counter productive to society and really the fundmental ideas of property. Its long off topic here, but copywright, trademark, IP and patend law need some serious revisions. We need as a culture to re evaluate the actual value proposition offered society by some of our more illogical and just obtuse structures in that area (but I guess most slashdoters already know that LOL).
I prefer the term "stealing games" myself. It fits well, does away with the positive connotations that the term "piracy" has gained in some circles, and -perhaps most important- it really makes the pirates mad.
I would prefer "avoiding game breaking DRM" as this is the most common motivator for the "pirates" I know personally. I understand that creators need to be compensated for thier work and I also understand that piracy does exist. However in my opinion these developers have allowed themselves to be "conned" by alot of statistics into believing a simple cough is full blown lung cancer, no surprise these statistics are usually supplied by the companies selling solutions (cures) to save teh developers from thier own fans. As a PC gamer I am tired of being treated as a suspect by publishers. I am tired of getting gimped games that are hampered or sometimes even broken by poor DRM implentations. Most of all though, I am tired of having to get "bootleg" copies of games just because I lost my original CD, or some registration code. PC gaming may be one of the first areas of modern commerce where the industry actually, simply scared itself to death.
Heres what he should call his new PAC; World Housewives Organization for the Repeal of the ESRB . . . or WHORE for short.
Fox News has been pretty unashamed about believing that thier viewers are idiots, they dont even pretend to respect them. Really Jack Thompson is a perfect "expert" for them. Just like thier political "experts", hes really just a guy with a specific personal agenda, who actually knows very little about the subject hes discussing. He would fit in perfectly with the rest of Roger Aisles minions.
I would guess that Activision brings more diversity to Vivendis catalogue of games. To spread the risk and funding across more titles, the benefits of scale.
Very well explained. I think alot of the confusion comes from the belief that Blizzard was somehow an "independant" developer previously when that hasnt really been the case since the mid-90s.