I am curious where you went to school. Mine tended cost around $50-120 and if you sold it back in mint condition you might get half of that back. Any sort of blemish (dog ear, crease in cover or a page, any marks, worn edges) immediately cut even that miserable sale price in half. Then they restocked the used books at about 10% less than new (regardless of their condition they cost the same in spite of the fact they screwed you based on damage).
Only recently has this monopoly been broken with the advent of online textbook purchasing, and prices are a bit more reasonable on the new prices. They still rape you on the used purchase/sell-back end but that can be circumvented if you keep an ear out and find people who just had the class and you're about to take it. Cut out the middle-man and both sides are happy. Higher learning has become such a racket driven by lust for profit.
Recently taking more classes we used e-book versions which I say was even more of a rip-off. The e-book cost about 40-60% of the dead-tree version, and they revoke access after about six months to a year, and of course you can't sell it back at all. Maybe I am weird but I prefer to keep my textbooks as reference and refreshers.
THIS. I ride a motorcycle and over time have learned to become highly aware of what everyone else is doing around me. I cannot tell you how many times I have almost been merged into by someone refusing to even turn their head to the side to see if someone is next to them. Cagers also love to pull out in front of us, ride our arses, and in general be effing dangerous to everyone around them. Would love to place it all at the feet of cell phone usage but most of the time it is simple lack of attention, putting on makeup, drinking their coffee, watching their GPS screen. The list goes on and on. Anymore I navigate in traffic with the main goal of trying to make sure as few of the bastards are around me at any given time. I wear full gear all the time but I have no illusions about my fate in a collision so a little paranoia has gone a long way.
The problem is people's attitude and lifestyle choices which includes cell phone usage. The major offenders seem to drive large vehicles such as minivans and SUV's but interestingly enough not large pickups or heavy haulers such as semi's and the like. My personal guess is that the same people who choose a vehicle based on how "safe" it is then stops caring about anyone else's safety. I hate saying it but Susie Homemaker seems to be the worst offender.
I think they are two different things. A safe is a physical object that holds, well physical objects. Not the same as encrypting data which is really just making information indecipherable. One hundred years ago today analogy would be closer to having a journal that the government wants to read but you wrote it in code.
Ultimately the developer dances to the pressures of the publisher who is usually the one holding the purse strings. The publisher may or may not dance to the pressure of the gamers clamoring the release or features or whatever. Usually what happens is publisher wants their investment return and wants it now, and starts leaning on the developer to get it done yesterday. If the game is rubbish then the developer runs massive PR and marketing on a level appropriate to how hyped the game was including trying to manipulate reviews. The fans have very little impact on the current model of development until sales time which impacts the future of the franchise. Good games get cranked out ad nauseum (sequels!) because they are shown to profit, and all the "me too" clones get developed to try and cash in. That is the current model of game development.
As for the proposed one by Gabe, I can help but wonder...what if I threw my lot in on games like Kane and Lynch, Army of Two, or FSM help us all: Duke Nuken Forever? I salute Gabe for at least trying to come up with an alternative but it will require a lot of work to refine and get off the ground.
Exactly. What is Valve thinking? Why on earth would you release a full fledged sequel so soon? Expansion packs? Nah, screw it just go ahead and split the community to turn more bucks? So are they telling us they are such great game creation gurus that within a short period of time a compelling sequel can be developed, that they only needed a year to fix any complaints, and add more content? Or should we see it as they screwed us with a watered down version before deciding to make the full version? Did we just pay $50-60 to play an introduction to the real game? Seems a little credible given that L4D was blasted for the meager content in the first place which of course Valve promised to add more of later. Tell you what Valve, how about we go back and call the original Left for Dead 0.5 and the new one just Left for Dead. This way I feel a lot better for having paid retail price for a game that only had four scenarios and a handful of guns types.
THIS! Nicely done Nursie, this is the reason why console sales are deceiving. Sure the Wii might be outselling the other consoles, but the Wii is sucking wind on peripherals and games post console purchase. It is easy to think that the Wii is doing awesome because everyone wants one. Problem is everyone wants a Wii and the games it comes with. It would be interesting to see some numbers to determine where Sony/Microsoft stand as far as the rest of the equation is concerned (profit in totality not just hardware). I am old school a bit, I think since games couldn't sell on how realistic or detailed they were developers were forced to be more creative, and it tended to weed out developers who didn't love the craft to begin with. That has all changed as the video game industry has become big money and everyone wants a slice. While there are some really great titles out there, we have a much larger selection to distract us, lots of developers now use pretty graphics to cover up design flaws, and every slime bucket who would screw the industry for money now has their greedy little fingers in it. This definitely has deteriorated the quality and attachment rate as gamers are now swept up into what I think is worse than the fashion industry.
The Wii I believe has committed the same crime as the pretties-over-substance crowds that Nintendo fanboys deride constantly. I am of the opinion that the Wii and the Touch Screen on the DS really are gimmicks; more creative (and successful?) gimmicks than their competitors yet gimmicks just the same. Graphics aside there really are not that many compelling games on the Wii. A few would be nice to play but it seems a lot of leftovers and shovelware ends up on that console; the former trying to broaden the demographic appeal, and the latter to make a buck on the motion gimmick to non-gamers who don't know any better. Don't get me wrong I loved the Gamecube. I think it had hands down the best controller ever created for a console. Problem is Nintendo took that old console and instead of improving upon it, decided to go the novelty route by shoehorning it into a smaller box and tied the gimmicky wii-mote to it. Worst part is if you ever bring any of these criticisms up to a Wii owner they get offended as if you just wiped your ass with their family bible. Now it appears that Microsoft is jumping on that bandwagon and it makes me very sad.
Familiarity breeds contempt. Not only would the questionable perk of viewing porn and other amusing things become boring after constant exposure, you get to wade through the eyesore garbage people post on their page as well. Sounds like an easy gig, but one can imagine that there is a constant mountain of paperwork and reports to fill out. If you ask me it smacks of a highly paid glorified clerk job.
Hey if Apple wants to reject a killer app from one of the most popular contemporary artists I guess that is their prerogative. Pretty stupid effiing move, and I guess Trent will have to take his application (and devoted money spending fans) elsewhere I guess...
Exactly. I had thought the original intent of laws like this was to protect an established company and/or product from shady unknown imitators who have contributed nothing and not the other way around. Pretty sure this will go nowhere in court, but these kind of shenanigans seem to be more common as time goes by. As OP stated, none of us had even heard of Android Data, and even if I had I sure as hell wouldn't confuse them with a phone OS developed by google.
Nimbius has it right. If anything the US is a satellite of China now. Everything is made there, and at least for now it is in China's best interest to make sure the US can afford their slave made goods. That said, it doesn't mean that China will always want or need the US as a client. One can imagine that once their infrastructure is complete and they have caught up technologically (if they already haven't?) the only thing they will need other countries for is resources. It wouldn't surprise me if things of this nature were unofficially sanctioned by the Chinese government. I believe most if not all governments do these sorts of things under the radar all the time and just never get caught. Probably a matter of hedging your bets when/if it ever comes to blows with the other country. In any case, there should be definitive proof before pointing a finger, especially since the list of US enemies has grown exponentially in the last...oh decade or so.
I'm sure the pirates would love to see computer controlled, slow moving ships. Unless you have robots/zombies guarding them? Or sharks with frickin lasers on their heads?
I have found gibberlings three to be a great Infinity Engine modding site. http://www.gibberlings3.net/ Damn shame that gaming has become so mainstream. Companies like Black Isle get dismantled while crappy fluff games continue to thrive and make record profits because they have shiny new graphics. Nevermind that they have the same boring repetitive gameplay. *sigh* I get so tired of hearing "yeah but the graphics are dated" out of people when it comes to good games. They are missing the fragging point.
There are a lot of "other" OS's out there.
BSD (and all its derivatives)
NIX (and its flavors as well)
MAC
Windows...and a ton more that are either obscure or I simply have never heard of them. IMO Linux has come a LONG way in its driver support. Pretty impressive given the pedigrees of the established OSs listed above, props to the Kernel team and GNU/FSF project.
Not to mention it is a "free" service, no one has a right to demand it to be up anyway. You are storing your e-mail on google's servers and you pay nothing for it. If they need access to their crucial time-sensitive data then they should keep it themselves or pay for a service which will guarantee availability.
"One of the reasons why we actually prefer a really long window before we release a game is because we want a lot of feedback; we want to hear what people like and don't like about it; we want to give them several opportunities to play it before release."
Or it could be the fact they want their marketing machine ample time to get the hype running....
....and the Labor Unions, send more money to the Democrats. It sickens me to how bad they Labor Unions have been corrupted, I have no faith that the rank and file would support something like this. What should really scare everyone is this is bi-partisan. Once again, we have no real opposition party.
"The Bush administration is opposing sweeping legislation granting it the ability to prosecute civil cases of copyright infringement"
I mean, it's early so maybe I am sleep-hallucinating that the Bush Administration or DoJ actually refuses power. Then again, it could just be the typical arrogance of either of those groups that if they want it, they will just take it. Or, maybe the LHC did cause a time-space continuum rip before it went kaput and were just now seeing the effects.
Ha-ha, you assholes just proved my point. The second one breaks with the accepted ritual, no matter how proven to be detrimental, that person is immediately subjected to ridicule. If giving up a habit that is proven to make people stupid, obedient, and ignorant makes me an elitist then I guess sign me up. And because I guess I am an elitist I guess I should make the point I use the time for school, reading, and a daily gym/running exercise. Working education and fitness into the void where television went really makes me inferior doesn't it. So please, chortle amongst yourselves if it makes you feel better about your choice. Now run along, I am sure some enlightening sitcom is awaiting your presence.
I have a solution that will work for everyone. Unplug the boob tube and read a book or go outside. I haven't had cable television for about six years now and I don't miss it a bit. I never watch caveman cable either for that matter. You can always tell someone who has a high television diet. Twenty seconds in a conversation is generally enough to confirm suspicions. In any case, people really need to get away from the idiot box.
Smoking? You have to be kidding me. The only real powers the President has is the veto and Commander in Chief of the armed forces. Congress and the Senate can check him/her every step of the way. My entire point is that the Legislative branch has a significant amount of power to put a stop to any President who styles themselves king or dictator, but they wont because there is no real opposition party. Bush has granted himself quite a few powers but that is more due to the complacency and acquiescence of the House, Senate, and Judicial system. No real effort has been made to put a stop to it. And to attribute that to "predefined outcome" is an excuse. If you see something shady going on, you at least *try* to intervene. You don't sit back and watch going "oh no I cant stop it".
People never cease to amaze me. They really think that the establishment would allow someone to really try and change anything? Wake up people, the Dems are not the answer. They have had control of both the House and Senate for about two years now and *nothing* has changed. The people believed all the Dems bullshit about change then and look what happened? Congress and the Senate wield far more power than the President and they have not stopped the illegal war, nor have they brought the President to account for his crimes against the people of the United States, its Constitution or the rest of the world.
Everyone swept the Dems in to make all that happen and they sat on it. One of the first phrases out of Peloski's mouth was that impeachment was off the table. If their entire party failed to respond to an overwhelming demand from the people two years ago what really makes you think that is going to change now? Obama, even if he meant well could never buck the big business party or either of it's right wings. They blew smoke up our asses then, they're doing it again.
I am all about games having dark and brooding atmospheres, and maybe even a bit scary. But I am more about a game being a damn fun and well designed one because the developers had a vision and weren't playing appease-the-fanboys during the development process. Plus the gritty, dark, angsty look has been done to death. I like color.
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I am curious where you went to school. Mine tended cost around $50-120 and if you sold it back in mint condition you might get half of that back. Any sort of blemish (dog ear, crease in cover or a page, any marks, worn edges) immediately cut even that miserable sale price in half. Then they restocked the used books at about 10% less than new (regardless of their condition they cost the same in spite of the fact they screwed you based on damage).
Only recently has this monopoly been broken with the advent of online textbook purchasing, and prices are a bit more reasonable on the new prices. They still rape you on the used purchase/sell-back end but that can be circumvented if you keep an ear out and find people who just had the class and you're about to take it. Cut out the middle-man and both sides are happy. Higher learning has become such a racket driven by lust for profit.
Recently taking more classes we used e-book versions which I say was even more of a rip-off. The e-book cost about 40-60% of the dead-tree version, and they revoke access after about six months to a year, and of course you can't sell it back at all. Maybe I am weird but I prefer to keep my textbooks as reference and refreshers.
THIS. I ride a motorcycle and over time have learned to become highly aware of what everyone else is doing around me. I cannot tell you how many times I have almost been merged into by someone refusing to even turn their head to the side to see if someone is next to them. Cagers also love to pull out in front of us, ride our arses, and in general be effing dangerous to everyone around them. Would love to place it all at the feet of cell phone usage but most of the time it is simple lack of attention, putting on makeup, drinking their coffee, watching their GPS screen. The list goes on and on. Anymore I navigate in traffic with the main goal of trying to make sure as few of the bastards are around me at any given time. I wear full gear all the time but I have no illusions about my fate in a collision so a little paranoia has gone a long way.
The problem is people's attitude and lifestyle choices which includes cell phone usage. The major offenders seem to drive large vehicles such as minivans and SUV's but interestingly enough not large pickups or heavy haulers such as semi's and the like. My personal guess is that the same people who choose a vehicle based on how "safe" it is then stops caring about anyone else's safety. I hate saying it but Susie Homemaker seems to be the worst offender.
I think they are two different things. A safe is a physical object that holds, well physical objects. Not the same as encrypting data which is really just making information indecipherable. One hundred years ago today analogy would be closer to having a journal that the government wants to read but you wrote it in code.
Ultimately the developer dances to the pressures of the publisher who is usually the one holding the purse strings. The publisher may or may not dance to the pressure of the gamers clamoring the release or features or whatever. Usually what happens is publisher wants their investment return and wants it now, and starts leaning on the developer to get it done yesterday. If the game is rubbish then the developer runs massive PR and marketing on a level appropriate to how hyped the game was including trying to manipulate reviews. The fans have very little impact on the current model of development until sales time which impacts the future of the franchise. Good games get cranked out ad nauseum (sequels!) because they are shown to profit, and all the "me too" clones get developed to try and cash in. That is the current model of game development.
As for the proposed one by Gabe, I can help but wonder...what if I threw my lot in on games like Kane and Lynch, Army of Two, or FSM help us all: Duke Nuken Forever? I salute Gabe for at least trying to come up with an alternative but it will require a lot of work to refine and get off the ground.
I thought that a EULA could not be legally binding? Last I knew it wasn't a legal agreement, although it does give them ammunition in court...
Exactly. What is Valve thinking? Why on earth would you release a full fledged sequel so soon? Expansion packs? Nah, screw it just go ahead and split the community to turn more bucks? So are they telling us they are such great game creation gurus that within a short period of time a compelling sequel can be developed, that they only needed a year to fix any complaints, and add more content? Or should we see it as they screwed us with a watered down version before deciding to make the full version? Did we just pay $50-60 to play an introduction to the real game? Seems a little credible given that L4D was blasted for the meager content in the first place which of course Valve promised to add more of later. Tell you what Valve, how about we go back and call the original Left for Dead 0.5 and the new one just Left for Dead. This way I feel a lot better for having paid retail price for a game that only had four scenarios and a handful of guns types.
THIS! Nicely done Nursie, this is the reason why console sales are deceiving. Sure the Wii might be outselling the other consoles, but the Wii is sucking wind on peripherals and games post console purchase. It is easy to think that the Wii is doing awesome because everyone wants one. Problem is everyone wants a Wii and the games it comes with. It would be interesting to see some numbers to determine where Sony/Microsoft stand as far as the rest of the equation is concerned (profit in totality not just hardware). I am old school a bit, I think since games couldn't sell on how realistic or detailed they were developers were forced to be more creative, and it tended to weed out developers who didn't love the craft to begin with. That has all changed as the video game industry has become big money and everyone wants a slice. While there are some really great titles out there, we have a much larger selection to distract us, lots of developers now use pretty graphics to cover up design flaws, and every slime bucket who would screw the industry for money now has their greedy little fingers in it. This definitely has deteriorated the quality and attachment rate as gamers are now swept up into what I think is worse than the fashion industry.
The Wii I believe has committed the same crime as the pretties-over-substance crowds that Nintendo fanboys deride constantly. I am of the opinion that the Wii and the Touch Screen on the DS really are gimmicks; more creative (and successful?) gimmicks than their competitors yet gimmicks just the same. Graphics aside there really are not that many compelling games on the Wii. A few would be nice to play but it seems a lot of leftovers and shovelware ends up on that console; the former trying to broaden the demographic appeal, and the latter to make a buck on the motion gimmick to non-gamers who don't know any better. Don't get me wrong I loved the Gamecube. I think it had hands down the best controller ever created for a console. Problem is Nintendo took that old console and instead of improving upon it, decided to go the novelty route by shoehorning it into a smaller box and tied the gimmicky wii-mote to it. Worst part is if you ever bring any of these criticisms up to a Wii owner they get offended as if you just wiped your ass with their family bible. Now it appears that Microsoft is jumping on that bandwagon and it makes me very sad.
Familiarity breeds contempt. Not only would the questionable perk of viewing porn and other amusing things become boring after constant exposure, you get to wade through the eyesore garbage people post on their page as well. Sounds like an easy gig, but one can imagine that there is a constant mountain of paperwork and reports to fill out. If you ask me it smacks of a highly paid glorified clerk job.
Hey if Apple wants to reject a killer app from one of the most popular contemporary artists I guess that is their prerogative. Pretty stupid effiing move, and I guess Trent will have to take his application (and devoted money spending fans) elsewhere I guess...
Exactly. I had thought the original intent of laws like this was to protect an established company and/or product from shady unknown imitators who have contributed nothing and not the other way around. Pretty sure this will go nowhere in court, but these kind of shenanigans seem to be more common as time goes by. As OP stated, none of us had even heard of Android Data, and even if I had I sure as hell wouldn't confuse them with a phone OS developed by google.
Yes none too far in the past there was such a thing called serfdom. Now we have wage-slavery.
Nimbius has it right. If anything the US is a satellite of China now. Everything is made there, and at least for now it is in China's best interest to make sure the US can afford their slave made goods. That said, it doesn't mean that China will always want or need the US as a client. One can imagine that once their infrastructure is complete and they have caught up technologically (if they already haven't?) the only thing they will need other countries for is resources. It wouldn't surprise me if things of this nature were unofficially sanctioned by the Chinese government. I believe most if not all governments do these sorts of things under the radar all the time and just never get caught. Probably a matter of hedging your bets when/if it ever comes to blows with the other country. In any case, there should be definitive proof before pointing a finger, especially since the list of US enemies has grown exponentially in the last...oh decade or so.
I'm sure the pirates would love to see computer controlled, slow moving ships. Unless you have robots/zombies guarding them? Or sharks with frickin lasers on their heads?
I have found gibberlings three to be a great Infinity Engine modding site. http://www.gibberlings3.net/ Damn shame that gaming has become so mainstream. Companies like Black Isle get dismantled while crappy fluff games continue to thrive and make record profits because they have shiny new graphics. Nevermind that they have the same boring repetitive gameplay. *sigh* I get so tired of hearing "yeah but the graphics are dated" out of people when it comes to good games. They are missing the fragging point.
Nicely done. Sometimes you can almost hear the whip of whit come right back to crack the smartass. Fail + 2 Rockbox = good stuff.
There are a lot of "other" OS's out there. BSD (and all its derivatives) NIX (and its flavors as well) MAC Windows ...and a ton more that are either obscure or I simply have never heard of them. IMO Linux has come a LONG way in its driver support. Pretty impressive given the pedigrees of the established OSs listed above, props to the Kernel team and GNU/FSF project.
Not to mention it is a "free" service, no one has a right to demand it to be up anyway. You are storing your e-mail on google's servers and you pay nothing for it. If they need access to their crucial time-sensitive data then they should keep it themselves or pay for a service which will guarantee availability.
"One of the reasons why we actually prefer a really long window before we release a game is because we want a lot of feedback; we want to hear what people like and don't like about it; we want to give them several opportunities to play it before release." Or it could be the fact they want their marketing machine ample time to get the hype running....
....and the Labor Unions, send more money to the Democrats. It sickens me to how bad they Labor Unions have been corrupted, I have no faith that the rank and file would support something like this. What should really scare everyone is this is bi-partisan. Once again, we have no real opposition party.
"The Bush administration is opposing sweeping legislation granting it the ability to prosecute civil cases of copyright infringement" I mean, it's early so maybe I am sleep-hallucinating that the Bush Administration or DoJ actually refuses power. Then again, it could just be the typical arrogance of either of those groups that if they want it, they will just take it. Or, maybe the LHC did cause a time-space continuum rip before it went kaput and were just now seeing the effects.
Ha-ha, you assholes just proved my point. The second one breaks with the accepted ritual, no matter how proven to be detrimental, that person is immediately subjected to ridicule. If giving up a habit that is proven to make people stupid, obedient, and ignorant makes me an elitist then I guess sign me up. And because I guess I am an elitist I guess I should make the point I use the time for school, reading, and a daily gym/running exercise. Working education and fitness into the void where television went really makes me inferior doesn't it. So please, chortle amongst yourselves if it makes you feel better about your choice. Now run along, I am sure some enlightening sitcom is awaiting your presence.
I have a solution that will work for everyone. Unplug the boob tube and read a book or go outside. I haven't had cable television for about six years now and I don't miss it a bit. I never watch caveman cable either for that matter. You can always tell someone who has a high television diet. Twenty seconds in a conversation is generally enough to confirm suspicions. In any case, people really need to get away from the idiot box.
Smoking? You have to be kidding me. The only real powers the President has is the veto and Commander in Chief of the armed forces. Congress and the Senate can check him/her every step of the way. My entire point is that the Legislative branch has a significant amount of power to put a stop to any President who styles themselves king or dictator, but they wont because there is no real opposition party. Bush has granted himself quite a few powers but that is more due to the complacency and acquiescence of the House, Senate, and Judicial system. No real effort has been made to put a stop to it. And to attribute that to "predefined outcome" is an excuse. If you see something shady going on, you at least *try* to intervene. You don't sit back and watch going "oh no I cant stop it".
People never cease to amaze me. They really think that the establishment would allow someone to really try and change anything? Wake up people, the Dems are not the answer. They have had control of both the House and Senate for about two years now and *nothing* has changed. The people believed all the Dems bullshit about change then and look what happened? Congress and the Senate wield far more power than the President and they have not stopped the illegal war, nor have they brought the President to account for his crimes against the people of the United States, its Constitution or the rest of the world. Everyone swept the Dems in to make all that happen and they sat on it. One of the first phrases out of Peloski's mouth was that impeachment was off the table. If their entire party failed to respond to an overwhelming demand from the people two years ago what really makes you think that is going to change now? Obama, even if he meant well could never buck the big business party or either of it's right wings. They blew smoke up our asses then, they're doing it again.
I am all about games having dark and brooding atmospheres, and maybe even a bit scary. But I am more about a game being a damn fun and well designed one because the developers had a vision and weren't playing appease-the-fanboys during the development process. Plus the gritty, dark, angsty look has been done to death. I like color.