Deus Ex likely picked Steam DRM because of the lack of how willing players seem to be to use it and defend even defend it.
As for EULAs, no EULA can override my constitutional rights (in the US) and unless I actually break a law (like the DMCA to bypass DRMs) I can legally lend and give away my old games.
The Xbox/PS3/Wii DRM does not allow the user to close the official launcher and run a game downloaded other than from the official download service.
Thats not what DRM does. DRM attempts to prevent copying content, it is intended to prevent piracy. What you are complaining is a separate topic and has nothing to do with steam either. Of course you can quit steam and run other games, thats not a "Steam" feature, its a "Microsoft Windows" feature (same guys that make the xbox, funny.)
Can I run a game I buy from steam without having Steam running? Can I lend such a game? Can i resell it or give it away after I'm done with it?
And I've read that the DRM on major-label PC disc games that don't use Steam is just as bad as Steam.
Not in the consoles. But good thing you bring up pc discs that "dont use steam" because I got DeusEx 3 for PC and I was forced to tie it up to my Steam Account to play. Now I cant even lend or give away the physical copy. Thanks Steam!!! You have improved my quality of life!
I used to buy certain games in disc form precisely because I was able to share them legally when I was not using them. This is one of the things that is slowly choking the PC gaming market.
If you dont compare just to digital sales, Steam's DRM is way more restrictive than the DRM in any XBox/PS3/Wii Disk game, since all of those still allow you to lend and transfer ownership.
It's a guaranteed source of income despite service quality.
Remember how AT&T started renewing contracts earlier than normal when the iPhone 4 was announced, because they were very aware that Verizon was going to get it in 8 months and they wanted to make sure to lock into the network as many users as they were able to for 24 months.
It's very likely AT&T had a vague idea of Verizon's plans to drop unlimited data, and by the time their renewed contracts had expired the offer would no longer be available and grandfathered customers less likely to leave.
But Steam and Team Fortres are first party titles developed by Valve, owners of Steam. Do they offer that same API as part of Steamworks, though? Can anyone do the same?
I hope this does not get awarded, but my guess is they are going for a different approach of "service to offer in app purchase to a third party app".
Steam is, on itself, selling stuff for itself. If you want to buy DLC for a Steam game, you do that from the main Steam app.
Their claim may be one about being able to buy the DLC from within the app, but having the store (Steam or Apple) process it.
If that's what they are going for, I am not sure there is any prior art (Google offers it now in Android but it was added way after Apple offered it for iOS devs.)
Paypal may get close to that, since they have offered ways for you to process transactions from within applications, but they all required you to go through a web GUI and were not necessarily processed by the same store that initially sold the product (as they say, the Devil is in the details.)
Again, I honestly hope it does not get approved, but they MAY have reason to think it deserves a patent.
First, no matter how bad you think they will be, they will mange without you. They wont be working as smoothly but they will move ahead.
It's easy to think you are more vital than you really are just because you know every tiny intricacy of a system or THE system. Truth is, most capable developers will be able to, within reasonable time, catch up with you. Sometimes even a fresh mind may improve upon things that old ways of thinking didnt. I been at both ends of that reality. It's just the way things are.
Just be as polite as possible, if they approach asking why, you can tell them details of the offer and note that it would just not be wise to take such an offer as it's an increadible career advancement path. Offer as much help as you can, spend the next two weeks writing documentation, be as throughout as you can and helpful. In the future, this employer may be contacted for references so you dont want to be rude either. You want to make sure they can't say anything bad about you. Tell them you love the job, but you must think of your future.
They MAY ask you something along the lines of "what can we do to keep you?". At that point you can ask something along the lines of them matching the pay rate, but (if you are in a large company) it may not happen due to pay increase policies.
But answering the title: No, it does not pay to be loyal. Actually, being loyal is very expensive and comes out of your pocket. What pays is to be polite, efficient, helpful and making job transitions as smoth as you can for your old employer.
Some may fear the barista at the B&N Starbucks will now know the consumer was "cheating" on her with the barista of the Border's... coffee spot place... and that now she will never give them her phone number and miss any chance of dating her!:P
I got to say, I dont care in this case, unless B&N has a history of selling their customer data I don't know about, that is.
But this is just a company that (from my understanding) has exactly the same line of business than a company I entrusted my purchase data to. Not only that, now, if I want to buy books, the only big chain option is Barns & Nobles so I would likely restart my history there anyways.
So, why so many are making a buzz over this?
If this was Google or Facebook buying the data to "better target ads", I'd be hunting my junkmail to dig out that email and make sure I opt out.
This reminds me an episode of the Simpsons where Mr Burns is found guilty of some crime and asked to pay some "huge" amount, and he asks Smithers to get him his wallet and pays the fine cash as if nothing happened.
I think I used the wrong word. It IS admirable that they are leaping out of the middle ages, i just meant the path they are taking is not exactly, as you said, an innovative one.
I guess the perception of china is two fold. In one hand you have people that were born from parents that themselves were born with the current level of legally protected human rights. For these individuals, any country that has not given their citizens the same levels of human rights is "evil". To be honest, it's as silly of an expectation as saying monkeys are evil for not evolving into tool using animals. Despite globalization, china is it's own country with it's own "civil evolution".
The other point, is that China, is becoming the country equivalent of the "new rich" families dressing badly in a high class charity dinner, everyone starts talking about them even if the "new rich" family happened to be the wealthiest one. In similar fashion, when we see Chinese government do things we don't consider appropriate, we are very quick to judge.
Despite the current government imposed friction, I'd not be shocked (nor be alive to be) if China found itself in a better quality of living state than the United States within 100 years.
Because China is starting to actually develop into a civilized country. They are going through an accelerated modernization process. They are doing what the US took about a century in about 10 years, and they are doing it all in large scale.
It's not necessarily admirable, since they are just copying existing processes, but they are getting attention that suddenly notices the parts that are still in a "pre-civil-rights" status.
Brazil is still the same Brazil it was years ago and from what I hear is only regressing, not evolving, so it has nothing to call the world attention it's way.
In all seriousness: I have a close friend with family in Brazil. Last time he was there, one of his uncles was talking about his job: he mines gold. I am not entirely familiar with the process, but he mixes mercury with water and ore with his bare hands to do... I am not sure what.
When my friend's jaw dropped and told his uncle that he was killing himself, his uncle just told him, in less polite words "you are a real pu$$y boy, aren't you?"
Point? I am sure as stressful as the conditions in a Foxconn facility may resemble slavery, it can't be worse than what many are doing to "stay alive" already.
Not as easily. I heard a few stories (sorry dont have any to share right now since I stopped paying attention a LONG time ago) about trolling and abuse of the "democratic" moderation the indie program uses. Games may be blocked, or devs with big lists of facebook friends may get your game horrible ratings as you dont need to actually own the game to rate it. You are also restricted how to develop (even Apple and it's closed garden allow you to use native code or third party game engines, while you are forced to use XNA in the XBox.)
Microsoft also hides this xbox live section in a way that you must be basically looking for it. You are, clearly labeled as a third class citizen and dont allow to share space with the big games. Meanwhile Apple and Google don't play favorites in their stores. EA's games are just as visible as John Smith's games.
I'll give you that its better than, let's say the Wii, and in some ways it's a better bone toss than what Steam and Impulse do, but it's far from being "the most level playing field in existance yet."
Although the App Store can certainly be better, its still way more fair than any game distribution platform out there.
Try to sit down over the weekend, make a game, and get it published in the PS3, Wii, or XBox Live online stores. Heck, try to do that with Steam or Impulse. The consoles are goint to ignore you and 99% chances are the PC stores will politely reject you. Steam and Impulse promote almost everything they get but they do so because they also heavily filter what they accept to only things they would feel proud promoting.
There is always the Android app store, but most that audience does not want to spend money and you must already carry some popularity and momentum to attract the attention of those that are willing to do so, so iOS App Store comes on top by being a platform that actually places you in front of a paying target market.
I look forward to the Kindle Fire. Although the Amazon App Store for Android sucks for developers at the moment (due to them reserving the right to change prices without your consent) It still seems like a platform that may be as "open" (relative to other game platforms) as the iOS App Store and also have an audience that likes to spend money.
Yes, I would love to see some improvements in the categorization, and definitively a removal of the Top 25 button that is dead center of the screen. Yes, Apple promotes some games over others, but if you look at the list (categories, sort by release date), and then head to the "Featured New arrivals" section you may notice eveything that seems to have any effort put into it gets highlighted in the weekly featured new section.
Even if Apple does not perceive your game to be a quality product, once in the iOS App Store, you can try your luck and spend some moeny advertizing your game. Distribute flyiers if you want, web site banners are not the only way to promote software. Xerox or print a bunch of promotional material and put that in every clipboard you find at your local university campus, for example.
Problem with most iOS (and Android actually) devs is they make something over the weekend, toss it in the appstore or marketplace and sit back waiting for money to roll in. It is the developer's responsability to let the people know the game is there, or yo think Walmart bothers telling people Colgate is good for their teeth? Store's jobs are to stock up, not to market. Any marketing you get out of plain visibility is just a bonus and should not be your only marketing strategy.
My understanding (I may be wrong) is that you can opt not to use Silk. As long as its not on by default, there are no privacy issues (opting in is willing declaration you dont care.)
If it's on by default, and you must hunt down how to turn it off, then yea, privacy is indeed an issue as most users may never realize they are even using it.
Even then, I dont think Amazon sells private data they collect. They use it, allright, but selling it just allows potential competitors to catch up with them. It's in their best interest (unlike Goolge or Facebook) to keep this data private.
Lets be honest: mostly no one ever accepted the MMOs as official Final Fantasy games despite them being numbered. Yes, the game is horrible, and likely many will never again touch a SquareEnix MMO ever again (I gave them too much credit expecting them to not be capable of doing worse than FFXI again.)
But the Final Fantasy brand HAS been damaged big time and it had little to do with XIV. It was the horrendous XIII that had those honors. I think to this day I have not met a single Final Fantasy fan (in person, online I have seen very very few) that has not hated that long corridor game.
Now, I am talking from a western perspective. Perhaps the japanese market took the online games seriously? Doubt it but who knows.
I have always assumed that both, Facebook and Google have always done everything they can to track and identify me even if I am not logged in to any of their services.
If there is a "Like" button, I assume its too late, Facebook tracked my visit. And if the site uses Google Analytics (and it seems everyone in the world does) I also assume Google tracked me and as soon as I log in they will tie up all collected data to my Google account, if they have not already tied the data to the last used account in in the computer or IP address.
Until it becomes an enforceable crime to track users over the Internet without their explicit consent, total web privacy will be a lost battle. I try to use NoScript and other solutions that attempt to help, but expect both services to constantly work ways to get around any client side barricade I may place.
If missing the bus and noticing too late after no one was in school, or getting into the wrong one and arriving to an entirely inknown place are not good enough reason for you, then I hope you are not a parent, or that your town is stuck in the 80s with pay phones in every corner and your kid hangs out with a pocket full of quarters.
Slashdot Mirror
The real issue with it is how much of a dork you look like talking to your phone.
Back in the olden days, talking into your phone was all you could do with it.
Thats so 2007.
Deus Ex likely picked Steam DRM because of the lack of how willing players seem to be to use it and defend even defend it.
As for EULAs, no EULA can override my constitutional rights (in the US) and unless I actually break a law (like the DMCA to bypass DRMs) I can legally lend and give away my old games.
The Xbox/PS3/Wii DRM does not allow the user to close the official launcher and run a game downloaded other than from the official download service.
Thats not what DRM does. DRM attempts to prevent copying content, it is intended to prevent piracy. What you are complaining is a separate topic and has nothing to do with steam either. Of course you can quit steam and run other games, thats not a "Steam" feature, its a "Microsoft Windows" feature (same guys that make the xbox, funny.)
Can I run a game I buy from steam without having Steam running? Can I lend such a game? Can i resell it or give it away after I'm done with it?
And I've read that the DRM on major-label PC disc games that don't use Steam is just as bad as Steam.
Not in the consoles. But good thing you bring up pc discs that "dont use steam" because I got DeusEx 3 for PC and I was forced to tie it up to my Steam Account to play. Now I cant even lend or give away the physical copy. Thanks Steam!!! You have improved my quality of life!
I used to buy certain games in disc form precisely because I was able to share them legally when I was not using them. This is one of the things that is slowly choking the PC gaming market.
If you dont compare just to digital sales, Steam's DRM is way more restrictive than the DRM in any XBox/PS3/Wii Disk game, since all of those still allow you to lend and transfer ownership.
It's a guaranteed source of income despite service quality.
Remember how AT&T started renewing contracts earlier than normal when the iPhone 4 was announced, because they were very aware that Verizon was going to get it in 8 months and they wanted to make sure to lock into the network as many users as they were able to for 24 months.
It's very likely AT&T had a vague idea of Verizon's plans to drop unlimited data, and by the time their renewed contracts had expired the offer would no longer be available and grandfathered customers less likely to leave.
But Steam and Team Fortres are first party titles developed by Valve, owners of Steam. Do they offer that same API as part of Steamworks, though? Can anyone do the same?
I hope this does not get awarded, but my guess is they are going for a different approach of "service to offer in app purchase to a third party app".
Steam is, on itself, selling stuff for itself. If you want to buy DLC for a Steam game, you do that from the main Steam app.
Their claim may be one about being able to buy the DLC from within the app, but having the store (Steam or Apple) process it.
If that's what they are going for, I am not sure there is any prior art (Google offers it now in Android but it was added way after Apple offered it for iOS devs.)
Paypal may get close to that, since they have offered ways for you to process transactions from within applications, but they all required you to go through a web GUI and were not necessarily processed by the same store that initially sold the product (as they say, the Devil is in the details.)
Again, I honestly hope it does not get approved, but they MAY have reason to think it deserves a patent.
First, no matter how bad you think they will be, they will mange without you. They wont be working as smoothly but they will move ahead.
It's easy to think you are more vital than you really are just because you know every tiny intricacy of a system or THE system. Truth is, most capable developers will be able to, within reasonable time, catch up with you. Sometimes even a fresh mind may improve upon things that old ways of thinking didnt. I been at both ends of that reality. It's just the way things are.
Just be as polite as possible, if they approach asking why, you can tell them details of the offer and note that it would just not be wise to take such an offer as it's an increadible career advancement path. Offer as much help as you can, spend the next two weeks writing documentation, be as throughout as you can and helpful. In the future, this employer may be contacted for references so you dont want to be rude either. You want to make sure they can't say anything bad about you. Tell them you love the job, but you must think of your future.
They MAY ask you something along the lines of "what can we do to keep you?". At that point you can ask something along the lines of them matching the pay rate, but (if you are in a large company) it may not happen due to pay increase policies.
But answering the title: No, it does not pay to be loyal. Actually, being loyal is very expensive and comes out of your pocket. What pays is to be polite, efficient, helpful and making job transitions as smoth as you can for your old employer.
It's like having the TSA in your computer!!!
Some may fear the barista at the B&N Starbucks will now know the consumer was "cheating" on her with the barista of the Border's... coffee spot place... and that now she will never give them her phone number and miss any chance of dating her! :P
I got to say, I dont care in this case, unless B&N has a history of selling their customer data I don't know about, that is.
But this is just a company that (from my understanding) has exactly the same line of business than a company I entrusted my purchase data to. Not only that, now, if I want to buy books, the only big chain option is Barns & Nobles so I would likely restart my history there anyways.
So, why so many are making a buzz over this?
If this was Google or Facebook buying the data to "better target ads", I'd be hunting my junkmail to dig out that email and make sure I opt out.
This reminds me an episode of the Simpsons where Mr Burns is found guilty of some crime and asked to pay some "huge" amount, and he asks Smithers to get him his wallet and pays the fine cash as if nothing happened.
I think I used the wrong word. It IS admirable that they are leaping out of the middle ages, i just meant the path they are taking is not exactly, as you said, an innovative one.
I guess the perception of china is two fold. In one hand you have people that were born from parents that themselves were born with the current level of legally protected human rights. For these individuals, any country that has not given their citizens the same levels of human rights is "evil". To be honest, it's as silly of an expectation as saying monkeys are evil for not evolving into tool using animals. Despite globalization, china is it's own country with it's own "civil evolution".
The other point, is that China, is becoming the country equivalent of the "new rich" families dressing badly in a high class charity dinner, everyone starts talking about them even if the "new rich" family happened to be the wealthiest one. In similar fashion, when we see Chinese government do things we don't consider appropriate, we are very quick to judge.
Despite the current government imposed friction, I'd not be shocked (nor be alive to be) if China found itself in a better quality of living state than the United States within 100 years.
Because China is starting to actually develop into a civilized country. They are going through an accelerated modernization process. They are doing what the US took about a century in about 10 years, and they are doing it all in large scale.
It's not necessarily admirable, since they are just copying existing processes, but they are getting attention that suddenly notices the parts that are still in a "pre-civil-rights" status.
Brazil is still the same Brazil it was years ago and from what I hear is only regressing, not evolving, so it has nothing to call the world attention it's way.
In all seriousness: I have a close friend with family in Brazil. Last time he was there, one of his uncles was talking about his job: he mines gold. I am not entirely familiar with the process, but he mixes mercury with water and ore with his bare hands to do... I am not sure what.
When my friend's jaw dropped and told his uncle that he was killing himself, his uncle just told him, in less polite words "you are a real pu$$y boy, aren't you?"
Point? I am sure as stressful as the conditions in a Foxconn facility may resemble slavery, it can't be worse than what many are doing to "stay alive" already.
Not as easily. I heard a few stories (sorry dont have any to share right now since I stopped paying attention a LONG time ago) about trolling and abuse of the "democratic" moderation the indie program uses. Games may be blocked, or devs with big lists of facebook friends may get your game horrible ratings as you dont need to actually own the game to rate it. You are also restricted how to develop (even Apple and it's closed garden allow you to use native code or third party game engines, while you are forced to use XNA in the XBox.)
Microsoft also hides this xbox live section in a way that you must be basically looking for it. You are, clearly labeled as a third class citizen and dont allow to share space with the big games. Meanwhile Apple and Google don't play favorites in their stores. EA's games are just as visible as John Smith's games.
I'll give you that its better than, let's say the Wii, and in some ways it's a better bone toss than what Steam and Impulse do, but it's far from being "the most level playing field in existance yet."
They also signed up with a "publisher" (Chillingo) who did most the marketting legwork in exchange of about 50% of the profits (post Apple's cut.)
Current top app is Where's My Water (iPhone app store.)
Although the App Store can certainly be better, its still way more fair than any game distribution platform out there.
Try to sit down over the weekend, make a game, and get it published in the PS3, Wii, or XBox Live online stores. Heck, try to do that with Steam or Impulse. The consoles are goint to ignore you and 99% chances are the PC stores will politely reject you. Steam and Impulse promote almost everything they get but they do so because they also heavily filter what they accept to only things they would feel proud promoting.
There is always the Android app store, but most that audience does not want to spend money and you must already carry some popularity and momentum to attract the attention of those that are willing to do so, so iOS App Store comes on top by being a platform that actually places you in front of a paying target market.
I look forward to the Kindle Fire. Although the Amazon App Store for Android sucks for developers at the moment (due to them reserving the right to change prices without your consent) It still seems like a platform that may be as "open" (relative to other game platforms) as the iOS App Store and also have an audience that likes to spend money.
Yes, I would love to see some improvements in the categorization, and definitively a removal of the Top 25 button that is dead center of the screen. Yes, Apple promotes some games over others, but if you look at the list (categories, sort by release date), and then head to the "Featured New arrivals" section you may notice eveything that seems to have any effort put into it gets highlighted in the weekly featured new section.
Even if Apple does not perceive your game to be a quality product, once in the iOS App Store, you can try your luck and spend some moeny advertizing your game. Distribute flyiers if you want, web site banners are not the only way to promote software. Xerox or print a bunch of promotional material and put that in every clipboard you find at your local university campus, for example.
Problem with most iOS (and Android actually) devs is they make something over the weekend, toss it in the appstore or marketplace and sit back waiting for money to roll in. It is the developer's responsability to let the people know the game is there, or yo think Walmart bothers telling people Colgate is good for their teeth? Store's jobs are to stock up, not to market. Any marketing you get out of plain visibility is just a bonus and should not be your only marketing strategy.
My understanding (I may be wrong) is that you can opt not to use Silk. As long as its not on by default, there are no privacy issues (opting in is willing declaration you dont care.)
If it's on by default, and you must hunt down how to turn it off, then yea, privacy is indeed an issue as most users may never realize they are even using it.
Even then, I dont think Amazon sells private data they collect. They use it, allright, but selling it just allows potential competitors to catch up with them. It's in their best interest (unlike Goolge or Facebook) to keep this data private.
From the summary:
Silk is different from other browsers because it can be configured to let Amazon's
It can be configured. Or it can be ignored. As long as it's an Opt-In feature, and not an Opt-out one, the right to privacy is preserved.
Real problem comes when they make these things "Opt Out", specially if the opt-out settings are as out of the way (and often buggy) as Facebook's.
I'd jump into a revamped AC1 with updated graphics.
Lets be honest: mostly no one ever accepted the MMOs as official Final Fantasy games despite them being numbered. Yes, the game is horrible, and likely many will never again touch a SquareEnix MMO ever again (I gave them too much credit expecting them to not be capable of doing worse than FFXI again.)
But the Final Fantasy brand HAS been damaged big time and it had little to do with XIV. It was the horrendous XIII that had those honors. I think to this day I have not met a single Final Fantasy fan (in person, online I have seen very very few) that has not hated that long corridor game.
Now, I am talking from a western perspective. Perhaps the japanese market took the online games seriously? Doubt it but who knows.
I have always assumed that both, Facebook and Google have always done everything they can to track and identify me even if I am not logged in to any of their services.
If there is a "Like" button, I assume its too late, Facebook tracked my visit. And if the site uses Google Analytics (and it seems everyone in the world does) I also assume Google tracked me and as soon as I log in they will tie up all collected data to my Google account, if they have not already tied the data to the last used account in in the computer or IP address.
Until it becomes an enforceable crime to track users over the Internet without their explicit consent, total web privacy will be a lost battle. I try to use NoScript and other solutions that attempt to help, but expect both services to constantly work ways to get around any client side barricade I may place.
If missing the bus and noticing too late after no one was in school, or getting into the wrong one and arriving to an entirely inknown place are not good enough reason for you, then I hope you are not a parent, or that your town is stuck in the 80s with pay phones in every corner and your kid hangs out with a pocket full of quarters.