Valve has said before that, in the event they vanish, they can throw a switch and remove all DRM on their games. I've seen a forum post where they said "We've tested it, and it works." If stuff really hits the fan and Steam evaporates, I feel reasonably confident that they will unlock all that data. Heck, I bet if that happened we could even play TF5 over the internet, given their willingness to provide dedicated servers.
Yeah cus magically that switch will make all the games that use the Steam APIs for multiplayer work...
And that's what would be their top priority as well - when dealing with bankrupcy. Making sure to deploy that fix for their customers - and supporting it.
I don't see your logic here. You have something that increases costs, doesn't increase sales, but still somehow increases profit? The profit from selling any product is the per-unit price, minus the per-unit costs, multiplied by the number of sales. You've agreed that adding DRM drives up the per-unit costs and decreases the number of sales (albeit by a small amount), but you still somehow contend that DRM increases profits?
No, the error you're making is due to a lack of understanding about the subject matter you are commenting on.
For computer games, profit is not measured per unit sale. The way game development works is that a dev is given an advance by a publisher to make a game. This is their budget, they have to pay artists, programmers, managers, etc. to produce the game. Theoretically the would also get a small % of game sales AFTER the publisher recoups their cost (advertising, promotion, the advance, etc.). The accounting used by game publishers is similar to that used by Hollywood - and game devs generally never get any % of sales due to that.
So let's discuss who's "profit" you're talking about? The game developer studio? If they built it into their rates, and they budgeted appropriately, and didn't blow their budget, hopefully they get a profit via the advance.
The publisher? Hopefully gross sales exceed all costs. This is not a "per box" basis.
So DRM DOES increase profit for the publisher if it helps convert pirates to sales. That's another debate.
Really?I can't seem to get my Supreme Commander 2 working in multiplayer when my Internet connection is down. I'd like to play w/friends and my kids on my LAN. Can you help me? Amazing how many ppl argue FOR steam without understanding the limitations imposed by devs using that platform. I can't count how many times I've heard people say "Just play in offline mode" as though they had a clue.
The idea sounds fantastic because it preserves the principle of ownership. I could actually resell a game, or buy a used game. Which is exactly why no game devs will adopt it. They LOVE that Steam killed the used game market.
Let's see, on Slashdot, will the Slashtards want to be able to goof off at work and browse porn, or will they have common sense and understand what work is, and that you have sold your time to your employer and are supposed to be working for them while you're at work.
And? Would't be hard to have a system requirement Debian base? You know... like many games require Windows Vista +, so you are fscked on XP or 2000.
There's XP, Vista, and 7. How many VERSIONS of Linux distros have come and gone since XP was first released?
Yes because Redhat are bankrupt and Novell also and IBM too and oh yes, Google also.
Novell is just about Bankrupt. You're comparing shrink-wrapped software sales with a search engine? This level of cluelessness requires me to stop reading your post.
You can't sell software to freetards. After all, "INFORMATION WANTS TO BE FREE" is the freetard mantra, and Steam is all about making sure it's not free. Why does anyone care about this story?
Do you really think that this fools' home computer security is "off the scale" such that the US Govt couldn't tamper with it? Puh-lease. Don't be so naive.
Wait, you're running a product that provides registry/file virtualization on an OS that already provides registry/file virtualization (windows 7)? This makes sense how?
You're a nutcase. Point # 1 is pure ignorance. Intel CPUs/MMUs have had memory protection - or do you think that Linux, QNX, Windows NT, etc. all implement it in software? I've also run UNIX-like OSs on hardware that didn't have memory protection. Having an MMU with memory protection does NOT prevent you from running malware and having your system compromosid. Memory protection is just a total non-issue since all modern general purpose OSs implement it.
The question about why they are buying a shitty AV company is valid, but your point #1 and your ridiculous rant about Linux vs Windows just demonstrates you're a typical underinformed freetard talking about things you don't understand.
At least when I see an Apple user I know he is different, intellectual person I can have a good conversation with. He is not just there to talk with me because he has malware on his computer. I am studying art currently and having the iPad makes a complete difference on how other students and professors look at me. They know I'm an artist and an intellectual person.
I can't wait to get this device on my hands.
So you're saying that without your iPad, your peers and mentors would see you as the the uncreative imbecilic lemming you truly are? Well then yes, by all means snatch up this latest techno-accessory from the Bluefly wall.
A Slashdot +5 Insightful is (usually) a sign that you've used your brain to assemble and share a coherent thought, and that others found it interesting enough that they want others to see it, too.
And what would you rather be known for -- Having interesting ideas that get read by thousands of smart people, or being the guy that eats at Taco Bell five times a week? What is more "meaningful"?
Wait, the smart people thing is talking about Slashdot readers? And Taco Bell is a cool local restaurant that doesn't advertise? I want some of what you're smoking please.
The singularity is to nerds what the rapture is to fundamentalist protestant wackjobs....
After one reads an article about the infinite complexity of the human brain, one has to wonder if the fundamentalist protestants (people who believe that we had to have been created due to the immense complexity of even the tiniest cell) are the whackjobs, as opposed to those who are satisfied with the theory that life evolved from inorganic chemical compounds, totally by chance, with a series of ininitely improbable events occurring in the right sequence over and over and over again.
Darwin made the same basic mistake as Ray Kurzweil, he made assumptions about how simple things are (e.g. the "simple" cell).
Today, we have a huge trade in marijuana, but there are a lot of people that simply don't use it because it is illegal.
I hear that all the time, but I've never met a single person who never took drugs who would if they were legal. That person doesn't exist.
Your reasoning is so flawed and arrogant. You probably have never met an Islamic terrorist - does this mean they don't exist? Naive narrow-minded fool.
http://constitutionalistnc.tripod.com/hitler-leftist/id14.html
There's your citation. How about some 1st hand testimony? I come from an eastern european communist dictatorship instituded by the Russians. First the Nazis came and confiscated all the weapons in WWII, then the Russians finished the job. We were left powerless with a horrible dictator in place.
People just have no clue how important an armed citizenry is in ensuring liberty.
If someone makes a copy, you still have all your info, so you haven't really lost anything, right?
Isn't that what many folks here have been telling us? If you download data, it's just a copy. You're not depriving the owner of any property, so it isn't theft.
How is making a copy of your SSN or other identifying information theft or loss? Data wants to free, right?
OMG SO GOOD! You win!:) If I knew how to give you points I would.
The shotgun is, in all senses, instant puberty, which is to say, delicately, that to obtain it is to have the assumed added potency that a boy believes a man possesses vis a vis a world on which he'd like to have some impact.
Shut the fuck up you pretentious son of a bitch, viz a viz my ass.
This is not a game for you to play so don't try to change it so it is.
People keep writing this. Let me get this straight. EVE is not a game for pussies. So it's a game for toughguys? Given the choice between categorizing players of a sci-fi MMO as toughguys or pussies, I'm forced to go with pussies. You're playing an MMO for crying out loud, you're not engaging in street fighting.
I think the term you EVE toughguys are looking for is "casual player" not "pussy". But whatever makes you feel tough about playing a SCI-FI MMO. From what I hear, EVE is for pussies and UO or Lineage are for toughguys. You see what I did there?
There's a lot more to the case than what people have read on slashdot. If you read the actual interview with the juror, you may gain some insight as to why this turned out the way it did. I found this part interesting...
IDG News: Going back, what was the one step he could have done to avoid prison?
Chilton: If he would have simply said, "I will create you an account and you can go in and you can remove my access if you want." If he had created access for someone else, I think that would have resolved it. If he had not decided to leave and go to Nevada a few days later and withdraw US$10,000 in cash, [Childs did this the day before his arrest, while under police surveillance] I think the police may have let it continue on as an employment issue and not a criminal matter.
Slashdot Mirror
Valve has said before that, in the event they vanish, they can throw a switch and remove all DRM on their games. I've seen a forum post where they said "We've tested it, and it works." If stuff really hits the fan and Steam evaporates, I feel reasonably confident that they will unlock all that data. Heck, I bet if that happened we could even play TF5 over the internet, given their willingness to provide dedicated servers.
Yeah cus magically that switch will make all the games that use the Steam APIs for multiplayer work... And that's what would be their top priority as well - when dealing with bankrupcy. Making sure to deploy that fix for their customers - and supporting it.
I don't see your logic here. You have something that increases costs, doesn't increase sales, but still somehow increases profit? The profit from selling any product is the per-unit price, minus the per-unit costs, multiplied by the number of sales. You've agreed that adding DRM drives up the per-unit costs and decreases the number of sales (albeit by a small amount), but you still somehow contend that DRM increases profits?
No, the error you're making is due to a lack of understanding about the subject matter you are commenting on. For computer games, profit is not measured per unit sale. The way game development works is that a dev is given an advance by a publisher to make a game. This is their budget, they have to pay artists, programmers, managers, etc. to produce the game. Theoretically the would also get a small % of game sales AFTER the publisher recoups their cost (advertising, promotion, the advance, etc.). The accounting used by game publishers is similar to that used by Hollywood - and game devs generally never get any % of sales due to that. So let's discuss who's "profit" you're talking about? The game developer studio? If they built it into their rates, and they budgeted appropriately, and didn't blow their budget, hopefully they get a profit via the advance. The publisher? Hopefully gross sales exceed all costs. This is not a "per box" basis. So DRM DOES increase profit for the publisher if it helps convert pirates to sales. That's another debate.
Really?I can't seem to get my Supreme Commander 2 working in multiplayer when my Internet connection is down. I'd like to play w/friends and my kids on my LAN. Can you help me? Amazing how many ppl argue FOR steam without understanding the limitations imposed by devs using that platform. I can't count how many times I've heard people say "Just play in offline mode" as though they had a clue.
The idea sounds fantastic because it preserves the principle of ownership. I could actually resell a game, or buy a used game. Which is exactly why no game devs will adopt it. They LOVE that Steam killed the used game market.
Let's see, on Slashdot, will the Slashtards want to be able to goof off at work and browse porn, or will they have common sense and understand what work is, and that you have sold your time to your employer and are supposed to be working for them while you're at work.
World of Warcraft and EVE online run just fine on Linux with WINE. Neither company uses DRM on their client.
Why would SaaS need DRM? You have to pay a monthly fee to use the software... Why are so many clueless people replying? Wait - slashdot....
And? Would't be hard to have a system requirement Debian base? You know ... like many games require Windows Vista +, so you are fscked on XP or 2000.
There's XP, Vista, and 7. How many VERSIONS of Linux distros have come and gone since XP was first released?
Yes because Redhat are bankrupt and Novell also and IBM too and oh yes, Google also.
Novell is just about Bankrupt. You're comparing shrink-wrapped software sales with a search engine? This level of cluelessness requires me to stop reading your post.
You can't sell software to freetards. After all, "INFORMATION WANTS TO BE FREE" is the freetard mantra, and Steam is all about making sure it's not free. Why does anyone care about this story?
Do you really think that this fools' home computer security is "off the scale" such that the US Govt couldn't tamper with it? Puh-lease. Don't be so naive.
Wait, you're running a product that provides registry/file virtualization on an OS that already provides registry/file virtualization (windows 7)? This makes sense how?
You're a nutcase. Point # 1 is pure ignorance. Intel CPUs/MMUs have had memory protection - or do you think that Linux, QNX, Windows NT, etc. all implement it in software? I've also run UNIX-like OSs on hardware that didn't have memory protection. Having an MMU with memory protection does NOT prevent you from running malware and having your system compromosid. Memory protection is just a total non-issue since all modern general purpose OSs implement it. The question about why they are buying a shitty AV company is valid, but your point #1 and your ridiculous rant about Linux vs Windows just demonstrates you're a typical underinformed freetard talking about things you don't understand.
Why would they buy the absolutely worst A/V sofftware company ever?
$99 + $35 S&H seems high for what it is.
At least when I see an Apple user I know he is different, intellectual person I can have a good conversation with. He is not just there to talk with me because he has malware on his computer. I am studying art currently and having the iPad makes a complete difference on how other students and professors look at me. They know I'm an artist and an intellectual person.
I can't wait to get this device on my hands.
So you're saying that without your iPad, your peers and mentors would see you as the the uncreative imbecilic lemming you truly are? Well then yes, by all means snatch up this latest techno-accessory from the Bluefly wall.
What's Facebook?
It's malware designed to make life easy for identity thieves and other criminals.
A Slashdot +5 Insightful is (usually) a sign that you've used your brain to assemble and share a coherent thought, and that others found it interesting enough that they want others to see it, too.
And what would you rather be known for -- Having interesting ideas that get read by thousands of smart people, or being the guy that eats at Taco Bell five times a week? What is more "meaningful"?
Wait, the smart people thing is talking about Slashdot readers? And Taco Bell is a cool local restaurant that doesn't advertise? I want some of what you're smoking please.
Someone who thinks Facebook could take over Google (from TFA). So yeah, move on.
The singularity is to nerds what the rapture is to fundamentalist protestant wackjobs....
After one reads an article about the infinite complexity of the human brain, one has to wonder if the fundamentalist protestants (people who believe that we had to have been created due to the immense complexity of even the tiniest cell) are the whackjobs, as opposed to those who are satisfied with the theory that life evolved from inorganic chemical compounds, totally by chance, with a series of ininitely improbable events occurring in the right sequence over and over and over again. Darwin made the same basic mistake as Ray Kurzweil, he made assumptions about how simple things are (e.g. the "simple" cell).
Today, we have a huge trade in marijuana, but there are a lot of people that simply don't use it because it is illegal. I hear that all the time, but I've never met a single person who never took drugs who would if they were legal. That person doesn't exist.
Your reasoning is so flawed and arrogant. You probably have never met an Islamic terrorist - does this mean they don't exist? Naive narrow-minded fool.
http://constitutionalistnc.tripod.com/hitler-leftist/id14.html There's your citation. How about some 1st hand testimony? I come from an eastern european communist dictatorship instituded by the Russians. First the Nazis came and confiscated all the weapons in WWII, then the Russians finished the job. We were left powerless with a horrible dictator in place. People just have no clue how important an armed citizenry is in ensuring liberty.
How do you "lose" your personal info?
If someone makes a copy, you still have all your info, so you haven't really lost anything, right?
Isn't that what many folks here have been telling us? If you download data, it's just a copy. You're not depriving the owner of any property, so it isn't theft.
How is making a copy of your SSN or other identifying information theft or loss? Data wants to free, right?
OMG SO GOOD! You win! :) If I knew how to give you points I would.
Probably too good to be true?
The shotgun is, in all senses, instant puberty, which is to say, delicately, that to obtain it is to have the assumed added potency that a boy believes a man possesses vis a vis a world on which he'd like to have some impact.
Shut the fuck up you pretentious son of a bitch, viz a viz my ass.
This is not a game for pussies.
This is not a game for you to play so don't try to change it so it is.
People keep writing this. Let me get this straight. EVE is not a game for pussies. So it's a game for toughguys? Given the choice between categorizing players of a sci-fi MMO as toughguys or pussies, I'm forced to go with pussies. You're playing an MMO for crying out loud, you're not engaging in street fighting.
I think the term you EVE toughguys are looking for is "casual player" not "pussy". But whatever makes you feel tough about playing a SCI-FI MMO. From what I hear, EVE is for pussies and UO or Lineage are for toughguys. You see what I did there?
There's a lot more to the case than what people have read on slashdot. If you read the actual interview with the juror, you may gain some insight as to why this turned out the way it did. I found this part interesting...
IDG News: Going back, what was the one step he could have done to avoid prison?
Chilton: If he would have simply said, "I will create you an account and you can go in and you can remove my access if you want." If he had created access for someone else, I think that would have resolved it. If he had not decided to leave and go to Nevada a few days later and withdraw US$10,000 in cash, [Childs did this the day before his arrest, while under police surveillance] I think the police may have let it continue on as an employment issue and not a criminal matter.