You're never going to see Commander Keen in an UR3 environment, though.
The people who made that game have since moved on to other games that a few people may have heard about, games such as Wolfenstein, Doom, and Quake.
(Plus I think Doom II featured a hidden dead Commander Keen anyway.)
Although they did license a GBA version of Commander Keen that was apparently terrible. Too bad, because Commander Keen 4 was one of my favorite games on the PC at the time.
I've been thinking about side-scrolling 3D games - Crash Bandicoot essentially did it in some places (mostly bonus levels), and it was a lot of fun. I'd really like to see some more basic side-scrolling games like done like that. The controls would be just like classic SMB3, but the graphics would be in 3D. I think games like that still have a market, somewhere. I hope so, at least.
This is one of the things that's nice about open source (and really freaking annoying at the same time) - you can just decide to forget about backwards compatibility and go ahead and break old stuff. Since the source is open, someone can fix old programs to match the new API.
I'm sure most people here has had some experience with Mozilla deciding to alter some bit of the codebase to make it cleaner and it breaking some extension. It's "OK" because most of the extensions are open source, and it's possible to fix them to match the new API.
Likewise, I'm currently working with an open source project where I work (gonna keep this abstract enough so I don't need to be AC:)), and had to jump to the current nightly builds due to needed functionality. Unfortunately, the new version breaks backwards compatibility with the old stable version. Fortuantely, I have all the source code, so I was able to upgrade my plugin to work with the new APIs.
The source code is also invaluable due to the absolutely cruddy API documentation that comes with the project, but I've had similar problems with closed source products ("I wonder why all the examples use C-style comments in XML? And what they call XQuery appears to be something they made up on their own?"), but at least with the open source project I can work my way through it and directly contact the developers if I need to.
Unfortunately, this only works in the open source world when everything is open source. When Mozilla 1.0 rolled out, they had changed some of the APIs since the Mozilla 0.9.x builds, which broke some closed source plugins. One plugin in particular (the Adobe SVG viewer plugin) was never updated to support the new API. Of course, with native SVG support, that's really irrelevant now, but it was annoying back when it happened.
Of course - the Alienware machines come with the Quake III Demo, after all. However, you do have to realize that the someone likely includes management, since the purchase order was, after all, approved by them.
I mean [Dells] don't even come standard with neon lights.
Sure they do! Some of the Dell XPS in the computer lab where I work have these lit-up fronts in various color. We have a row of computers in the lab with different colored lit fronts: purple, yellow, green, whatever.
Of course, our computer lab also contains Alienware "servers." It always manages to amaze me that someone thought that it would make sense to buy Alienware and Dell XPS computers for a computer lab where most of the machines get used as servers. Apparently someone in management believes that "gaming machine == better," ignoring the fact that we really don't care about how many triangles the J2EE server puts out.
Not really - upgrading is fine, it should (operative word there...) upgrade older versions to the new version of the profile. However, by upgrading the old profile to the new version, it necessarily loses compatibility with previous versions of Firefox.
So when running both Firefox 1.5 and Firefox 2.0, you need to keep the profiles separate, as Firefox 2.0 will likely save data in a format Firefox 1.5 doesn't understand. As long as you never want to back-rev your version of Firefox, you can safely use the same profile.
Obviously it's a good idea to back up your profile prior to upgrading... fortunately the Profile Manager won't do that for you so that it's a giant pain in the ass to do. Wait...
As you're going to learn if you keep that up, never, ever use the same profile with two different versions of Mozilla or Firefox. They'll gang up to trash it.
What you'll want to do is start up Bon Echo using "-profilemanager" (either by editting the shortcut or through the command line) and create a new profile. It's highly recommened to create a new profile whenever testing prerelease Firefox builds anyway since they're more likely to trash your profile than the final releases.
I haven't tried it yet, and I can't remember where it remembers which profile to use, but you may need to select the appropriate profile to use for each version of the browser whenever you start it.
However, unless you're willing to risk losing your profile, you really should be using a different profile for Firefox 1.5 and Bon Echo.
According to the FAQ, tags are only available to subscribers and some users. I expect that the "some users" are users who joined before some cut-off date (I could be wrong, what do I know) and that your account is simply too new for the tags.
Likewise, there's a similar cut-off point for moderation, so if you've never moderated, your account may simply be too new.
Why do you think Sony is pushing so hard for Blu-Ray in the PS3? It's certainly not because they expect it will sell more games. They're willing to endanger their console dominance for the Blu-Ray drive.
Their plan is simple. They're hoping that the PS3 will sell as well as the PS2 did. You're right - there's very little reason to buy an HDTV movie player right now. However, there is a large market for next-gen consoles. They're hoping to capitalize on the PlayStation's success and, at the same time, get a large number of Blu-Ray players out at the same time.
If they succeed, they'll have a large install base of people who have PS3s and, therefore, Blu-Ray players. When a PS3 owner eventually winds up getting an HDTV in the next several years, which format are they going to choose? The one that requires the new player? Or the one that they already have a player for?
That's their hope. Use the PS3 to win the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD "war."
Re:Gnome guys still unresponsive I see.
on
Gnome 2.14 Review
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Have you ever tried gmenu-simple-editor? It's amazingly useless.
It lets you hide existing menu items. That's it.
You can't create new menu items, and you can't edit existing ones. It's essentially worthless as a menu editor. Ala Carte does allow you to add, delete, and edit menu items, which is what most people would want. gmenu-simple-editor doesn't.
It won't work if you have "On resume, password protect" checked on the Screen Saver tab in the Display Properties. When that option is checked, Windows will ignore applications that tell it not to activate the screensaver. As far as I can tell, there's no (public) way to forcibly uncheck that from an application.
This is a "security feature" so that malicious programs can't prevent your desktop from automatically locking the desktop. Except, of course, if you're running a malicious program, the fact that the desktop might not lock is probably not high on your list of concerns. It's just a flat-out annoying feature.
Trust me - I went hunting for a way to create a program that would actively prevent the screensaver from displaying while "On resume, password protect" is checked. I never did figure out a way.
At this point, browsers warn people, operating systems warn people, firewalls warn people and virus scanners worm people, and they still just have to run that trojan software for whatever pointless whizz-bang effect it adds to their mouse cursor or emails.
Was "virus scanners worm people" a reference to the recent McAfee problem or just a typo?:)
Er, anyway, my actual point was that people are now so used to be warned about installing just about everything that they just click "yes" without thinking. When you go to Windows Update or Microsoft Update for the first time, Microsoft has a nice little picture explaining how to say "yes" to the warning dialogs that come up when it tries to install the update ActiveX control.
People are just so used to be annoyed by their computer that they mindlessly click through all the warnings anyway. The warnings don't really help, people don't bother understanding what they mean, and websites frequently include instructions on how to bypass them without explaining what the warning means. (I'll fix that someday. No, really...)
The only real solution is user education. Failing that, the clue-stick (also known as a "clue-by-four") is a fun, but ultimately useless, alternative.
When watching video at work, I have to periodically waggle the mouse to stop the screensaver starting (or turn off automatic screen locking, which is also cumbersome).
Ah, yes, that "feature" in Windows. For those who don't know, Windows does indeed go around to all the running applications and ask them "is it OK to bring up the screensaver?" so that media players can indeed prevent the screensaver from starting. Unless you have "automatically lock desktop" checked. Then it doesn't, and always brings the screensaver up. (I think it still alerts programs that it's going to, but doesn't listen to them if they say "don't open the screensaver."
This is, of course, a "security feature" to prevent malicious programs from preventing the computer from ever locking. 'Course, if you have a malicious program runnning in the first place, you're pretty much hosed anyway, making the feature pretty pointless.
So your only options are to disable automatic locking, and always remember to lock your desktop manually, or to simply wiggle the mouse every x minutes.
For example, The MagiMaster is a bitch, along with the entire dungeon he's in.
Reflect Rings + Osmose. Getting to him is cake.:)
The concept is to bounce your spells off your own characters, not to reflect theirs back at them. Also note that Osmose can't be reflected. Using this technique you essentially have infinite MP (Osmose drains MP from a target), and you can easily wail on them with magic.
I'm told casting Beserk on your characters works well too, but I haven't tried it.
I used to grind that place to learn spells - you get good "spell experience" (I think it's AP?) in there. Taught everyone Ultima that way.:)
MagiMaster's also pretty easy if you have Life 3 (now called Reraise) on everyone and know what his current weakness it. The Life 3 is to ensure your party survives his Ultima when he dies.
Thanks, I will, because I currently have XScreensaver set to come up in five minutes, and lock in eight minutes. That gives me a nice buffer time to deactivate the screensaver before the system locks if I happen to be working on something else non-computer related and the screensaver pops up.
Because users can't be trusted, this option is removed in gnome-screensaver. It either locks, or it doesn't. Great.
The new Dapper Drake with Gnome 2.4 use 179 MB of RAM (Less than default Win XP) for the default system
What? A default Windows XP install uses about 70MB doing nothing. You can easily run Windows XP on a machine with 128MB RAM total - it's just that you're essentially limited to one application before swapping. (And, generally speaking, only one "document" in that application at that...)
The problem is that most Windows programs are giant memory hogs, so when you start installing non-default software (especially things like Office that like to preload) you start pushing the memory usage up and up and up...
I'm loving my Debian Linux install at work if for no reason other than I don't have to run the corporate-required Norton Anti-Virus on it. Things are so much faster without Norton. A basic Windows XP install isn't terribly resource-hungry - it's just that the standard bundle of software that comes with most Windows XP computers, simply put, sucks.
Are you paying 12-15 dollars a month to play a game?
Actually, yes, I think it's $14/month for my two characters in FFXI. By the way, FFXI is a lot more fun when you don't take it so seriously.
Don't you think being unable to progress in a game not because the game is hard, but because a outside entity has decided to make it so that you cant progress in the game without either working way harder than you should or paying them money is not extortion in a way?
Who made the game like that? Did the gilsellers? Nope. Did Square-Enix? Yep. I remember years ago people were complaining to GMs about players monopolizing spawn points, and Square-Enix's response was "that's fair play." Take it up with Square-Enix, not the players playing within their rules.
While it might be a new type of crime, whats going on IS a crime, but the same courts who would rule that extortion is illegal in real life, when it comes to the internet gets all fuzy since it is real money converted to fake money converted to real money again.
I disagree that it's extortion. Poor game design, maybe, but not extortion. It's a game! You don't have to play it. You can just quit, like I've done twice and my brother does weekly. (It's becoming a bit of a joke. "That's it! I'm never playing FFXI ever again!" Fast forward to the next day. "So, whatcha doin'?" "Um, hunting pirates in FFXI." "I thought you quit FFXI?" "Yeah, well, shut up.")
Back when it was released in the US, FFXI was set up such that it made gilsellers able to monopolize content. Square-Enix has slowly been changing the game to try and make up for this flaw in their game. But it's Square-Enix's job to police their game and not the courts. If the player's get fed up with the game world, they can just quit! No one is making you play FFXI. You're free to play any other MMORPG. Maybe World of WarCraft is more your speed. Maybe you'd rather play EverQuest II or Guild Wars. If you're that upset with the way Square-Enix is handling gilsellers in Final Fantasy XI, stop playing!
But please, don't involve the real-world legal system in a problem caused by poor game design.
Can I flame you for the lack of paragraphs instead? How about misspelling "apologies?" Plus, Hell should really be capitalized in that sentence, and you should always capitalize "I.":P
On a slightly more serious front, I have seen actual racism in FFXI against Chinese players. I actually remember a Chinese-American player who eventually quit because he got tired of hearing the racist remarks against Chinese players. Although this was a good two years ago, things could have changed since then.
Why is it someone is alowed to steal your money (which is what they are doing when they restrict you from doing something you paid for unfairly), and its ok cause its a game?
Huh-wha?! Correcting the spelling and grammar mistakes, I still can't parse that into anything meaningful. I'm going to assume you meant "paid for fairly" and not "paid for unfairly" because that makes more sense. So, presumably, you meant:
Why is it that someone is allowed to steal your money (which is what they are doing when they restrict you from doing something you paid for fairly), and it's OK because it's a game?
Well, there's the obvious answer, which is "because it's a game, and we don't send people to jail for cheating in golf." Suggesting that stealing actual money is on the same par as selling gold in games is - well - ludicrous.
Besides, it's the responsibility of the game company to police their virtual world. If they decide not to spend the effort to crack down on people "disrupting other's gameplay" then your only recourse as a player is to simply not play the game. Since it is, after all, a game and not real life.
Where did I say they were planning on cannibalizing anything?
Sony has no intention of cannibalizing their game market. From their view, they already own it, and it's a fore-gone conclusion that they'll sell millions of PS3s. So their plan is to continue to dominate the console market, and use that dominance to force Blu-Ray players out into the public.
It's the same strategy Microsoft has been using to try and make Windows Media the perferred media format - use their current OS dominance to make sure everyone has a Windows Media player. Same concept - take the current dominance in the console, and bundle a Blu-Ray player with their next console. The plan is to keep the current game market and add a Blu-Ray market through it. Not swap one for the other.
The question is, then, can they do it? Can they force Blu-Ray into people's houses through the PS3? Or will they have waited too long, and lose the console battles to the XBox360 or the Nintendo Revolution?
I've never heard of any of those games. At all. And searching for them got essentially minor preview fluff, no information about what they actually are at all - mostly on minor Sony fanboy-sites, which I don't bother following.
There's no hype about the PS3, for good reason. There's no launch date. There's no big game for it. There's no must-own game for the PS3.
The PS3 is intended to get Blu-Ray players into people's houses and that's it. It's a market grab first, a game console as an added feature.
You're right - the PS3 isn't about games. It's Sony's attempt to use their current market lead in the console market to force Blu-Ray players out into the public.
The PS3 is an attempt to get Blu-Ray players into people's houses, disguised as game consoles. Everything in their business plan seems to be based on "winning" the next media war. If they "win" with the PS3, they suddenly have an install base of Blu-Ray players. From there, they can start selling licenses to produce Blu-Ray content.
I've heard nothing about launch games for the PS3. I have had some rumors about what the launch movies will be, though...
If no one in your circle is interested in next-gen consoles, are any of your friends gamers?
Define "interested." Sure, I think most of us would like information on the next-gen consoles.
But there's been no announcement yet about games on the PS3 or Revolution that would make me - or anyone I know - eager to purchase either console. There's just not enough information about them yet. I don't think you need to have already decided on a next-gen console to be considered a gamer.
Actually, I think they're trying to repeat history, but in reverse. They have an established game market. They want to establish an install base of Blu-Ray players, so that they can sell licenses to produce Blu-Ray content.
By the time the PS2 was released, DVD players were already an established market. The PS2 rode the demand for DVD players by offering something of added value above a normal DVD player (games) at a lower cost.
Blu-Ray has no real market at this point. Very few people are interested in Blu-Ray players. So what Sony's trying to do this time is use their current market lead in the console space to try and get everyone to "upgrade" to the PS3 and, therefore, get a Blu-Ray player.
I think they're trying to use the PlayStation brand to establish a market for Blu-Ray, not use Blu-Ray to boost PS3 sales. But, what do I know, I'm not a market analyst.:)
Slashdot Mirror
You're never going to see Commander Keen in an UR3 environment, though.
The people who made that game have since moved on to other games that a few people may have heard about, games such as Wolfenstein, Doom, and Quake.
(Plus I think Doom II featured a hidden dead Commander Keen anyway.)
Although they did license a GBA version of Commander Keen that was apparently terrible. Too bad, because Commander Keen 4 was one of my favorite games on the PC at the time.
I've been thinking about side-scrolling 3D games - Crash Bandicoot essentially did it in some places (mostly bonus levels), and it was a lot of fun. I'd really like to see some more basic side-scrolling games like done like that. The controls would be just like classic SMB3, but the graphics would be in 3D. I think games like that still have a market, somewhere. I hope so, at least.
Dr. Weird: GENTLEMEN! I give you - MORE STANDARDS MICROSOFT IS INVOLVED WITH!
Assistant: Well, gee, I dunno, last time...
Dr. Weird: THIS TIME WILL BE DIFFERENT!
Assistant: Well, OK, we could use Microsoft's support after all, and -
Microsoft starts adding in .Net components and ActiveX controls
Assistant: AEEEIEEE!!
Dr. Weird: It's not different at all, is it, Steve?!
Ballmer: Steve smash! Throws a chair at the assistant
Dr. Weird & Ballmer: Maniacal Laughter
This is one of the things that's nice about open source (and really freaking annoying at the same time) - you can just decide to forget about backwards compatibility and go ahead and break old stuff. Since the source is open, someone can fix old programs to match the new API.
I'm sure most people here has had some experience with Mozilla deciding to alter some bit of the codebase to make it cleaner and it breaking some extension. It's "OK" because most of the extensions are open source, and it's possible to fix them to match the new API.
Likewise, I'm currently working with an open source project where I work (gonna keep this abstract enough so I don't need to be AC :)), and had to jump to the current nightly builds due to needed functionality. Unfortunately, the new version breaks backwards compatibility with the old stable version. Fortuantely, I have all the source code, so I was able to upgrade my plugin to work with the new APIs.
The source code is also invaluable due to the absolutely cruddy API documentation that comes with the project, but I've had similar problems with closed source products ("I wonder why all the examples use C-style comments in XML? And what they call XQuery appears to be something they made up on their own?"), but at least with the open source project I can work my way through it and directly contact the developers if I need to.
Unfortunately, this only works in the open source world when everything is open source. When Mozilla 1.0 rolled out, they had changed some of the APIs since the Mozilla 0.9.x builds, which broke some closed source plugins. One plugin in particular (the Adobe SVG viewer plugin) was never updated to support the new API. Of course, with native SVG support, that's really irrelevant now, but it was annoying back when it happened.
Of course - the Alienware machines come with the Quake III Demo, after all. However, you do have to realize that the someone likely includes management, since the purchase order was, after all, approved by them.
Sure they do! Some of the Dell XPS in the computer lab where I work have these lit-up fronts in various color. We have a row of computers in the lab with different colored lit fronts: purple, yellow, green, whatever.
Of course, our computer lab also contains Alienware "servers." It always manages to amaze me that someone thought that it would make sense to buy Alienware and Dell XPS computers for a computer lab where most of the machines get used as servers. Apparently someone in management believes that "gaming machine == better," ignoring the fact that we really don't care about how many triangles the J2EE server puts out.
Not really - upgrading is fine, it should (operative word there...) upgrade older versions to the new version of the profile. However, by upgrading the old profile to the new version, it necessarily loses compatibility with previous versions of Firefox.
So when running both Firefox 1.5 and Firefox 2.0, you need to keep the profiles separate, as Firefox 2.0 will likely save data in a format Firefox 1.5 doesn't understand. As long as you never want to back-rev your version of Firefox, you can safely use the same profile.
Obviously it's a good idea to back up your profile prior to upgrading... fortunately the Profile Manager won't do that for you so that it's a giant pain in the ass to do. Wait...
As you're going to learn if you keep that up, never, ever use the same profile with two different versions of Mozilla or Firefox. They'll gang up to trash it.
What you'll want to do is start up Bon Echo using "-profilemanager" (either by editting the shortcut or through the command line) and create a new profile. It's highly recommened to create a new profile whenever testing prerelease Firefox builds anyway since they're more likely to trash your profile than the final releases.
I haven't tried it yet, and I can't remember where it remembers which profile to use, but you may need to select the appropriate profile to use for each version of the browser whenever you start it.
However, unless you're willing to risk losing your profile, you really should be using a different profile for Firefox 1.5 and Bon Echo.
According to the FAQ, tags are only available to subscribers and some users. I expect that the "some users" are users who joined before some cut-off date (I could be wrong, what do I know) and that your account is simply too new for the tags.
Likewise, there's a similar cut-off point for moderation, so if you've never moderated, your account may simply be too new.
Why do you think Sony is pushing so hard for Blu-Ray in the PS3? It's certainly not because they expect it will sell more games. They're willing to endanger their console dominance for the Blu-Ray drive.
Their plan is simple. They're hoping that the PS3 will sell as well as the PS2 did. You're right - there's very little reason to buy an HDTV movie player right now. However, there is a large market for next-gen consoles. They're hoping to capitalize on the PlayStation's success and, at the same time, get a large number of Blu-Ray players out at the same time.
If they succeed, they'll have a large install base of people who have PS3s and, therefore, Blu-Ray players. When a PS3 owner eventually winds up getting an HDTV in the next several years, which format are they going to choose? The one that requires the new player? Or the one that they already have a player for?
That's their hope. Use the PS3 to win the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD "war."
Have you ever tried gmenu-simple-editor? It's amazingly useless.
It lets you hide existing menu items. That's it.
You can't create new menu items, and you can't edit existing ones. It's essentially worthless as a menu editor. Ala Carte does allow you to add, delete, and edit menu items, which is what most people would want. gmenu-simple-editor doesn't.
It won't work if you have "On resume, password protect" checked on the Screen Saver tab in the Display Properties. When that option is checked, Windows will ignore applications that tell it not to activate the screensaver. As far as I can tell, there's no (public) way to forcibly uncheck that from an application.
This is a "security feature" so that malicious programs can't prevent your desktop from automatically locking the desktop. Except, of course, if you're running a malicious program, the fact that the desktop might not lock is probably not high on your list of concerns. It's just a flat-out annoying feature.
Trust me - I went hunting for a way to create a program that would actively prevent the screensaver from displaying while "On resume, password protect" is checked. I never did figure out a way.
Was "virus scanners worm people" a reference to the recent McAfee problem or just a typo? :)
Er, anyway, my actual point was that people are now so used to be warned about installing just about everything that they just click "yes" without thinking. When you go to Windows Update or Microsoft Update for the first time, Microsoft has a nice little picture explaining how to say "yes" to the warning dialogs that come up when it tries to install the update ActiveX control.
People are just so used to be annoyed by their computer that they mindlessly click through all the warnings anyway. The warnings don't really help, people don't bother understanding what they mean, and websites frequently include instructions on how to bypass them without explaining what the warning means. (I'll fix that someday. No, really...)
The only real solution is user education. Failing that, the clue-stick (also known as a "clue-by-four") is a fun, but ultimately useless, alternative.
Ah, yes, that "feature" in Windows. For those who don't know, Windows does indeed go around to all the running applications and ask them "is it OK to bring up the screensaver?" so that media players can indeed prevent the screensaver from starting. Unless you have "automatically lock desktop" checked. Then it doesn't, and always brings the screensaver up. (I think it still alerts programs that it's going to, but doesn't listen to them if they say "don't open the screensaver."
This is, of course, a "security feature" to prevent malicious programs from preventing the computer from ever locking. 'Course, if you have a malicious program runnning in the first place, you're pretty much hosed anyway, making the feature pretty pointless.
So your only options are to disable automatic locking, and always remember to lock your desktop manually, or to simply wiggle the mouse every x minutes.
Reflect Rings + Osmose. Getting to him is cake. :)
The concept is to bounce your spells off your own characters, not to reflect theirs back at them. Also note that Osmose can't be reflected. Using this technique you essentially have infinite MP (Osmose drains MP from a target), and you can easily wail on them with magic.
I'm told casting Beserk on your characters works well too, but I haven't tried it.
I used to grind that place to learn spells - you get good "spell experience" (I think it's AP?) in there. Taught everyone Ultima that way. :)
MagiMaster's also pretty easy if you have Life 3 (now called Reraise) on everyone and know what his current weakness it. The Life 3 is to ensure your party survives his Ultima when he dies.
Thanks, I will, because I currently have XScreensaver set to come up in five minutes, and lock in eight minutes. That gives me a nice buffer time to deactivate the screensaver before the system locks if I happen to be working on something else non-computer related and the screensaver pops up.
Because users can't be trusted, this option is removed in gnome-screensaver. It either locks, or it doesn't. Great.
What? A default Windows XP install uses about 70MB doing nothing. You can easily run Windows XP on a machine with 128MB RAM total - it's just that you're essentially limited to one application before swapping. (And, generally speaking, only one "document" in that application at that...)
The problem is that most Windows programs are giant memory hogs, so when you start installing non-default software (especially things like Office that like to preload) you start pushing the memory usage up and up and up...
I'm loving my Debian Linux install at work if for no reason other than I don't have to run the corporate-required Norton Anti-Virus on it. Things are so much faster without Norton. A basic Windows XP install isn't terribly resource-hungry - it's just that the standard bundle of software that comes with most Windows XP computers, simply put, sucks.
Actually, yes, I think it's $14/month for my two characters in FFXI. By the way, FFXI is a lot more fun when you don't take it so seriously.
Who made the game like that? Did the gilsellers? Nope. Did Square-Enix? Yep. I remember years ago people were complaining to GMs about players monopolizing spawn points, and Square-Enix's response was "that's fair play." Take it up with Square-Enix, not the players playing within their rules.
I disagree that it's extortion. Poor game design, maybe, but not extortion. It's a game! You don't have to play it. You can just quit, like I've done twice and my brother does weekly. (It's becoming a bit of a joke. "That's it! I'm never playing FFXI ever again!" Fast forward to the next day. "So, whatcha doin'?" "Um, hunting pirates in FFXI." "I thought you quit FFXI?" "Yeah, well, shut up.")
Back when it was released in the US, FFXI was set up such that it made gilsellers able to monopolize content. Square-Enix has slowly been changing the game to try and make up for this flaw in their game. But it's Square-Enix's job to police their game and not the courts. If the player's get fed up with the game world, they can just quit! No one is making you play FFXI. You're free to play any other MMORPG. Maybe World of WarCraft is more your speed. Maybe you'd rather play EverQuest II or Guild Wars. If you're that upset with the way Square-Enix is handling gilsellers in Final Fantasy XI, stop playing!
But please, don't involve the real-world legal system in a problem caused by poor game design.
Pft, Tarutaru, damned asexual tree-worshipping midgets!
Can I flame you for the lack of paragraphs instead? How about misspelling "apologies?" Plus, Hell should really be capitalized in that sentence, and you should always capitalize "I." :P
On a slightly more serious front, I have seen actual racism in FFXI against Chinese players. I actually remember a Chinese-American player who eventually quit because he got tired of hearing the racist remarks against Chinese players. Although this was a good two years ago, things could have changed since then.
Huh-wha?! Correcting the spelling and grammar mistakes, I still can't parse that into anything meaningful. I'm going to assume you meant "paid for fairly" and not "paid for unfairly" because that makes more sense. So, presumably, you meant:
Well, there's the obvious answer, which is "because it's a game, and we don't send people to jail for cheating in golf." Suggesting that stealing actual money is on the same par as selling gold in games is - well - ludicrous.
Besides, it's the responsibility of the game company to police their virtual world. If they decide not to spend the effort to crack down on people "disrupting other's gameplay" then your only recourse as a player is to simply not play the game. Since it is, after all, a game and not real life.
Where did I say they were planning on cannibalizing anything?
Sony has no intention of cannibalizing their game market. From their view, they already own it, and it's a fore-gone conclusion that they'll sell millions of PS3s. So their plan is to continue to dominate the console market, and use that dominance to force Blu-Ray players out into the public.
It's the same strategy Microsoft has been using to try and make Windows Media the perferred media format - use their current OS dominance to make sure everyone has a Windows Media player. Same concept - take the current dominance in the console, and bundle a Blu-Ray player with their next console. The plan is to keep the current game market and add a Blu-Ray market through it. Not swap one for the other.
The question is, then, can they do it? Can they force Blu-Ray into people's houses through the PS3? Or will they have waited too long, and lose the console battles to the XBox360 or the Nintendo Revolution?
I've never heard of any of those games. At all. And searching for them got essentially minor preview fluff, no information about what they actually are at all - mostly on minor Sony fanboy-sites, which I don't bother following.
There's no hype about the PS3, for good reason. There's no launch date. There's no big game for it. There's no must-own game for the PS3.
The PS3 is intended to get Blu-Ray players into people's houses and that's it. It's a market grab first, a game console as an added feature.
You're right - the PS3 isn't about games. It's Sony's attempt to use their current market lead in the console market to force Blu-Ray players out into the public.
The PS3 is an attempt to get Blu-Ray players into people's houses, disguised as game consoles. Everything in their business plan seems to be based on "winning" the next media war. If they "win" with the PS3, they suddenly have an install base of Blu-Ray players. From there, they can start selling licenses to produce Blu-Ray content.
I've heard nothing about launch games for the PS3. I have had some rumors about what the launch movies will be, though...
Define "interested." Sure, I think most of us would like information on the next-gen consoles.
But there's been no announcement yet about games on the PS3 or Revolution that would make me - or anyone I know - eager to purchase either console. There's just not enough information about them yet. I don't think you need to have already decided on a next-gen console to be considered a gamer.
Actually, I think they're trying to repeat history, but in reverse. They have an established game market. They want to establish an install base of Blu-Ray players, so that they can sell licenses to produce Blu-Ray content.
By the time the PS2 was released, DVD players were already an established market. The PS2 rode the demand for DVD players by offering something of added value above a normal DVD player (games) at a lower cost.
Blu-Ray has no real market at this point. Very few people are interested in Blu-Ray players. So what Sony's trying to do this time is use their current market lead in the console space to try and get everyone to "upgrade" to the PS3 and, therefore, get a Blu-Ray player.
I think they're trying to use the PlayStation brand to establish a market for Blu-Ray, not use Blu-Ray to boost PS3 sales. But, what do I know, I'm not a market analyst. :)