While I support the games industry.. because without the money.. there wouldn't be one. I hate the fact I need to have a SLOW CD in a drive waiting for a machine to recognize it and boot up the game. I recently broke my Empires CD while on vacation. I ended spending fully 50% of the cost of the game to replace it because I had to send to the United States from Canada. This sucks. On top of that, due to moves and my lack of diligence I've lost two games either because of jewel cases going missing or one of the CDs because I only use one to play. Industry does not make it easy to retrieve my CD key electronically (except a few) when I register.
When I register.. I fully expect them to back me up.. not charge me the cost of another game or replacement. When an industry fully expects users to take the brunt of their inability to inovate.. I hate it. But it is the state of affairs so I have to live with it.
I am frustrated.. but it's what I choose to have fun with.
Yet Another Micro$oft Technology Change Tactic - while I laud their continuing efforts to defend their own property (read: sarcasm ). I only see this as an attempt for them to push to get rid of their own technology in favour of new (paladium/security/DRM)... in other words.. you can't build a PC without a licensed copy of a file system which certifies that they can trace a machine back to the builder/owner in case of some violation.
bah!
"Also only took them 252.68 hours to complete" is also the amount of time before their slashdotted servers will be back up to make the file available for download!
From Matrox's website
Matrox Millennium G550 Dual-DVI
Matrox has always been a great competitor in the 2D desktop... dual-head technology is strictly Windows based for this card though.
The systems are simply fleshing out ways to make money. I personally browse a select number of sites for idle curiousity more than anything. If people want to make money off me they better come up with some pretty dynamic and interesting content. I can 'do without' TV... it is nice tough... I can do without daily comics.. it is nice though. The Internet is an ever-evolving beast which will respond to all forces.. free or otherwise. I pay to hook in and exchange my views and my thoughts.. which are worth money as well. I don't get paid for those.. I contribute content and don't get paid.. If a site is to become a business then it has to pay those who develop content.. including the users... or make those items free.. free as in speech. All business is out to grab your money and your time. You have a right to give as much or as little as you want.
It should also be noted the RIAA killed the CD single format almost 15 years ago. They saw that they could simplify distribution and get more money rather than let their artists earn their merit. If you recall.. there used to be 3 inc CD singles with 2 songs. That was why CD players, CDROMs and others still have that 3 inch divot for the CD single format.
Hmm.. I've always wondered if we'd run out of oil (reasonably priced.. when the price is fixed) in my lifetime... some say yes... I really don't care about having a car.. it's convenient... but I do care about plastics and other poly-things that we get from oil-based resources... how long could humanity go without?
This really comes down to you and your ethics. What you have power with is to evaluate the alternatives and present them to the people who make the decisions. You have to remember to follow these rules when possible.. and make sure you have an e-mail trail giving you specific directions. It ain't pretty.. but when someone comes back on you.. you have the 'evidence' for the 'business' decision and let the chips fall where they may. Yes, you may still get dinged, but if you voice the business process mantra when giving the options and getting a direction.. you cannot be at fault. The problem then becomes the insecurity of a superior to commit to a decision/e-mail trail. Be sure not to just accept verbal go-aheads. Life is not perfect.. but as the saying goes.. CYA (Cover Your A$$)
I like old phrases from regular advertising & sales: You get what you pay for. Consumer beware! Everything comes with a price. Read the contract. Read the fine print. No one can force you into a contract. Eyes wide and mind open. K.I.S.S. If it looks too good to be true... it is.
Simple rules I follow when dealing with anything commercial.
I think this guy has valid points. They negatives of the game have to be known to 'know' if it's right for you to play. I was encouraged to join to play with a couple buddies because they wanted to spend more time playing instead of going out and having fun. I told them I would play as long as we played together as a team and enjoyed playing the characters together.
Sure enough, three weeks down the road I found out they were playing two to three times more than I was... and they were 'twinking' (that's giving a low end character items from a high end character) their characters. I had been given a few items to help my character grow. The big problem was I only had so many hours to spend in the game world. They had double that and more. They we so into this game that they pushed the characters farther and faster than I could mine so I was eventually left behind. When I asked them why they did this, they said they were getting bored. Hmm.. so unless you have the time to play at the level of 6 hours a day 6 or 7 days a week, this game becomes very hard to play.
Some may say that this is out of line, I think not. It is hard for a light player to get together with other players to help move you character at a reasonable pace. I do know of a guy who plays a lot by himself.. but it's slow.. painfully slow.
Build friendship and groups takes time and unless you have it, don't bother.. you'll be frustrated.
On a customer service note, yes, Sony's service sucks. They give their volunteers loose rules and the power to screw things up as much as they fix.
My personal grief came when I was making a monk character.. someone who works with their body to fight, not necessarily weapons. One of the 'volunteers' told me online that I had to change my characters' name... I had choosen 'Handsolo' because a monk is a typical single-type player who uses his hands. Well.. apparently Sony didn't like me infringing on Star Wars properties.. I.E. Han Solo. So.. while I had just died and had spent a half hour travelling back to my body to retrieve my items, the guy wanted to enforce their will. He changed my character's name... before I got my items off the 'corpse'. Well.. when he did that.. I lost the ability to get the items. A 3 day e-mail exchange endured with representatives saying they were not responsible for 'lost' items, etc. This despite the fact one of their representatives caused the problem in the first place. Eventually after 3 days I was begging them to get the items for me because I had borrowed some from my friend and my brother. Finally a GM managed to get them back. This definitely soured me more to the game.
While no game is perfect, a 'sale' is won or lost on customer service. You piss off enough folks, and your product becomes less profitable. The folks who support your product become less friendly and you cut back. This is the problem Sony now faces. A poorly designed product which requires x amount of dollars to support to maintain it's profitability. If they don't maintain it, there will be hell to pay because people will really get pissed off.
Their solution was to put out another product.. next generation... Star Wars Galaxies I believe it is called. It's behind the times and I think it's either been released or will be soon.
They planned to 'fix' the problems with the EverQuest model with this new game. A lot less abuse, etc.
It'll never happen. Human beings are curious and desire a challenge though. It'll be less successful because there are other competing online games which have learned from Sony's mistakes... but running any online game is hard. If the folks playing are having fun, then it'll survive.
Well.. as the hard drive is a backup device and not a primary device... it should be replacable.. as all backup media are. If you require a more permanent storage solution, go for a web based solution: http://www.xdrive.com
Plain and simple.. hard drives are cheaper.. the USB/Firewire enclosures usually add $80 USD to the cost though. Thing is, you can plop that in to your briefcase or bookbag and take it with ya. Another option I was looking into was USB drives.. still costly though.
Keep It Simple Stupid & Make It Simple Stupid.. key words to head when trying to make your mark in this computer world. Frankly.. having been in it for over 10 years now.. I want something that will listen to me and work with gestures... I'd wear a glove.. get rid of the keyboard and mouse.
What is the dollar value that prosecution gave for your crime and why is that different from say, an MIS manager or CIO, allowing $250,000 of operating systems and applications go 'unrecorded and unpaid' for.
Simply put.. the fewer CDs you buy from RIAA companies and the more you buy from Indies and those that support modern distribution and sampling of new music.. the less power RIAA will have.
I was actually thinking of something worse than this a week ago. The future could be bright.. for those who submit to a corporation - it'll support ya from cradle to grave... if you work for 'em.. use the products they sell/authorize. Imagine the power of a corporation who can control a person's spending for life!
DRM is good for those who want to maintain the conglomerate model of audio/video distribution. What I have not seen is anyone who addresses the non-DRM side in parallel. If all machines are configured to play 'DRM-only'.. what will happen to the public domain and free audio/video? The end user wants a simple and easy experience... not a headache when they cannot get what they want.
Here in Canada, 7-11 touts the 64 oz / 2 Litre industrial size keep it cool for 8 hour jobby... it's huge... My bladder has been well trained over the years.. but my god.. a whole 2 litres.. My bladder.. she is whimpering.
Here here! My brother went to the United States in the mid 90's... spent all of his hard earned US$ there.. contributed to the US unemployment insurance.. and got punted because of lack of work. He's been unemployeed for almost a year.. for many reasons... it's the economy.. don't let someone smoke and mirror your senators because it's in THEIR best interest. If you start punting all the useful folk... guess what.. you have more of a recession because the companies use more money to prop up their ineptitudes.. less money goes to the workers and therefore the economy. It's like pulling a card from a house of cards to replace it with a shinier, new card.. not realizing that pulling the card could bring things down upon you.
It wouldn't behoove (oh.. I finally got to use that word) the advertisers to actually treat the viewing public as Intelligent and make creative ads instead of the drivel they constantly put out?
Slashdot Mirror
While I support the games industry.. because without the money.. there wouldn't be one. I hate the fact I need to have a SLOW CD in a drive waiting for a machine to recognize it and boot up the game. I recently broke my Empires CD while on vacation. I ended spending fully 50% of the cost of the game to replace it because I had to send to the United States from Canada. This sucks. On top of that, due to moves and my lack of diligence I've lost two games either because of jewel cases going missing or one of the CDs because I only use one to play. Industry does not make it easy to retrieve my CD key electronically (except a few) when I register.
When I register.. I fully expect them to back me up.. not charge me the cost of another game or replacement. When an industry fully expects users to take the brunt of their inability to inovate.. I hate it. But it is the state of affairs so I have to live with it.
I am frustrated.. but it's what I choose to have fun with.
Yet Another Micro$oft Technology Change Tactic - while I laud their continuing efforts to defend their own property (read: sarcasm ). I only see this as an attempt for them to push to get rid of their own technology in favour of new (paladium/security/DRM)... in other words.. you can't build a PC without a licensed copy of a file system which certifies that they can trace a machine back to the builder/owner in case of some violation. bah!
"Also only took them 252.68 hours to complete" is also the amount of time before their slashdotted servers will be back up to make the file available for download!
From Matrox's website Matrox Millennium G550 Dual-DVI Matrox has always been a great competitor in the 2D desktop... dual-head technology is strictly Windows based for this card though.
The systems are simply fleshing out ways to make money. I personally browse a select number of sites for idle curiousity more than anything. If people want to make money off me they better come up with some pretty dynamic and interesting content. I can 'do without' TV... it is nice tough... I can do without daily comics.. it is nice though.
The Internet is an ever-evolving beast which will respond to all forces.. free or otherwise. I pay to hook in and exchange my views and my thoughts.. which are worth money as well. I don't get paid for those.. I contribute content and don't get paid.. If a site is to become a business then it has to pay those who develop content.. including the users... or make those items free.. free as in speech.
All business is out to grab your money and your time.
You have a right to give as much or as little as you want.
It should also be noted the RIAA killed the CD single format almost 15 years ago. They saw that they could simplify distribution and get more money rather than let their artists earn their merit. If you recall.. there used to be 3 inc CD singles with 2 songs. That was why CD players, CDROMs and others still have that 3 inch divot for the CD single format.
Hmm.. I've always wondered if we'd run out of oil (reasonably priced.. when the price is fixed) in my lifetime... some say yes... I really don't care about having a car.. it's convenient... but I do care about plastics and other poly-things that we get from oil-based resources... how long could humanity go without?
Mayor saying... Canada is responsible... err.. yeah. They are waiting on power from Canada.
Hmmm... I feel a South Park episode brewin'!
I participated in the Slasdot effect... ...and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.
This really comes down to you and your ethics. What you have power with is to evaluate the alternatives and present them to the people who make the decisions. You have to remember to follow these rules when possible.. and make sure you have an e-mail trail giving you specific directions. It ain't pretty.. but when someone comes back on you.. you have the 'evidence' for the 'business' decision and let the chips fall where they may. Yes, you may still get dinged, but if you voice the business process mantra when giving the options and getting a direction.. you cannot be at fault. The problem then becomes the insecurity of a superior to commit to a decision/e-mail trail. Be sure not to just accept verbal go-aheads. Life is not perfect.. but as the saying goes.. CYA (Cover Your A$$)
I like old phrases from regular advertising & sales:
You get what you pay for.
Consumer beware!
Everything comes with a price.
Read the contract.
Read the fine print.
No one can force you into a contract.
Eyes wide and mind open.
K.I.S.S.
If it looks too good to be true... it is.
Simple rules I follow when dealing with anything commercial.
I think this guy has valid points. They negatives of the game have to be known to 'know' if it's right for you to play. I was encouraged to join to play with a couple buddies because they wanted to spend more time playing instead of going out and having fun. I told them I would play as long as we played together as a team and enjoyed playing the characters together.
Sure enough, three weeks down the road I found out they were playing two to three times more than I was... and they were 'twinking' (that's giving a low end character items from a high end character) their characters. I had been given a few items to help my character grow. The big problem was I only had so many hours to spend in the game world. They had double that and more. They we so into this game that they pushed the characters farther and faster than I could mine so I was eventually left behind. When I asked them why they did this, they said they were getting bored. Hmm.. so unless you have the time to play at the level of 6 hours a day 6 or 7 days a week, this game becomes very hard to play.
Some may say that this is out of line, I think not. It is hard for a light player to get together with other players to help move you character at a reasonable pace. I do know of a guy who plays a lot by himself.. but it's slow.. painfully slow.
Build friendship and groups takes time and unless you have it, don't bother.. you'll be frustrated.
On a customer service note, yes, Sony's service sucks. They give their volunteers loose rules and the power to screw things up as much as they fix.
My personal grief came when I was making a monk character.. someone who works with their body to fight, not necessarily weapons. One of the 'volunteers' told me online that I had to change my characters' name... I had choosen 'Handsolo' because a monk is a typical single-type player who uses his hands. Well.. apparently Sony didn't like me infringing on Star Wars properties.. I.E. Han Solo. So.. while I had just died and had spent a half hour travelling back to my body to retrieve my items, the guy wanted to enforce their will. He changed my character's name... before I got my items off the 'corpse'. Well.. when he did that.. I lost the ability to get the items. A 3 day e-mail exchange endured with representatives saying they were not responsible for 'lost' items, etc. This despite the fact one of their representatives caused the problem in the first place. Eventually after 3 days I was begging them to get the items for me because I had borrowed some from my friend and my brother. Finally a GM managed to get them back. This definitely soured me more to the game.
While no game is perfect, a 'sale' is won or lost on customer service. You piss off enough folks, and your product becomes less profitable. The folks who support your product become less friendly and you cut back. This is the problem Sony now faces. A poorly designed product which requires x amount of dollars to support to maintain it's profitability. If they don't maintain it, there will be hell to pay because people will really get pissed off.
Their solution was to put out another product.. next generation... Star Wars Galaxies I believe it is called. It's behind the times and I think it's either been released or will be soon.
They planned to 'fix' the problems with the EverQuest model with this new game. A lot less abuse, etc.
It'll never happen. Human beings are curious and desire a challenge though. It'll be less successful because there are other competing online games which have learned from Sony's mistakes... but running any online game is hard. If the folks playing are having fun, then it'll survive.
My 2 cents.
Well.. as the hard drive is a backup device and not a primary device... it should be replacable.. as all backup media are. If you require a more permanent storage solution, go for a web based solution: http://www.xdrive.com
Plain and simple.. hard drives are cheaper.. the USB/Firewire enclosures usually add $80 USD to the cost though. Thing is, you can plop that in to your briefcase or bookbag and take it with ya. Another option I was looking into was USB drives.. still costly though.
Here is a service started up by Peter Gabriel and a few folks: On Demand Distribution
Keep It Simple Stupid & Make It Simple Stupid.. key words to head when trying to make your mark in this computer world. Frankly.. having been in it for over 10 years now.. I want something that will listen to me and work with gestures... I'd wear a glove.. get rid of the keyboard and mouse.
What is the dollar value that prosecution gave for your crime and why is that different from say, an MIS manager or CIO, allowing $250,000 of operating systems and applications go 'unrecorded and unpaid' for.
On Demand Distribution
A site recommended by Peter Gabriel
Simply put.. the fewer CDs you buy from RIAA companies and the more you buy from Indies and those that support modern distribution and sampling of new music.. the less power RIAA will have.
I was actually thinking of something worse than this a week ago. The future could be bright.. for those who submit to a corporation - it'll support ya from cradle to grave... if you work for 'em.. use the products they sell/authorize. Imagine the power of a corporation who can control a person's spending for life!
DRM is good for those who want to maintain the conglomerate model of audio/video distribution. What I have not seen is anyone who addresses the non-DRM side in parallel. If all machines are configured to play 'DRM-only'.. what will happen to the public domain and free audio/video? The end user wants a simple and easy experience... not a headache when they cannot get what they want.
Here in Canada, 7-11 touts the 64 oz / 2 Litre industrial size keep it cool for 8 hour jobby... it's huge... My bladder has been well trained over the years.. but my god.. a whole 2 litres..
My bladder.. she is whimpering.
Here here! My brother went to the United States in the mid 90's... spent all of his hard earned US$ there.. contributed to the US unemployment insurance.. and got punted because of lack of work. He's been unemployeed for almost a year.. for many reasons... it's the economy.. don't let someone smoke and mirror your senators because it's in THEIR best interest. If you start punting all the useful folk... guess what.. you have more of a recession because the companies use more money to prop up their ineptitudes.. less money goes to the workers and therefore the economy. It's like pulling a card from a house of cards to replace it with a shinier, new card.. not realizing that pulling the card could bring things down upon you.
Remember Max Headroom.. Blipverts? Compress an add into a few seconds so it is subliminaly received.... scary.
It wouldn't behoove (oh.. I finally got to use that word) the advertisers to actually treat the viewing public as Intelligent and make creative ads instead of the drivel they constantly put out?