well... seriously, what do you expect? the guide obviously had to be finished before the beta test is near completion. blizzard will still make major changes, i'm sure, for years to come. look at Diablo 2. it barely resembles the game it was when it was released. strategy guides are useless for this type of game.
having said that, i AM gonna buy it anyway, for the Penny Arcade strips =(
first of all, i am, unfortunately, totally addicted to this game. it's easily the best MMORPG on the market right now.
secondly, however, i think it's important to realize that we're not really participating in a beta test here. the game's more polished than most MMORPG's EVER end up being. what we have here is a *DEMO*. this is a brilliant peice of strategy on Blizzard's part to get a huge number of people hooked on the game while it's free, while simultaneously upstaging EQ2's launch.
i gotta tell ya, it worked like a charm on me. there is simply a mind-boggling amount of stuff to do, even for the races that are complaining about getting the short end of the content stick (tauren and orc). i'm only level 20, and i estimate i've completed over 100 quests. each new land i eventually make my way to makes me go "oh, COOL!"
the homeland of the tauren are vcriticized for being sparse, but i think it's really pretty. the tauren have sort of a spiritual native american thing going, with totems and feathers and stuff. there home is an expansive green plains littered with lumbering kodo beasts, accompanyed by huge bluffs rising high into the clouds.
my first trip to Silverpine, a town in the land of the forsaken (formerly human farm and township territory, that has fallen to the undead), i was taken aback by how much it really felt like a countryside that had been overrun by the undead. there is a permeating sense of sadness, and decay. really well done, and quite a contrast to the barren orc lands and lush tauren lands.
i've also visited some tropical islands, a pirate town, a deforestation facility run by goblins, and a strip mine run by dwarfs. i've seen a lot of really amazing things, and i feel like i've only scratched the surface. i think i'll try Gnome next, they look cute as hell.
the only reason i payed this stupid $7.90 toa a company i despise is for an extra week of WoW. a dollar a day, ok, i guess i can swing that. i feel dirty, but i broke down and did it.
now, i'm unhappily waiting for my CD key. if i don't get it by early this evening, i'm going to start trying to get my money back from FP.
well, if the stripped out features include Windows Media Player, Windows Messaging, MSN, and all that other crap i spend my first half hour deleting after a clean install, then it might just be worth it to learn Thai...
i second this post. honestly, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is a greatly underrated game. it's the TRUE sequel to Civ2, and it beats the heck out of Civ3, which i really thought was pretty weak. it didn't ever OWN my time like Civ2 and Alpha Centauri (SMAC) did.
SMAC even lets you design your own units based on which techs you have discovered, and the audio quotes you hear upon researching new technology are alternately hilarious or profound.
sprinkled throughout are also quotes from Nietzsche, Kant, Plato, Aristotle, Einstein, Kierkegaard, and others. while this stuff has little to do with the game mechanics itself, it nevertheless helps me feel truly immersed in the progress of my society. each new scientific discovery really feels like a breakthrough, and it gives one a sense of how this new trechnology will effect my nation.
"beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master" -- Commissioner Pravin Lal
"We are all aware that the senses can be deceived, the eyes fooled. But how can we be sure our senses are not being deceived at any particular time, or even all the time? Might I just be a brain in a tank somewhere, tricked all my life into believing in the events of this world by some insane computer? And does my life gain or lose meaning based on my reaction to such solipsism?" -- Project PYRRHO, Specimen 46, Vat 7. (termination of speciman advised)
Beware, you who seek first and final principles, for you are trampling the garden of an angry God and he awaits you just beyond the last theorem. -- Sister Miriam Godwinson
Technological advance is an inherently iterative process. One does not simply take sand from the beach and produce a Dataprobe. We use crude tools to fashion better tools, and then our better tools to fashion more precise tools, and so on. Each minor refinement is a step in the process, and all of the steps must be taken. -- Chairman Sheng-ji Yang
Of course we'll bundle our MorganNet software with the new network nodes; our customers expect no less of us. We have never sought to become a monopoly. Our products are simply so good that no one feels the need to compete with us. -- CEO Nwabudike Morgan
Some would ask, how could a perfect God create a universe filled with so much that is evil. They have missed a greater conundrum: why would a perfect God create a universe at all? -- Sister Miriam Godwinson
Why do you insist that the human genetic code is "sacred" or "taboo"? It is a chemical process and nothing more. For that matter -we- are chemical processes and nothing more. If you deny yourself a useful tool simply because it reminds you uncomfortably of your mortality, you have uselessly and pointlessly crippled yourself. --Chairman Sheng-ji Yang
"The Academician's private residences shall remain off-limits to the Genetic Inspectors. We possess no retroviral capability, we are not researching retroviral engineering, and we shall not allow this Council to violate faction privileges in the name of this ridiculous witch hunt!" -- Fedor Petrov (upon discovering the technology of, you guessed it, Retroviral Engineering)
"It is every citizen's final duty to go into the tanks and become one with all the people." -- Chairman Sheng-ji Yang
you misunderstand me. i didn't say a game has to be genre-busting to be great. i just said those games are good, but not totally outstanding.
half life 2: we'll see. can't judge a game till it's out.
but the consoles recently had the whole GTA3 thing, which was pretty revolutionary. also they're just now forraying into the mmorpg market. plus KOTOR was a truly outstanding RPG, far better than anything that's been released for the PC in the last two or three years. these are games that make a big difference in what sort of mahine people buy. Far Cry is not. Doom 3 might be, and World of Warcraft might be, depending on how they turn out, even though they're not groundbreaking in terms of originality of gameplay.
nahhhh. it's simple. there just haven't been any world-shaking titles for PC lately. When the next Starcraft or The Sims or Doom comes out, you'll see articles again speculating about the death of the console.
just wait till World of Warcraft and Doom 3 come out.
seriously! i watched the trailer for this and my jaw just went slack. timothy leary, mark mothersbaugh, steve albini, and the guy that created Dolemite are in it. the other actors, though, are kinda weird. it's really hard to discern any details from that website, but apparently this was going to be a 3DO title?!?! seriously wacked. the trailer opens (i THINK) with 2 airplanes crashing into downtown Chicago, and lots of high-rises bursting into flames... oddly prescient for 1996. apparently the citizenry of chicago reacts by doing 500 hits of acid each and throwing a big party. aliens(?) arrive. firemen breakdance. timothy leary turns into Max Headroom. what the fuck?
"In response to many requests and with a view to making our written work easier to read, we are moving to a new standard font: 'Times New Roman 14'," said the memorandum.
this is pretty amazing. back 13 years ago in 1991 i was working for the Army Materiel Command Headquarters and i repeatedly got a "talking to" from my bosses for using Times instead of Courier in official correspondence to other departments. i then went to the head of AMC HQ and suggested a change in policy to allow Times New Roman to also be acceptable, since we were now in the computer age, and not limited to typewriters and daisy-wheel printers, and since Times New Roman was demonstrably easier to read, and more attractive. He took my request to the Chief of Staff of the Army, who shot it down.
are you insane? how many times can you play kings quest before the frustration of falling off of footbridges and staircases to your death outweighs the sheer thrill of typing "give egg to troll"?
yes, graphics have come a long way since then, but honestly gameplay itself has come just as far. you like adventure games? play some Grim Fandango. Monkey Island.
And if this trend continues, how long is it until Blizzard EULAs contain rules and guidelines on how you can play the game? How long is it until people who don't play along are just deleted?
have you READ the EULA? it basically already states this. copied from another post:
"harass, threaten, stalk, embarrass, or cause distress, unwanted attention, or discomfort upon another user of Battle.net or other person or entity;" "cheat during game play," "carry out any action with a disruptive effect, such as causing the screen to "scroll" faster than other users are able to type to it;" "disrupt the normal flow of dialog in a chat room or otherwise act in a manner that negatively affects other users, individuals, or entities, including, but not limited to, posting "Spam" messages on Battle.net. "Spam" messages as used herein include, but are not limited to, any effort to use a computer or other electronic device to post an unauthorized and/or unsolicited advertisement to Battle.net;"
and frankly, that's fine by me. we're not talking about an abridgement of civil rights here. they're just adjusting the rules of their game to maximize its enjoyment. do you play warcraft 3? i do, and i can tell you this small minority WERE ruining a significant number of games for others. self-policing doesn't work. other players just don't have the power. THANK YOU blizzard for taking action more than any other company would have.
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy best packaging ever:
- a little baggie, labeled "Microscopic Space Fleet."
- some pocket fluff
- peril-sensitive sunglasses. in the book, they would cloud over at the first hint of danger... my pair must have been expecially neurotic, they were always pitch black. in fact if i didn't know better i'd suspect they were simply cut out of a sheet of construction paper.
- a friendly red pin, emblazoned with the motto "don't panic!" in yellow letters. (currently affixed to my leather biker jacket)
"don't you think your article was a tad.... ridiculous? do you propose we ban real life? it seems that your main problem with the game was how "realistic" it is. how free the player is to do whatever he wishes. what a horrible world that would be, if all of man's urges were suddenly loosed upon the world! hah. guess what, they already are, brother. and people don't go around killing hundreds of people at a time. sure, crime happens, but it's not because of a silly video game. if only Jeffrey Dahmer, Joseph Stalin, Jack the Ripper, Osama Bin Laden, and Adolf Hitler hadn't been influenced by those naughty video games, we'd be living in a clean, christian utopia by now!
it's offensive to you. don't play it. you think it's bad for kids. so keep your kids away from it. don't tell me how to parent. MY kids will know the difference between right and wrong, fantasy and reality. maybe if you'd tought your kids the same, you wouldn't be so worried.
the game is a simple power fantasy indulgence, just like a comic book, a sports car, or newspaper editorial. and frankly, it is an extremely well-done game. they didn't sell millions of copies simply based on gore. sure, that's what grabs the headlines, but the game is truly a tight bit of programming with fun, rewarding, and challenging play mechanics.
"This is 10,000 times worse than the worst thing anybody thinks Michael Jackson ever did to a little boy"
the most amazing thing i have ever read in my life is your suggestion that IMAGINARY VIOLENCE is worse for a child than REAL LIFE CHILD MOLESTATION. you say you would rather let your child be RAPED than play a VIDEO GAME. sir, now I am the one who is deeply offended, and frightened for your children."
put it in the hands of some people who actually take the subject matter seriously. Spike's Video Game Awards was like a 2-hour insult to anyone who watched it. gamers don't WANT cheerleaders and stupidity. well i mean, sure we do, as much as anyone, but if we're told you're about to show us video game content, don't just show us boobs and bad jokes instead.
you're watching 10 year old reruns of The Comedy Channel? really? like Night After Night with Alan Havey, Higgins Boys and Gruber, and old episodes of MST3K?? cool!!
look, i've been in bands for roughly 13 years now. any musician who actually makes the mistake of believing the RIAA is acting in the best interests of anyone other than the music PUBLISHERS is either a) ignorant of the situation or b) ludicrously naive.
now, music PUBLISHERS, in my opinion, are at the heart of this problem. this bullying litigation, these big corporations claiming your brain and your ears are their property. well maybe they don't claim that quite yet. just wait.
intellectual property laws need a major overhaul, especially in the arena of artistic works. as far as i know, there is virtually no difference, legally, between say, a microchip schematic and the song "What Do I Get" by the Buzzcocks. complete "ownership" of both can be bought and sold.
this is where artists get screwed.
since the artists, generally, are private individuals, they don't have the means to reach an audience large enough to make a living from their music. this is where the large multinational corporation steps in. they promise the exposure and distribution needed to move units far beyond the artist's capabilities. all they ask in return, of course, is the sole publishing rights to the music.
at this point the musician is a slave. the artist can't even legally burn his own CD, or send MP3s to friends.
even worse, if the corporation decides that the CD isn't selling well enough, they can decline to print another run of CDs. and of course since they own the publishing rights, it's illegal to make copies of that music through anyone else. i've seen lots of bands who go on tour and can't even sell their own CDs at their shows because their label didn't want to spend the money to print them. I've seen an established band with half a dozen full-length albums out unable to sell a single CD to a sold out audience because of a publishing deal gone bad. i've seen a band sell 40,000 CDs and not see one cent from their label.
the way to solve this problem is simple. intellectual property laws are too strong. first, in the case of artistic works, make it illegal for ownership OR exclusive publishing rights to be transferred away from the creator of the art himself. with one simple stroke, the power with which the music "industry" has imprisioned the musicians would dissolve. there would actually be some power in creating something rather than simply buying the rights to that creation. a musician, unhappy with his current label, would actually have some leverage. moving to a new label wouldn't mean abandoning the rights to all his previous work.
in addition, when an artist dies, the intellectual property rights shoud die with him. none of this nonsense with the estate of pablo picasso sueing websites for posting pictures of Guernica a good 70 years after he painted it. "the estate of pablo picasso" didn't paint the damn thing. it's just a team of lawyers trying to get paid.
even my band's mascot, Feseral Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan, a republican, made a speech not long ago stating that intellectual propety laws had become too restrictive. they have crossed the line and become a hindrance rather than a tool for the progress of modern society.
of course, it's a self-perpetuating problem. monetarily, and therefore politically, the publishers outweigh the musicians by a wiiiiiide margin precisely BECAUSE of these unjust intellectual property laws.
i wish i could see a brighter future for musicians, but until then i'll continue to operate outside the boundaries of this music industry.
this "patch" is virtually an expansion pack. hundreds of new items, new world event, all the skills totally re-balanced, "synergies" introduced, tons of new stuff. you should she the hysteria that is currently engulfing the various Diablo II Forums around the 'net.
yes, this is big news. i fully expect to be up till 2am er, testing this new patch =)
Slashdot Mirror
you know, you're right, that's inexcusable.
actual "strategy" details i'm willing to forgive, but sloppy editing is frustrating. oh well.
well ... seriously, what do you expect? the guide obviously had to be finished before the beta test is near completion. blizzard will still make major changes, i'm sure, for years to come. look at Diablo 2. it barely resembles the game it was when it was released. strategy guides are useless for this type of game.
having said that, i AM gonna buy it anyway, for the Penny Arcade strips =(
first of all, i am, unfortunately, totally addicted to this game. it's easily the best MMORPG on the market right now.
secondly, however, i think it's important to realize that we're not really participating in a beta test here. the game's more polished than most MMORPG's EVER end up being. what we have here is a *DEMO*. this is a brilliant peice of strategy on Blizzard's part to get a huge number of people hooked on the game while it's free, while simultaneously upstaging EQ2's launch.
i gotta tell ya, it worked like a charm on me. there is simply a mind-boggling amount of stuff to do, even for the races that are complaining about getting the short end of the content stick (tauren and orc). i'm only level 20, and i estimate i've completed over 100 quests. each new land i eventually make my way to makes me go "oh, COOL!"
the homeland of the tauren are vcriticized for being sparse, but i think it's really pretty. the tauren have sort of a spiritual native american thing going, with totems and feathers and stuff. there home is an expansive green plains littered with lumbering kodo beasts, accompanyed by huge bluffs rising high into the clouds.
my first trip to Silverpine, a town in the land of the forsaken (formerly human farm and township territory, that has fallen to the undead), i was taken aback by how much it really felt like a countryside that had been overrun by the undead. there is a permeating sense of sadness, and decay. really well done, and quite a contrast to the barren orc lands and lush tauren lands.
i've also visited some tropical islands, a pirate town, a deforestation facility run by goblins, and a strip mine run by dwarfs. i've seen a lot of really amazing things, and i feel like i've only scratched the surface. i think i'll try Gnome next, they look cute as hell.
the only reason i payed this stupid $7.90 toa a company i despise is for an extra week of WoW. a dollar a day, ok, i guess i can swing that. i feel dirty, but i broke down and did it.
now, i'm unhappily waiting for my CD key. if i don't get it by early this evening, i'm going to start trying to get my money back from FP.
not to mention, libertarians are often to the RIGHT of republicans on issues like taxes, gun control, and the environment.
people this ignorant shouldn't be allowed to vote.
well, if the stripped out features include Windows Media Player, Windows Messaging, MSN, and all that other crap i spend my first half hour deleting after a clean install, then it might just be worth it to learn Thai ...
i second this post. honestly, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is a greatly underrated game. it's the TRUE sequel to Civ2, and it beats the heck out of Civ3, which i really thought was pretty weak. it didn't ever OWN my time like Civ2 and Alpha Centauri (SMAC) did.
SMAC even lets you design your own units based on which techs you have discovered, and the audio quotes you hear upon researching new technology are alternately hilarious or profound.
sprinkled throughout are also quotes from Nietzsche, Kant, Plato, Aristotle, Einstein, Kierkegaard, and others. while this stuff has little to do with the game mechanics itself, it nevertheless helps me feel truly immersed in the progress of my society. each new scientific discovery really feels like a breakthrough, and it gives one a sense of how this new trechnology will effect my nation.
"beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master" -- Commissioner Pravin Lal
"We are all aware that the senses can be deceived, the eyes fooled. But how can we be sure our senses are not being deceived at any particular time, or even all the time? Might I just be a brain in a tank somewhere, tricked all my life into believing in the events of this world by some insane computer? And does my life gain or lose meaning based on my reaction to such solipsism?" -- Project PYRRHO, Specimen 46, Vat 7. (termination of speciman advised)
Beware, you who seek first and final principles, for you are trampling the garden of an angry God and he awaits you just beyond the last theorem. -- Sister Miriam Godwinson
Technological advance is an inherently iterative process. One does not simply take sand from the beach and produce a Dataprobe. We use crude tools to fashion better tools, and then our better tools to fashion more precise tools, and so on. Each minor refinement is a step in the process, and all of the steps must be taken. -- Chairman Sheng-ji Yang
Of course we'll bundle our MorganNet software with the new network nodes; our customers expect no less of us. We have never sought to become a monopoly. Our products are simply so good that no one feels the need to compete with us. -- CEO Nwabudike Morgan
Some would ask, how could a perfect God create a universe filled with so much that is evil. They have missed a greater conundrum: why would a perfect God create a universe at all? --
Sister Miriam Godwinson
Why do you insist that the human genetic code is "sacred" or "taboo"? It is a chemical process and nothing more. For that matter -we- are chemical processes and nothing more. If you deny yourself a useful tool simply because it reminds you uncomfortably of your mortality, you have uselessly and pointlessly crippled yourself. --Chairman Sheng-ji Yang
"The Academician's private residences shall remain off-limits to the Genetic Inspectors. We possess no retroviral capability, we are not researching retroviral engineering, and we shall not allow this Council to violate faction privileges in the name of this ridiculous witch hunt!" -- Fedor Petrov (upon discovering the technology of, you guessed it, Retroviral Engineering)
"It is every citizen's final duty to go into the tanks and become one with all the people." -- Chairman Sheng-ji Yang
the first two seasons of enteriprise, i'll grant you weren't that great, but this third season i thought was really a big step up.
then go give T'pol another, uh, decontamination rub down, will ya?
when? about the same time we see BMW drop their prices to compete with Hyundai
you misunderstand me. i didn't say a game has to be genre-busting to be great. i just said those games are good, but not totally outstanding.
half life 2: we'll see. can't judge a game till it's out.
but the consoles recently had the whole GTA3 thing, which was pretty revolutionary. also they're just now forraying into the mmorpg market. plus KOTOR was a truly outstanding RPG, far better than anything that's been released for the PC in the last two or three years. these are games that make a big difference in what sort of mahine people buy. Far Cry is not. Doom 3 might be, and World of Warcraft might be, depending on how they turn out, even though they're not groundbreaking in terms of originality of gameplay.
what, yet more first person shooters? they're fine examples of the genre, sure, but nothing really outstanding.
nahhhh. it's simple. there just haven't been any world-shaking titles for PC lately. When the next Starcraft or The Sims or Doom comes out, you'll see articles again speculating about the death of the console.
just wait till World of Warcraft and Doom 3 come out.
seriously! i watched the trailer for this and my jaw just went slack. timothy leary, mark mothersbaugh, steve albini, and the guy that created Dolemite are in it. the other actors, though, are kinda weird. it's really hard to discern any details from that website, but apparently this was going to be a 3DO title?!?! seriously wacked. the trailer opens (i THINK) with 2 airplanes crashing into downtown Chicago, and lots of high-rises bursting into flames ... oddly prescient for 1996. apparently the citizenry of chicago reacts by doing 500 hits of acid each and throwing a big party. aliens(?) arrive. firemen breakdance. timothy leary turns into Max Headroom. what the fuck?
"In response to many requests and with a view to making our written work easier to read, we are moving to a new standard font: 'Times New Roman 14'," said the memorandum.
this is pretty amazing. back 13 years ago in 1991 i was working for the Army Materiel Command Headquarters and i repeatedly got a "talking to" from my bosses for using Times instead of Courier in official correspondence to other departments. i then went to the head of AMC HQ and suggested a change in policy to allow Times New Roman to also be acceptable, since we were now in the computer age, and not limited to typewriters and daisy-wheel printers, and since Times New Roman was demonstrably easier to read, and more attractive. He took my request to the Chief of Staff of the Army, who shot it down.
i was ahead of my time!
are you insane? how many times can you play kings quest before the frustration of falling off of footbridges and staircases to your death outweighs the sheer thrill of typing "give egg to troll"?
yes, graphics have come a long way since then, but honestly gameplay itself has come just as far. you like adventure games? play some Grim Fandango. Monkey Island.
some advance in AI no?
nope. just lots of meatbag competitors! =)
And if this trend continues, how long is it until Blizzard EULAs contain rules and guidelines on how you can play the game? How long is it until people who don't play along are just deleted?
have you READ the EULA? it basically already states this. copied from another post:
"harass, threaten, stalk, embarrass, or cause distress, unwanted attention, or discomfort upon another user of Battle.net or other person or entity;"
"cheat during game play,"
"carry out any action with a disruptive effect, such as causing the screen to "scroll" faster than other users are able to type to it;"
"disrupt the normal flow of dialog in a chat room or otherwise act in a manner that negatively affects other users, individuals, or entities, including, but not limited to, posting "Spam" messages on Battle.net. "Spam" messages as used herein include, but are not limited to, any effort to use a computer or other electronic device to post an unauthorized and/or unsolicited advertisement to Battle.net;"
and frankly, that's fine by me. we're not talking about an abridgement of civil rights here. they're just adjusting the rules of their game to maximize its enjoyment. do you play warcraft 3? i do, and i can tell you this small minority WERE ruining a significant number of games for others. self-policing doesn't work. other players just don't have the power. THANK YOU blizzard for taking action more than any other company would have.
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy best packaging ever:
... my pair must have been expecially neurotic, they were always pitch black. in fact if i didn't know better i'd suspect they were simply cut out of a sheet of construction paper.
- a little baggie, labeled "Microscopic Space Fleet."
- some pocket fluff
- peril-sensitive sunglasses. in the book, they would cloud over at the first hint of danger
- a friendly red pin, emblazoned with the motto "don't panic!" in yellow letters. (currently affixed to my leather biker jacket)
- Demolition orders for my home
- Demolition orders for my planet
- No tea!
cbyron@nypost.com
"don't you think your article was a tad
it's offensive to you. don't play it. you think it's bad for kids. so keep your kids away from it. don't tell me how to parent. MY kids will know the difference between right and wrong, fantasy and reality. maybe if you'd tought your kids the same, you wouldn't be so worried.
the game is a simple power fantasy indulgence, just like a comic book, a sports car, or newspaper editorial. and frankly, it is an extremely well-done game. they didn't sell millions of copies simply based on gore. sure, that's what grabs the headlines, but the game is truly a tight bit of programming with fun, rewarding, and challenging play mechanics.
"This is 10,000 times worse than the worst thing anybody thinks Michael Jackson ever did to a little boy"
the most amazing thing i have ever read in my life is your suggestion that IMAGINARY VIOLENCE is worse for a child than REAL LIFE CHILD MOLESTATION. you say you would rather let your child be RAPED than play a VIDEO GAME. sir, now I am the one who is deeply offended, and frightened for your children."
like my raincoat!
put it in the hands of some people who actually take the subject matter seriously. Spike's Video Game Awards was like a 2-hour insult to anyone who watched it. gamers don't WANT cheerleaders and stupidity. well i mean, sure we do, as much as anyone, but if we're told you're about to show us video game content, don't just show us boobs and bad jokes instead.
you're watching 10 year old reruns of The Comedy Channel? really? like Night After Night with Alan Havey, Higgins Boys and Gruber, and old episodes of MST3K?? cool!!
look, i've been in bands for roughly 13 years now. any musician who actually makes the mistake of believing the RIAA is acting in the best interests of anyone other than the music PUBLISHERS is either a) ignorant of the situation or b) ludicrously naive.
now, music PUBLISHERS, in my opinion, are at the heart of this problem. this bullying litigation, these big corporations claiming your brain and your ears are their property. well maybe they don't claim that quite yet. just wait.
intellectual property laws need a major overhaul, especially in the arena of artistic works. as far as i know, there is virtually no difference, legally, between say, a microchip schematic and the song "What Do I Get" by the Buzzcocks. complete "ownership" of both can be bought and sold.
this is where artists get screwed.
since the artists, generally, are private individuals, they don't have the means to reach an audience large enough to make a living from their music. this is where the large multinational corporation steps in. they promise the exposure and distribution needed to move units far beyond the artist's capabilities. all they ask in return, of course, is the sole publishing rights to the music.
at this point the musician is a slave. the artist can't even legally burn his own CD, or send MP3s to friends.
even worse, if the corporation decides that the CD isn't selling well enough, they can decline to print another run of CDs. and of course since they own the publishing rights, it's illegal to make copies of that music through anyone else. i've seen lots of bands who go on tour and can't even sell their own CDs at their shows because their label didn't want to spend the money to print them. I've seen an established band with half a dozen full-length albums out unable to sell a single CD to a sold out audience because of a publishing deal gone bad. i've seen a band sell 40,000 CDs and not see one cent from their label.
the way to solve this problem is simple. intellectual property laws are too strong. first, in the case of artistic works, make it illegal for ownership OR exclusive publishing rights to be transferred away from the creator of the art himself. with one simple stroke, the power with which the music "industry" has imprisioned the musicians would dissolve. there would actually be some power in creating something rather than simply buying the rights to that creation. a musician, unhappy with his current label, would actually have some leverage. moving to a new label wouldn't mean abandoning the rights to all his previous work.
in addition, when an artist dies, the intellectual property rights shoud die with him. none of this nonsense with the estate of pablo picasso sueing websites for posting pictures of Guernica a good 70 years after he painted it. "the estate of pablo picasso" didn't paint the damn thing. it's just a team of lawyers trying to get paid.
even my band's mascot, Feseral Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan, a republican, made a speech not long ago stating that intellectual propety laws had become too restrictive. they have crossed the line and become a hindrance rather than a tool for the progress of modern society.
of course, it's a self-perpetuating problem. monetarily, and therefore politically, the publishers outweigh the musicians by a wiiiiiide margin precisely BECAUSE of these unjust intellectual property laws.
i wish i could see a brighter future for musicians, but until then i'll continue to operate outside the boundaries of this music industry.
this "patch" is virtually an expansion pack. hundreds of new items, new world event, all the skills totally re-balanced, "synergies" introduced, tons of new stuff. you should she the hysteria that is currently engulfing the various Diablo II Forums around the 'net.
yes, this is big news. i fully expect to be up till 2am er, testing this new patch =)
*jumps back in to D2*