1) it's the edition that corporates will buy and accordingly it's waaaay overpriced. browse joel on software for a good article on this sort of pricing. 2) office has a lot of lock-in, especially in the corporate environment..doc extension is worth billions of dollars.
Call me stupid but I really don't get it. MS has always given generous discounts to students AND developers. MSDN subscriptions are an amazing boon to any small and startup company.
So why are we being fucked over? Surely corporates (who are effectively subsidising these discounts) are the ones being fucked over?
I'm a Canadian permanent resident and I do a lot of travelling back and forth between the States (I have just a regular 10 year B1 visa for the States) and Canada.
In my experience Canadian border officials are dicks. They consistently give me a lot of hassle for some reason. I have no convictions of any kind, i mean just the fact that I'm a landed immigrant should give them a clue that my background has been thoroughly checked. But no. I also see them hassling many people who differ from their lilly white Caucasian definition of safe.
On the other hand US border officials are a breeze, never had a problem. The only time I ever had to wait for 30 minutes was crossing into the States at Buffalo, but I was travelling with a Russian then and he think he was the reason:)
Doesn't competition exist between DEVELOPERS whether there are 1 or a 100 platforms? I think this competition is good, since it means better games for us.
But having PLATFORM competition actually screws over the customer more than benefiting him, due to exclusive titles - meaning we need to purchase multiple platforms or play a restricted set of games - with no real increase in game quality. So a universal platform is beneficial to us, but not to platform sellers.
I agree with you, sad as it is some sports are grounded heavily in advertising, to the point where having *no ads* actually makes the game worse. I'm thinking Formula 1 here, but yeah most real life sports games.
Not sure if that is the type of in-game advertising google are getting into though. It's probably something more generic.
Re:3 Reasons: Marketing, name and quality
on
Why Do Games Sell?
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· Score: 1
Sure like I said brand name has some importance. But most of the EA franchise games are pretty good too (I'm assuming you mean them). There is no way people would continue to buy those games if they sucked. And EA has the highest repeat buyers in the market. Sure sometimes one in the sequel is crap, and very few of their games are truly brilliant, but they're certainly not poor on average.
But EA also have a fantastic advantage in sports games and that's that sports teams change EVERY year. So all their games have built in, intrinsic, upgradeability, it's like a license to print money.
Re:3 Reasons: Marketing, name and quality
on
Why Do Games Sell?
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· Score: 1
What, I'm sorry but that's rubbish. Yeah lots of good quality games don't sell but that doesn't mean that lots of bad quality games do sell. Generally all the top selling games are high quality products, especially when you project sales over 5 or (hey duke nukem) 11 years.
Quality is the NUMBER 1 decider on a games sales in the long term. But other things influence this in the short term. Marketing hype can make you buy a poor quality game, but generally this doesn't produce sustainable sales, since pretty soon the word is out that this game sucks. On the other hand a high quality game that nobody knows about can't be sold.
Most people buy games after reading reviews (ever wonder why there are so many review sites for games?), not after seeing an ad for the game. The ad only makes the person check out the reviews.
Name or Brand: Sure this is also important, but it's only important because previous games with this name were QUALITY.
Hype may generate lots of short term sales but it severely harms your ability to create a successful franchise game. For instance I bought B&W on the hype, was very disappointed with it and will never buy a sequel or even anything by Peter Molyneux, unless I'm certain it's outstanding.
On the other hand games which really surprised me in some way, I tend to buy the sequels and other games from the same developers.
I would go for another half-life mod called 'Natural Selection'. It's hard to define 'importance' but NS was (afaik) one of the most groundbreaking mods around in terms of original ideas and gameplay, and must have been one of the first multiplayer ganes to mesh rts and fps games.
I've haven't actually used the Wii controller before but from the sounds of it a game like Mount & Blade would go well with it. I can imagine using one controller to steer your horse and the other to wield your sword. Would be a lot of fun.
Therefore they are weighing only the monetary cost of illegally copied content (nothing) vs. the retail price (something) and deciding on copyright infringement. That doesn't mean they would pay for the content if they couldn't download it. Actually I find the convenience is far more of a factor than the cost. Downloading torrents is very very convenient and quick. Torrent download sites are generally well organised and the vast majority of movie rips are fairly good quality. If I really like the movie I generally go and buy the dvd, because the quality is better - and I hardly ever go to the cinema.
I think downloading movie torrents is killing video rentals far more than big studios.
Mathematical tuning sounds like just an easy way of solving the hard problem of balancing a game. Balancing a game, of course, is just a kludge for shoddy AI in most instances.
Everything revolves around what is being mathematically tuned. Is the intelligence of an object being tuned (cool) , or is the object just being given a x% production/whatever boost (sucks). Games that use the latter approach have that clinical feel to them, but this is the easiest method of tuning.
Yeah that's exactly what I thought of too while reading the review. It's a very funny BBC sitcom set in an office (tada) centering around an incompetant manager and the staff who work for him, some of whom are as equally bizarre as their boss. you'll notice hundreds of similarities to an office you've worked in, especially if you've worked in the uk! the macho bravado and sexual innuendoes are perhaps not as prevalent in american companies.
How can you say that. SCO has one of the top legal teams in the US representing it and if the rumours of financial backing from MS turn out true, well maybe you got it the wrong way around.
rofl. considering that budget revenue for sa in 2002 was R313,2 billion ($~31 billion) i think $200 per crytpo system is unlikely to make much of a contribution.
that's certainly not the reason behind this - after all the amount of income will be negliable. the reason is simply to control the use of crypto. south africa doesnt need new taxes - in fact personal income tax has been reduced steadily over the past few years and the budget is very healthy - and to say the economy is in free fall is a massive overstatement (its not brilliant, but then what countires economy is at the moment?)
Slashdot Mirror
It's worth a grand cause :
.doc extension is worth billions of dollars.
1) it's the edition that corporates will buy and accordingly it's waaaay overpriced. browse joel on software for a good article on this sort of pricing.
2) office has a lot of lock-in, especially in the corporate environment.
Call me stupid but I really don't get it. MS has always given generous discounts to students AND developers. MSDN subscriptions are an amazing boon to any small and startup company.
So why are we being fucked over? Surely corporates (who are effectively subsidising these discounts) are the ones being fucked over?
As a vegetarian I've got to say: You've convinced me! I'm off to MacDonald's right now to do my part in the fight against global warming.
5 Cheese burgers. HOLD the lettuce.
I've always wondered; is Jimbo the cult name for Jimmy Wales?
I mean, holding the same office as that Newton guy probably does not mean much. ;)
Some people think he's not that great as can be seen in the video The Hawking Paradox.
What would you have done, bought it from a competitor for $50 more? Doesn't that mean *you're* getting screwed over twice?
I'm a Canadian permanent resident and I do a lot of travelling back and forth between the States (I have just a regular 10 year B1 visa for the States) and Canada.
:)
In my experience Canadian border officials are dicks. They consistently give me a lot of hassle for some reason. I have no convictions of any kind, i mean just the fact that I'm a landed immigrant should give them a clue that my background has been thoroughly checked. But no. I also see them hassling many people who differ from their lilly white Caucasian definition of safe.
On the other hand US border officials are a breeze, never had a problem. The only time I ever had to wait for 30 minutes was crossing into the States at Buffalo, but I was travelling with a Russian then and he think he was the reason
Doesn't competition exist between DEVELOPERS whether there are 1 or a 100 platforms? I think this competition is good, since it means better games for us.
But having PLATFORM competition actually screws over the customer more than benefiting him, due to exclusive titles - meaning we need to purchase multiple platforms or play a restricted set of games - with no real increase in game quality. So a universal platform is beneficial to us, but not to platform sellers.
I agree with you, sad as it is some sports are grounded heavily in advertising, to the point where having *no ads* actually makes the game worse. I'm thinking Formula 1 here, but yeah most real life sports games.
Not sure if that is the type of in-game advertising google are getting into though. It's probably something more generic.
Sure like I said brand name has some importance. But most of the EA franchise games are pretty good too (I'm assuming you mean them). There is no way people would continue to buy those games if they sucked. And EA has the highest repeat buyers in the market. Sure sometimes one in the sequel is crap, and very few of their games are truly brilliant, but they're certainly not poor on average.
But EA also have a fantastic advantage in sports games and that's that sports teams change EVERY year. So all their games have built in, intrinsic, upgradeability, it's like a license to print money.
What, I'm sorry but that's rubbish. Yeah lots of good quality games don't sell but that doesn't mean that lots of bad quality games do sell. Generally all the top selling games are high quality products, especially when you project sales over 5 or (hey duke nukem) 11 years.
Quality is the NUMBER 1 decider on a games sales in the long term. But other things influence this in the short term. Marketing hype can make you buy a poor quality game, but generally this doesn't produce sustainable sales, since pretty soon the word is out that this game sucks. On the other hand a high quality game that nobody knows about can't be sold.
Most people buy games after reading reviews (ever wonder why there are so many review sites for games?), not after seeing an ad for the game. The ad only makes the person check out the reviews.
Name or Brand: Sure this is also important, but it's only important because previous games with this name were QUALITY.
Hype may generate lots of short term sales but it severely harms your ability to create a successful franchise game. For instance I bought B&W on the hype, was very disappointed with it and will never buy a sequel or even anything by Peter Molyneux, unless I'm certain it's outstanding.
On the other hand games which really surprised me in some way, I tend to buy the sequels and other games from the same developers.
I would go for another half-life mod called 'Natural Selection'. It's hard to define 'importance' but NS was (afaik) one of the most groundbreaking mods around in terms of original ideas and gameplay, and must have been one of the first multiplayer ganes to mesh rts and fps games.
I've haven't actually used the Wii controller before but from the sounds of it a game like Mount & Blade would go well with it. I can imagine using one controller to steer your horse and the other to wield your sword. Would be a lot of fun.
I think downloading movie torrents is killing video rentals far more than big studios.
Mathematical tuning sounds like just an easy way of solving the hard problem of balancing a game. Balancing a game, of course, is just a kludge for shoddy AI in most instances.
Everything revolves around what is being mathematically tuned. Is the intelligence of an object being tuned (cool) , or is the object just being given a x% production/whatever boost (sucks). Games that use the latter approach have that clinical feel to them, but this is the easiest method of tuning.
I may be wrong, but I think that AOL also intimated that they would return to the high speed market if bandwidth caps were introduced.
So this may also have influenced their decision making.
And you think MS got to where they are today by losing fights?
I think if you review the corporate history of MS you'll find that:
1. they ignore you
2. they attempt to buy you out
3. they fight you
4. you lose
Maybe linux will have a hand in changing all that, its too early to tell, but i think you are right in saying the war has just begun.
Yeah that's exactly what I thought of too while reading the review. It's a very funny BBC sitcom set in an office (tada) centering around an incompetant manager and the staff who work for him, some of whom are as equally bizarre as their boss. you'll notice hundreds of similarities to an office you've worked in, especially if you've worked in the uk! the macho bravado and sexual innuendoes are perhaps not as prevalent in american companies.
The only problem with SomaFM is that they pay $4000 a year to the RIAA. So supporting them is akin to supporting the RIAA.
It's a tricky situation.
How can you say that. SCO has one of the top legal teams in the US representing it and if the rumours of financial backing from MS turn out true, well maybe you got it the wrong way around.
Believe me, like the rest of you, I love Mozilla, and I live by the tabbed browsing
IE has tabbed browsing and pop up blocking - Its called Crazybrowser
well i earn R200 000 a year and my taxes came down so i dont know what youre talking about.
rofl.
considering that budget revenue for sa in 2002 was R313,2 billion ($~31 billion) i think $200 per crytpo system is unlikely to make much of a contribution.
that's certainly not the reason behind this - after all the amount of income will be negliable. the reason is simply to control the use of crypto. south africa doesnt need new taxes - in fact personal income tax has been reduced steadily over the past few years and the budget is very healthy - and to say the economy is in free fall is a massive overstatement (its not brilliant, but then what countires economy is at the moment?)