That would be true if we all had just one game and we never lost interest in it. But the fact is, you don't usually continue playing that long and at least not so often. If you do, good! But if you now sell the game to new player, he has all the interest in it like a new customer, except that he didn't pay a cent to the game company. Your theory is nice, but it fails in practice. These costs have been calculated statistically when defining the price of game and how much they can spend on online services. Resold game is basically allowing freeloaders. Now, as Sony is a business it's not off from them. They just shift that cost to other customers. But is that fair to the others?
If the original buyer sells the game, he is obviously bored with it. It's not a situation of original buyer playing two years or original buyer playing one year and other player playing one year.
The comment about single player/lan/multiplayer games in the old times is slightly wrong. The recent generation multiplayer games have a lot more content and gameplay than they previously had. Unlocks, classes, customization. Even FPS games are getting close to roleplaying/mmo games. I personally love it. The best aspect for example in CoD multiplayer for me has been the customization allowed. I also love that TF2 is adding more and more of it. It's a lot different than from the quake times.
I know such always get critized by customers and it's Sony here... But lets try to look at it objectively. Running online services costs money. Running online services that are constantly improved, have new items or classes or whatever rolled out and the game being balanced all the time cost a lot more money. These games don't have monthly subscriptions because that only works with mmo games. This means the game company is fully dependant on the income from game sales. When people resell their game the game developers get nothing, so they also have less incentive to support online games.
Now this leaves a few options for the game company. Valve is currently experiencing with the another one - make the game free to play and have a store where gamers can buy items or decoration (hats, different colors). This is also how Facebook games and the like work, and this has been the standard in Asian markets for a long time. This also gets criticized here on slashdot, but I think it works pretty well with TF2. Players get a truly awesome game for free and theres incentive for the players to buy from store (I want this item now), but they can also unlock them via achievements and playing the game. I bought TF2 (Orange Box) when it came out, but I've also bought a few items from the store after I started playing it again now. Items I felt would make my gaming nicer as I could customize my classes as I wanted to. Items I just got a little bit earlier.
The other one sadly is either monthly fees or things like this PSN Pass. As I've personally never resold a game (and I don't think it's so huge market with PC games, consoles yes) I really don't feel like paying a monthly fee to play some shooter game. Microsoft handles this by collectively collecting a monthly feel for the whole 360 service. But the truth is, somehow the company needs to get money to run the online services. I spend a lot for the game, so I don't like to subsidize freeloaders. It's only fair that they also pay a little to get online access, which is a recurring cost for the game company.
What's funny is that Apple zealots always try to say that Apple "barely breaks even" with app store and that they make money by selling hardware. I'm not sure why it's so hard for someone to understand that they can do both.
Google+ is even worse than Facebook on this regard. When you join Google+, your profile is already public to the whole internet and search engines. And because it's Google, they have already indexed it by then. There is no way to set it private before it's already public. Now they also want that people really make everything public in their search engine. Of course it makes business sense for Google, but is not good for users that want privacy. Google even uses good marketing language to soften the user. Such stuff never says "Yes", but it reads "oh that's okay". Dirty tricks.
I use OpenOffice almost daily, but for very simple stuff. The truth is, it still lacks many features that Office offers. It also still doesn't seem to open or save Office files correctly, which is really needed if you want to exchange files with other people. The GUI also feels kind of sluggish and outdated, but that probably comes from Java.
I did exactly this after some relatives added me and they just didn't understand the online/idle color in Facebook and would always flood me with "hello??" and get mad when I didn't answer. Works like a charm, they don't see me online anymore, but everyone else do. And it's still not completely blocking. You can also easily ignore status updates from people that flood them. Most problems that people here on slashdot complain about are easily fixed with one click.
Unnecessary? Yeah, maybe us slashdotters wont use the video chat feature much, but normal people love it. To be honest I rather use MSN Messenger with my girlfriend, but such feature really is essential to Facebook too.
You, Microsoft has a huge R&D division in the following subjects
- Algorithms and theory
- Hardware development
- Human–computer interaction
- Machine learning, adaptation, and intelligence
- Multimedia and graphics
- Search, retrieval, and knowledge management
- Security and cryptography
- Social computing
- Software development
- Systems, architectures, mobility, and networking
- Computational and Systems Biology
It's the largest one in the industry. They really do lots of research, and should enjoy the results aswell.
So, what exactly have you done to not support Chinese? Do you buy products that have been only made and manufactured in the US, even if its higher price? Do you own iPhone or any other known mobile phone? Does any of your product read Made in China? Instead of blaming Microsoft for doing business with Chinese, what about you taking the first step?
I suggest that other countries start doing it too. Break any French law, face extradition. Break any Chinese law, face extradition. Break any North Korean law, face extradition. It doesn't matter that you have nothing to do with them. If US is doing it, why not others?
Nice how to the title tries to imply that it is Facebook's fault when in fact it's only bad coding from Hulu's side. They even admit it:
The company has admitted that the flaw was the result of a coding and configuration error on Hulu’s side. The company has denied that the issue is the result of hacking, other third party actions, or a vulnerability in Facebook Connect.
Oh come on, just go to Thailand and you can see it yourself. I've lived here many years and I can say their love for the king is genuine. For a good reason too, he has done a lot of good for the country during his life.
Don't mix him in with the military junta that actually hold power here. But about this election were talking now, the opposition (red shirts) won. Even their old ex-prime minister admitted it and hoped the power transition goes smoothly. People got what they wanted.
That law exists because Thai people want it to exist. The king itself is against it and has said so publicly. He also pardons people who violate that law, especially foreigners.
If it would be some law that is forced on people when majority of them object it, you would have a say. But when majority of people want such law to exist, well, it's their country their rules. Most Thai people really do love their king.
Yes, it really is common in other countries too. And for a good reason. It just has been in traditional media before, because technology like internet haven't existed for long, social media even less. Other countries will most likely include social media in the, well, media category too.
They did not ban the use of Twitter, Facebook and social media for election related purposes. This ban is only effect from yesterday 6 PM to today 3 PM until the polls are over. It's a cooling period before the polls, which by the way have already opened. It's so that the candidates and parties or their supporters won't do any cheating or try last minute mass campaigning. Hell, the headline made it sound like some China thing where they banned Facebook and Twitter completely. And I should know, as I live here, have a thai wife and many thai friends.
Naive? I work for a company that also deals with user submitted content on the internet. We have a very similar clause in our TOS just for this reason and I do understand why companies are by law required to put it there. Slashdot has it too.
Well, many people myself included use it as a quick place to share files on irc, im or forums and as a image host. Dropbox has many functions that supports sharing too, like picture galleries. I do save a few backup files there, but encrypted.
You might want to read Slashdot terms before making such statements because
In each such case, the submitting user grants Geeknet the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, and display such Content (in whole or part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed, all subject to the terms of any applicable license.
Slashdot (and whole Geeknet) license agreement is actually even wider than Dropbox, as they don't even limit it to as-required-by-service.
Just ask yourself why Slashdot has no such agreement. Somehow Slashdot manages to scrape by without this "essential" clause.
You might want to read Slashdot terms before making such statements because
In each such case, the submitting user grants Geeknet the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, and display such Content (in whole or part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed, all subject to the terms of any applicable license.
Slashdot (and whole Geeknet) license agreement is actually even wider than Dropbox, as they don't even limit it to as-required-by-service.
I don't see any such disclaimer at slashdot. If I did I certainly wouldn't be posting short science fiction stories in my slashdot journal; a couple hundred more of these and I'll publish them in book form (so far there are only four).
Then you might want to read slashdot (and Geeknet) terms and stop posting because:
In each such case, the submitting user grants Geeknet the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, and display such Content (in whole or part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed, all subject to the terms of any applicable license.
Slashdot Mirror
That would be true if we all had just one game and we never lost interest in it. But the fact is, you don't usually continue playing that long and at least not so often. If you do, good! But if you now sell the game to new player, he has all the interest in it like a new customer, except that he didn't pay a cent to the game company. Your theory is nice, but it fails in practice. These costs have been calculated statistically when defining the price of game and how much they can spend on online services. Resold game is basically allowing freeloaders. Now, as Sony is a business it's not off from them. They just shift that cost to other customers. But is that fair to the others?
If the original buyer sells the game, he is obviously bored with it. It's not a situation of original buyer playing two years or original buyer playing one year and other player playing one year.
The comment about single player/lan/multiplayer games in the old times is slightly wrong. The recent generation multiplayer games have a lot more content and gameplay than they previously had. Unlocks, classes, customization. Even FPS games are getting close to roleplaying/mmo games. I personally love it. The best aspect for example in CoD multiplayer for me has been the customization allowed. I also love that TF2 is adding more and more of it. It's a lot different than from the quake times.
I know such always get critized by customers and it's Sony here... But lets try to look at it objectively. Running online services costs money. Running online services that are constantly improved, have new items or classes or whatever rolled out and the game being balanced all the time cost a lot more money. These games don't have monthly subscriptions because that only works with mmo games. This means the game company is fully dependant on the income from game sales. When people resell their game the game developers get nothing, so they also have less incentive to support online games.
Now this leaves a few options for the game company. Valve is currently experiencing with the another one - make the game free to play and have a store where gamers can buy items or decoration (hats, different colors). This is also how Facebook games and the like work, and this has been the standard in Asian markets for a long time. This also gets criticized here on slashdot, but I think it works pretty well with TF2. Players get a truly awesome game for free and theres incentive for the players to buy from store (I want this item now), but they can also unlock them via achievements and playing the game. I bought TF2 (Orange Box) when it came out, but I've also bought a few items from the store after I started playing it again now. Items I felt would make my gaming nicer as I could customize my classes as I wanted to. Items I just got a little bit earlier.
The other one sadly is either monthly fees or things like this PSN Pass. As I've personally never resold a game (and I don't think it's so huge market with PC games, consoles yes) I really don't feel like paying a monthly fee to play some shooter game. Microsoft handles this by collectively collecting a monthly feel for the whole 360 service. But the truth is, somehow the company needs to get money to run the online services. I spend a lot for the game, so I don't like to subsidize freeloaders. It's only fair that they also pay a little to get online access, which is a recurring cost for the game company.
What's funny is that Apple zealots always try to say that Apple "barely breaks even" with app store and that they make money by selling hardware. I'm not sure why it's so hard for someone to understand that they can do both.
There is no thing called "prior art" with trademarks. This isn't patents.
Google+ is even worse than Facebook on this regard. When you join Google+, your profile is already public to the whole internet and search engines. And because it's Google, they have already indexed it by then. There is no way to set it private before it's already public. Now they also want that people really make everything public in their search engine. Of course it makes business sense for Google, but is not good for users that want privacy. Google even uses good marketing language to soften the user. Such stuff never says "Yes", but it reads "oh that's okay". Dirty tricks.
I use OpenOffice almost daily, but for very simple stuff. The truth is, it still lacks many features that Office offers. It also still doesn't seem to open or save Office files correctly, which is really needed if you want to exchange files with other people. The GUI also feels kind of sluggish and outdated, but that probably comes from Java.
I did exactly this after some relatives added me and they just didn't understand the online/idle color in Facebook and would always flood me with "hello??" and get mad when I didn't answer. Works like a charm, they don't see me online anymore, but everyone else do. And it's still not completely blocking. You can also easily ignore status updates from people that flood them. Most problems that people here on slashdot complain about are easily fixed with one click.
Unnecessary? Yeah, maybe us slashdotters wont use the video chat feature much, but normal people love it. To be honest I rather use MSN Messenger with my girlfriend, but such feature really is essential to Facebook too.
You, Microsoft has a huge R&D division in the following subjects
- Algorithms and theory
- Hardware development
- Human–computer interaction
- Machine learning, adaptation, and intelligence
- Multimedia and graphics
- Search, retrieval, and knowledge management
- Security and cryptography
- Social computing
- Software development
- Systems, architectures, mobility, and networking
- Computational and Systems Biology
It's the largest one in the industry. They really do lots of research, and should enjoy the results aswell.
It might be retro, but what does it say about open sources ability to compete against closed source? It seems it's currently over 20 years behind.
So, what exactly have you done to not support Chinese? Do you buy products that have been only made and manufactured in the US, even if its higher price? Do you own iPhone or any other known mobile phone? Does any of your product read Made in China? Instead of blaming Microsoft for doing business with Chinese, what about you taking the first step?
I suggest that other countries start doing it too. Break any French law, face extradition. Break any Chinese law, face extradition. Break any North Korean law, face extradition. It doesn't matter that you have nothing to do with them. If US is doing it, why not others?
99% time Facebook Connect is offered as an alternative if you don't want to fill the registration form. Sort of like OpenID on Slashdot.
The company has admitted that the flaw was the result of a coding and configuration error on Hulu’s side. The company has denied that the issue is the result of hacking, other third party actions, or a vulnerability in Facebook Connect.
Oh come on, just go to Thailand and you can see it yourself. I've lived here many years and I can say their love for the king is genuine. For a good reason too, he has done a lot of good for the country during his life.
Don't mix him in with the military junta that actually hold power here. But about this election were talking now, the opposition (red shirts) won. Even their old ex-prime minister admitted it and hoped the power transition goes smoothly. People got what they wanted.
That law exists because Thai people want it to exist. The king itself is against it and has said so publicly. He also pardons people who violate that law, especially foreigners.
If it would be some law that is forced on people when majority of them object it, you would have a say. But when majority of people want such law to exist, well, it's their country their rules. Most Thai people really do love their king.
Yes, it really is common in other countries too. And for a good reason. It just has been in traditional media before, because technology like internet haven't existed for long, social media even less. Other countries will most likely include social media in the, well, media category too.
If everyone agrees...
Yeah good luck with that.
They did not ban the use of Twitter, Facebook and social media for election related purposes. This ban is only effect from yesterday 6 PM to today 3 PM until the polls are over. It's a cooling period before the polls, which by the way have already opened. It's so that the candidates and parties or their supporters won't do any cheating or try last minute mass campaigning. Hell, the headline made it sound like some China thing where they banned Facebook and Twitter completely. And I should know, as I live here, have a thai wife and many thai friends.
Naive? I work for a company that also deals with user submitted content on the internet. We have a very similar clause in our TOS just for this reason and I do understand why companies are by law required to put it there. Slashdot has it too.
Well, many people myself included use it as a quick place to share files on irc, im or forums and as a image host. Dropbox has many functions that supports sharing too, like picture galleries. I do save a few backup files there, but encrypted.
In each such case, the submitting user grants Geeknet the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, and display such Content (in whole or part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed, all subject to the terms of any applicable license.
Slashdot (and whole Geeknet) license agreement is actually even wider than Dropbox, as they don't even limit it to as-required-by-service.
Just ask yourself why Slashdot has no such agreement. Somehow Slashdot manages to scrape by without this "essential" clause.
You might want to read Slashdot terms before making such statements because
In each such case, the submitting user grants Geeknet the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, and display such Content (in whole or part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed, all subject to the terms of any applicable license.
Slashdot (and whole Geeknet) license agreement is actually even wider than Dropbox, as they don't even limit it to as-required-by-service.
I don't see any such disclaimer at slashdot. If I did I certainly wouldn't be posting short science fiction stories in my slashdot journal; a couple hundred more of these and I'll publish them in book form (so far there are only four).
Then you might want to read slashdot (and Geeknet) terms and stop posting because:
In each such case, the submitting user grants Geeknet the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, and display such Content (in whole or part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed, all subject to the terms of any applicable license.