Why is it that pirating movies elicits basically no response or even sometimes approval on Slashdot since it hurts the MPAA, but pirating games from a hated company like EA prompts swearing from a dick like yourself? Are games more worthy than movies? Or are you so addicted to gaming that your perspective about what's morally wrong is warped to hell?
I'm not the AC, but he does have something of a point even if he was a bit rude going about it.
I'd like to think of myself as being quite proficient in Linux. I know my way around the command line well, I use it a lot at work and have a great appreciation for it. I've also used it as something of a hobbyist and tinkering platform at home as well. But the reason I continue to use Windows instead of Linux as my primary platform is simply because it handles virtually all situations that a home user could find a need for. I too don't have much use for video, but if/when the time comes that I find myself needing a video editor, I know there will be many of them available in Windows. Or if I need something special that fills a particular niche, Windows will probably have the software.
The incredibly large userbase of Windows does have its advantages in terms of availability of software and support. It might be annoying in certain areas but this widespread uses has a number of side benefits that shouldn't be easily dismissed I think.
As for the price of software, I no longer buy software and instead just pirate it. I used to buy software, but I realized that over 90% of my movies, music and videos were torrented anyway and there's no chance in hell I'll ever want to willingly delete all that content, so thinking I'm morally correct in buying software whilst pirating media seems so hypocritical, so in the end I just went fully pirate. In this case, the price of pro video editors isn't' a big deal.
They're fickle up to a point. If EA is in control over a major properties like the Sims, you'll never be able to get my wife to just give them up. Though to be fair, although we've got all the Sims 3 stuff and expansion packs, all of them are pirated (torrented). She doesn't care, she just likes to hear when something new pops up, and I download it for her.
True. One of the nice things about smaller companies is that they basically HAVE to listen to their customer's concerns, otherwise they'll go out of business. The customer base is naturally small enough such that the impact of even a single customer can be felt, hence there's an incentive to improve their response to complaints (at least in theory).
For a large bohemith like EA, a single customer's word means fuck-all. You need a LOT of people to swing in a direction for EA to change their behavior, and that simply won't happen due to human nature - specifically the average gamer's nature.
You might be the smartest, most savvy consumer around, always rationally voting with your dollars--but most people aren't, and they're going to dilute your good choices with their bad, uninformed, irrational or random ones.
That might be one of the most insightful things I've ever read on Slashdot. Shame you posted as an AC though.
The way some kids and young adults act I'd almost be tempted to question that. Games are these days considered as necessary as food to a lot of young people, which is a testament to their addictive nature of games and the strength of peer pressure (and I ain't flaming, since I've been there myself many times). It's also the reason why EA have nothing to worry about.
If you honestly continue to believe in a direction that's not producing any real dividends (your phone/tablet strategy is still failing and there's widespread disappointment for Windows 8) then that's arrogance of the highest level which can only be explained by delusion. It's really as simple as that.
In my experience with a few Microsoft employees, I have yet to meet any of them who are highly critical about the direction the company is headed. They all seem to believe the radical decisions made by the company will pay off in some way despite the mass hatred towards them.
The only ones that are truly critical about Microsoft, no longer work there. I'm strongly of the belief that Microsoft has a very good indoctrinating and brainwashing methodology with their employees. This infallible belief in thinking they're at the forefront of technology and know what's best for tech can only be explained by mass delusion. Which horrifies me.
It's like Deus Ex -- everytime someone mentions it, you have to go play it again.:)
Excuse me for a moment, I need to go do something...
Actually it's examples like this which make me worry for the future of gaming. I had an argument (online argument, yes I know) with someone who honestly didn't see the problem with always-online DRM, and who tried using the logic "I've never had the urge to play games from 10 years ago, who would?" as an argument for why always-online DRM isn't a bad idea.
I lost the argument mostly because he was a dick who, like a lot of games, is incapable of thinking long term about issues. Which is why I'm hoarding all the good games with suitable cracks while I can.
Seriously, I'm getting fucking tired of companies slagging off at each other, with either aggressive or passive aggressive comments made between various CEOs or VPs or whoever thinks they're important enough to get the spotlight for a few minutes.
Make good stuff that people want. If a competitor is doing something that's risks drawing attention away from your stuff, don't act like children. Just shut the fuck up and present something even better. If you feel you have to acknowledge the competition, do it with some old-fashioned class for goodness sake. This bickering gets old extremely fast.
I've tried LibreOffice 4.0.2.2 (basically the release candidate for the just-release 4.0.2, so it's as recent as you can get) with a.doc file (or possibly.docx file, can't remember the exact extension) that was emailed to her from her Scout group. It screwed up part of the title page and portions of the tables which actually affected the ability to understand the content, and not just some superficial mix-ups. I also tried it on her.docx assignment for her Masters - the spacing was all wrong, and even worse if I resaved the file in LibreOffice without making any modifications.
You simply cannot rely on LibreOffice in the real world when dealing with Office documents. ODFs are perfect of course, but absolutely no-one uses them so it's pointless. Everyone else around here uses Office without complaint, and I'm out of excuses for why we should change if LibreOffice has no advantages.
Even if Windows 8 has to be the target though, there are already a mountain of start menu replacements available to provide the one thing that people complain about most in Windows 8. I have no intention to move from Windows 7 any time soon, but if I HAD to move, I'd know how to and in the least painful way.
Yeah and? Windows 7 will be supported till 2020. That's 7 years you can keep using Microsoft's best OS ever until it becomes officially dead, and by that time either Windows 9 will have fixed the issues of Windows 8, or we'll just slap on a start menu replacement (basically the main issue people have with Win 8) and move on.
Honestly I think Slashdotters are just finding ways to become angry, as if that make their lives worth something. It's not worth the effort.
Well for corporate/business users, not much. Windows XP Pro was the last version of Windows that didn't require activation. As for home users - everyone around me has moved to Windows 7/8 or OS X (not Linux, everyone who's tried it ends up going back to Windows in short order when they find out limited it is for mainstream desktop use) and so XP being unable to be activated is quite irrelevant.
You're wrong. For the last five years my wife is a happy CentOS user. And as non technical as you can get it.
CentOS is a fine workstation distro but a terrible desktop distro. IMHO of course.
Also, my wife is a happy Windows 7 user and although she may have acquired a few skills from what I've taught her, she's hardly a geek and somehow manages to do things just fine. PLUS she can use Office 2010 like everyone else and play the Sims 3. Try that using Linux!
Actually it's stuff like that (you know, the applications) that mean I'll never convert to Linux. I've given up - not going to force my wife, a teacher, to move to an inferior application (LibreOffice, which let's face it is the best of the free alternatives but sadly lacks in many areas) just because I have a hard-on for a fucking operating system.
Very good idea. I've been using the YYYYMMDD format and although it's close to the ISO, I have to admit that the hyphens definitely improve readability while retaining the ability to sort properly, so I think I'll change things now.
Well you clearly aren't supposed to be posting here. This is supposed to be a place for geeks and nerds (or so the slogan goes), but you're just a "user" if a thin client is all you need. Go away scum!
Note: I'm mocking of course (well, somewhat), but it doesn't sound like you have any real interest in computers anymore if you're actually satisfied by thin clients. Servers might be able to do some of the heavy work but there's value in having local resources in front of you as well, at least in my line of work. A geek wouldn't relish giving up all that for a dumb terminal, would they?
Obviously someone cares, otherwise Valve wouldn't be throwing resources at an apparently dead market. Oh, and I care. That's at least one person.
As for the Dell-Alienwar announcement, ArsTechnica covered it. They're ultimately a far better tech site than Slashdot is, but I think Slashdot has a better selection of commenters.
Any particular reason you had to be so dramatic? It's not necessary to make your point. It's fairly straightfoward really: the bad guys always win; it's a fact of life. They have more money and power than good, honest, moral people will ever have, The best you can do is hold them off as much as possible, but eventually, anything that can be locked down, will be. Anything that can be done to ensure people are kept dumb and mindless consumers, will happen. I know this, because it's happening to me too despite being aware of what I'm becoming.
It's very hard to fight against those that want to take away your freedoms, and with all the pressures and problems in normal adult life, most people don't have the luxury to fight all the damn time against such things.
You forgot the lack of manual saves (quicksave or otherwise). Whenever someone complains about checkpointed save systems, invariable someone chimes in and suggests that continually pressing F5 is hardly an improvement. What the said smartarse fails to mention is that pressing F5 ensures you've saved NOW, and hence can safely quick the game knowing it's going to load exactly where you saved and not a checkpoint 5-10 minutes ago.
It also means you can experiment more with situations, try out various weapons or tactics or ideas since you can just save manually before doing so. If the lack checkpoint was a while back, the enthusiasm to experiment deteriorates if you have to progress through scripted sequences to get back to where you started messing around.
Oh and of course, no-one said that a checkpoint AND manual save system couldn't be implemented. Games like Deus Ex - Human Revolution and even Half-Life 2 have this feature, and it works great for both types of players. But apparently to some idiots, if you complain about checkpoints you must be a save-smasher.
TL;DR - people suck on the Internet and are unable to form a argument unless it involves belittling other people.
Slashdot Mirror
Why is it that pirating movies elicits basically no response or even sometimes approval on Slashdot since it hurts the MPAA, but pirating games from a hated company like EA prompts swearing from a dick like yourself? Are games more worthy than movies? Or are you so addicted to gaming that your perspective about what's morally wrong is warped to hell?
I'm not the AC, but he does have something of a point even if he was a bit rude going about it.
I'd like to think of myself as being quite proficient in Linux. I know my way around the command line well, I use it a lot at work and have a great appreciation for it. I've also used it as something of a hobbyist and tinkering platform at home as well. But the reason I continue to use Windows instead of Linux as my primary platform is simply because it handles virtually all situations that a home user could find a need for. I too don't have much use for video, but if/when the time comes that I find myself needing a video editor, I know there will be many of them available in Windows. Or if I need something special that fills a particular niche, Windows will probably have the software.
The incredibly large userbase of Windows does have its advantages in terms of availability of software and support. It might be annoying in certain areas but this widespread uses has a number of side benefits that shouldn't be easily dismissed I think.
As for the price of software, I no longer buy software and instead just pirate it. I used to buy software, but I realized that over 90% of my movies, music and videos were torrented anyway and there's no chance in hell I'll ever want to willingly delete all that content, so thinking I'm morally correct in buying software whilst pirating media seems so hypocritical, so in the end I just went fully pirate. In this case, the price of pro video editors isn't' a big deal.
They're fickle up to a point. If EA is in control over a major properties like the Sims, you'll never be able to get my wife to just give them up. Though to be fair, although we've got all the Sims 3 stuff and expansion packs, all of them are pirated (torrented). She doesn't care, she just likes to hear when something new pops up, and I download it for her.
True. One of the nice things about smaller companies is that they basically HAVE to listen to their customer's concerns, otherwise they'll go out of business. The customer base is naturally small enough such that the impact of even a single customer can be felt, hence there's an incentive to improve their response to complaints (at least in theory).
For a large bohemith like EA, a single customer's word means fuck-all. You need a LOT of people to swing in a direction for EA to change their behavior, and that simply won't happen due to human nature - specifically the average gamer's nature.
That might be one of the most insightful things I've ever read on Slashdot. Shame you posted as an AC though.
The way some kids and young adults act I'd almost be tempted to question that. Games are these days considered as necessary as food to a lot of young people, which is a testament to their addictive nature of games and the strength of peer pressure (and I ain't flaming, since I've been there myself many times). It's also the reason why EA have nothing to worry about.
If you honestly continue to believe in a direction that's not producing any real dividends (your phone/tablet strategy is still failing and there's widespread disappointment for Windows 8) then that's arrogance of the highest level which can only be explained by delusion. It's really as simple as that.
Who ever said I was a hater? I pity them more than anything.
In my experience with a few Microsoft employees, I have yet to meet any of them who are highly critical about the direction the company is headed. They all seem to believe the radical decisions made by the company will pay off in some way despite the mass hatred towards them.
The only ones that are truly critical about Microsoft, no longer work there. I'm strongly of the belief that Microsoft has a very good indoctrinating and brainwashing methodology with their employees. This infallible belief in thinking they're at the forefront of technology and know what's best for tech can only be explained by mass delusion. Which horrifies me.
Excuse me for a moment, I need to go do something...
Actually it's examples like this which make me worry for the future of gaming. I had an argument (online argument, yes I know) with someone who honestly didn't see the problem with always-online DRM, and who tried using the logic "I've never had the urge to play games from 10 years ago, who would?" as an argument for why always-online DRM isn't a bad idea.
I lost the argument mostly because he was a dick who, like a lot of games, is incapable of thinking long term about issues. Which is why I'm hoarding all the good games with suitable cracks while I can.
Seriously, I'm getting fucking tired of companies slagging off at each other, with either aggressive or passive aggressive comments made between various CEOs or VPs or whoever thinks they're important enough to get the spotlight for a few minutes.
Make good stuff that people want. If a competitor is doing something that's risks drawing attention away from your stuff, don't act like children. Just shut the fuck up and present something even better. If you feel you have to acknowledge the competition, do it with some old-fashioned class for goodness sake. This bickering gets old extremely fast.
I've tried LibreOffice 4.0.2.2 (basically the release candidate for the just-release 4.0.2, so it's as recent as you can get) with a .doc file (or possibly .docx file, can't remember the exact extension) that was emailed to her from her Scout group. It screwed up part of the title page and portions of the tables which actually affected the ability to understand the content, and not just some superficial mix-ups. I also tried it on her .docx assignment for her Masters - the spacing was all wrong, and even worse if I resaved the file in LibreOffice without making any modifications.
You simply cannot rely on LibreOffice in the real world when dealing with Office documents. ODFs are perfect of course, but absolutely no-one uses them so it's pointless. Everyone else around here uses Office without complaint, and I'm out of excuses for why we should change if LibreOffice has no advantages.
Likewise (in our organization). I'm just saying that there's always a way.
Even if Windows 8 has to be the target though, there are already a mountain of start menu replacements available to provide the one thing that people complain about most in Windows 8. I have no intention to move from Windows 7 any time soon, but if I HAD to move, I'd know how to and in the least painful way.
Yeah and? Windows 7 will be supported till 2020. That's 7 years you can keep using Microsoft's best OS ever until it becomes officially dead, and by that time either Windows 9 will have fixed the issues of Windows 8, or we'll just slap on a start menu replacement (basically the main issue people have with Win 8) and move on.
Honestly I think Slashdotters are just finding ways to become angry, as if that make their lives worth something. It's not worth the effort.
No, you're wrong. You can't use hyperbole ("broke everything completely") and expect to just be taken as truth.
Well for corporate/business users, not much. Windows XP Pro was the last version of Windows that didn't require activation. As for home users - everyone around me has moved to Windows 7/8 or OS X (not Linux, everyone who's tried it ends up going back to Windows in short order when they find out limited it is for mainstream desktop use) and so XP being unable to be activated is quite irrelevant.
CentOS is a fine workstation distro but a terrible desktop distro. IMHO of course.
Also, my wife is a happy Windows 7 user and although she may have acquired a few skills from what I've taught her, she's hardly a geek and somehow manages to do things just fine. PLUS she can use Office 2010 like everyone else and play the Sims 3. Try that using Linux!
Actually it's stuff like that (you know, the applications) that mean I'll never convert to Linux. I've given up - not going to force my wife, a teacher, to move to an inferior application (LibreOffice, which let's face it is the best of the free alternatives but sadly lacks in many areas) just because I have a hard-on for a fucking operating system.
Very good idea. I've been using the YYYYMMDD format and although it's close to the ISO, I have to admit that the hyphens definitely improve readability while retaining the ability to sort properly, so I think I'll change things now.
Well you clearly aren't supposed to be posting here. This is supposed to be a place for geeks and nerds (or so the slogan goes), but you're just a "user" if a thin client is all you need. Go away scum!
Note: I'm mocking of course (well, somewhat), but it doesn't sound like you have any real interest in computers anymore if you're actually satisfied by thin clients. Servers might be able to do some of the heavy work but there's value in having local resources in front of you as well, at least in my line of work. A geek wouldn't relish giving up all that for a dumb terminal, would they?
Obviously someone cares, otherwise Valve wouldn't be throwing resources at an apparently dead market. Oh, and I care. That's at least one person.
As for the Dell-Alienwar announcement, ArsTechnica covered it. They're ultimately a far better tech site than Slashdot is, but I think Slashdot has a better selection of commenters.
What, you forget Uwe Boll or something?
Fucking cowards
Any particular reason you had to be so dramatic? It's not necessary to make your point. It's fairly straightfoward really: the bad guys always win; it's a fact of life. They have more money and power than good, honest, moral people will ever have, The best you can do is hold them off as much as possible, but eventually, anything that can be locked down, will be. Anything that can be done to ensure people are kept dumb and mindless consumers, will happen. I know this, because it's happening to me too despite being aware of what I'm becoming.
It's very hard to fight against those that want to take away your freedoms, and with all the pressures and problems in normal adult life, most people don't have the luxury to fight all the damn time against such things.
You forgot the lack of manual saves (quicksave or otherwise). Whenever someone complains about checkpointed save systems, invariable someone chimes in and suggests that continually pressing F5 is hardly an improvement. What the said smartarse fails to mention is that pressing F5 ensures you've saved NOW, and hence can safely quick the game knowing it's going to load exactly where you saved and not a checkpoint 5-10 minutes ago.
It also means you can experiment more with situations, try out various weapons or tactics or ideas since you can just save manually before doing so. If the lack checkpoint was a while back, the enthusiasm to experiment deteriorates if you have to progress through scripted sequences to get back to where you started messing around.
Oh and of course, no-one said that a checkpoint AND manual save system couldn't be implemented. Games like Deus Ex - Human Revolution and even Half-Life 2 have this feature, and it works great for both types of players. But apparently to some idiots, if you complain about checkpoints you must be a save-smasher.
TL;DR - people suck on the Internet and are unable to form a argument unless it involves belittling other people.