I am not arguing for or against Blizzard in this particular case though I do believe, as another poster stated, that Blizzard is in the right here. This type of advertisement for an in game group should be reserved for the forums designed for such activity.
Regardless, my post relates to the quote from the offended's counsel:
Online environments are public accommodations, subject to regulation as such.
According to whom? Just because this lawyer says so does not make it true. I have not been able to Google an answer for this either, however, I find it hard to believe that the term "accomodation" can extend to an online community/forum etc. It would seem that the reasoning behind the anti-discriminatory laws regarding public services and specifically accomodations were put in place because in the real world having a place to stay can be a life or death matter under the right conditions. No such conditions exist for a virtual "accomodation" and I think any lawyer who would argue this would have a long row to hoe.
I cannot comment for all of SWG of course, however in our small guild (~40 members pre-NGE) we had 3 disabled crafters that all left as soon as NGE hit. These were(are) great players, not in their combat prowess, but in their generosity and devotion to our community. These people were the "heart" of our little town (S'omik Mood on Lok, Kauri server).
I don't know whether or not you are trolling or honestly asking a question so I will assume the latter.
One of the attractions of SWG before the changes mentioned in the article were made was the complicated crafting system. I knew (know) several disabled players who could not keep up with the fighting aspects of the game but really enjoyed crafting (weaponsmith, armorsmith, architect etc...). This allowed them to be part of a guild, have a social aspect of the game and feel a like part of a community without having to suffer the aggravation of player-killers and such. Also, the article mentioned hair-dresser, which is incorrect. That profession was actually Image Designer and actually served a purpose a long time ago other than to change the appearance of your toon. You used to have secondary stats that you could custom tailor your character with -- in order to change these stats you needed an Image Designer. The combat "upgrade" killed off those stats and one of the uses of Image Designers.
Another thing to keep in mind, in SWG there are no NPC vendors -- you cant just go buy stuff (weapons/clothes/armor/food/etc...) anywhere, you have to either loot it or buy it from other players. This was one of the draws of the game. And most of the stuff that was "made" by players was of much higher quality than the stuff that you looted. There was a time when chefs (cooks) where invaluable due to the fact that the buffs you got from their foods/drinks could not be gotten elsewhere. Also, there was huge variation in the quality of these products from vendor to vendor. This was due to the fact that the quality of the resources(harvested) and components (player made) had direct effect on teh quality of the end product. This extends itself to all the crafting aspects of the game.
I could go on and on, but I refrain:). Suffice it to say that most of these aspects of the game have been removed. In fact, that is pretty much what the entire "Next Great Experiment" aka NGE was all about -- how much they could remove from the game without adding anything back and not completely kill the game. I think they underestimated the reaction to the POS they have turned the game into. I dropped 3 (all of my) accounts as a direct result of this latest "upgrade".
It seems that my strongly held view that all MMORPGs are more or less equal, when it comes to having semi-regular to regular problems is still bearing fruit.
Having played both games I can assure you that WoW is much more polished than SWG was the entire 2 years that I played. Not to mention in SWG there were 2 game changing "upgrades" that spit on the vets all in an effort to bring in fresh blood. The problem was the code released as final was barely beta quality. The game was(is) saturated with bugs and game-stopping issues. Loot tables have been fubar for 6 months or longer. The patches, while steps in the correct direction, are far too little far too late. I dropped 3 accounts (5 toons) from SWG because, while I feel WoW does not have near the depth nor the community(at least the depth and community SWG had before that last abomination -- "The Next Grand Experiment aka NGE") I can appreciate the fact that everything just seems to work. Also, whoever the designers are at SWG -- give up the WoW copying. You are doing it very badly and have only served to remove content from what had the potential to be a great game. I played 2 years on SWG, I am not looking back. The NGE pushed me to WoW.. Until Fallen Earth goes live.
Not directly related to this thread, but it might interest you to know that the U. S. Federal Government currently prohibits carriers from using VoIP circuits to provide National Service/Emergency Preparedness calls. Clearly they understand something we would be wise to understand as well.
This has more to do with being able to physically locate the origination point of a call than it does with foreseeing doom in the future. The reverse is also true -- emergency services will generally not work if the call is made from a VoIP line (you will get redirected or some such thing).
I concur 100%. If I see Bill Gates or Sam Palmisano (or even Darl McBride hhahaahahahaha) make these types of statements I might change my mind. However, until the powers that be (i.e. the ones w/money buying up and enforcing all these patents) take the necessary measures to fix the problem they have created, I don't foresee any improvement regarding software patents.
Not to mention 2 years in prison ~ 100k USD. So now I have to pay more taxes because some anonymous blogger posted something before hitting the 'preview' button? Oy vay.
I am gonna go out on a limb here. Isnt this the ideal way for MS to get consumers to adopt Palladium (or whatever they are calling it this week)? I mean, isnt it much easier to avoid liability for product performance, restrictions, etc... if there is no charge? This sounds like the MS of old -- give it away for free.. keep em / get em hooked, then unleash the dogs (in the form of DRM etc...). Just my 2cents.
If by reboot the VM you mean stop and restart all java processes, that does not do the trick -- memory is still in use and the app is still performing poorly. If you meant something else, please elaborate - I hate having to reboot machines remotely:)
I have had 2 third party proprietary Java apps that leaked memory like a sieve. The only fix for both applications was a reboot -- unless there is a way to tell Java VM to let go of memory that I am not aware of...
In the live version, none of those bugs are present and it just works very well.
You have got to be kidding me. If it works so well, how come there are 55 pages of comments in the "issues" thread alone??? -- check it out.
You must be some kind of SOE apologist. And for the record, I have 2 toons on TC (TC2 and TC5) -- I cannot tell the difference between the "live" game and testcenter.
Actually, a signature database (like what a rootkit scanner or intrusion detection system uses) could check a drive for out of place files fairly quickly. Unless you made sure in your text file, you made it the correct checksum and toggled the executable bit, that is.
Amen brother. I read your earlier post regarding jedi nerf and I agree 100%. I have 2 jedi accounts and was working on a third. I am just shy of 2 years in game. All I can say is I feel violated, both by the jedi nerf and then getting screwed buying 3 expansions. Well, 2 accounts down for me. I will keep the third to see what happens -- for a couple weeks, but I think we can call this what it is -- A complete dumbing down of the game so that a). expenses are lower (less professions = less devs, etc...) and b). it can be played on a console. And to think at one time I was a huge fan of everything Sony.
The illegality arises when you uninstall the DRM crap but then still access the copywrited work. If you uninstall this particular DRM and no longer listen to the music, then you're in the clear.
So I forfeit the rights that I payed for when I bought the CD? Something doesnt add up here....
We all know that uninstalling this DRM crap is a (criminal) violation of the DMCA. What happens if rather than remove this from the existing operating system, you reinstall the entire OS? The first thing I do when a machine has been compromised is wipe it clean and reinstall it. Anything hiding running processes from me is in my eyes malware and has compromised my system. Am I a criminal for re-installing the OS now?
I loathe the smell, and gives me horrible heaadaches if I smell too much of it.
So do many peoples perfume/cologne or general hygeine yet they are not banned anywhere. In fact, if I am not mistaken, some people have severe allergic reactions (affecting their immediate health) to other peoples cologne/perfume. Just a thought.
"It's perfectly legal to make such copies, and if you don't believe me, ask a lawyer or download the Bern Convention on Copyright and read it yourself."
You forgot to qualify your statement. It is perfectly legal as long as the disk does not have copy protection (this last segment brought to you by the letters DMCA). You have every right to make legal backups of your own software/music/movies etc. as long as you do not circumvent any protections in place on the original medium. That is the catch-22 of the DMCA -- you are not breaking any copyright law, but you are in criminal violation of the DMCA.
Yes, those billions in profits are starting to shrink, I can hear the desperation in their voices now:)
Market share != income. The market is pretty much saturated for those products (office/os) unless MS can edge their way into some 3rd world countries (China etc...), areas that are familiar with MS but not familiar with paying for MS products.
True, the hosted application market is completely saturated. Plus, going up against all those established big boys like....
Let me finish that sentence for you with just a few examples off the top of my head: Oracle, Peoplesoft, IBM and Siebel.
After thinking about it a bit... what advantage does a shared electronic calendar offer an office with only 5-10 computers? Couldnt a whiteboard handle all the calendaring they would need? Maybe one person to update it and send an email to staffers? I fail to see where a "web services portal for collabaration... bla bla market speak bla" could prove to be cost effective.
Slashdot Mirror
I am not arguing for or against Blizzard in this particular case though I do believe, as another poster stated, that Blizzard is in the right here. This type of advertisement for an in game group should be reserved for the forums designed for such activity.
Regardless, my post relates to the quote from the offended's counsel:
Online environments are public accommodations, subject to regulation as such.
According to whom? Just because this lawyer says so does not make it true. I have not been able to Google an answer for this either, however, I find it hard to believe that the term "accomodation" can extend to an online community/forum etc. It would seem that the reasoning behind the anti-discriminatory laws regarding public services and specifically accomodations were put in place because in the real world having a place to stay can be a life or death matter under the right conditions. No such conditions exist for a virtual "accomodation" and I think any lawyer who would argue this would have a long row to hoe.
Just my $0.02
I cannot comment for all of SWG of course, however in our small guild (~40 members pre-NGE) we had 3 disabled crafters that all left as soon as NGE hit. These were(are) great players, not in their combat prowess, but in their generosity and devotion to our community. These people were the "heart" of our little town (S'omik Mood on Lok, Kauri server).
I don't know whether or not you are trolling or honestly asking a question so I will assume the latter.
:). Suffice it to say that most of these aspects of the game have been removed. In fact, that is pretty much what the entire "Next Great Experiment" aka NGE was all about -- how much they could remove from the game without adding anything back and not completely kill the game. I think they underestimated the reaction to the POS they have turned the game into. I dropped 3 (all of my) accounts as a direct result of this latest "upgrade".
One of the attractions of SWG before the changes mentioned in the article were made was the complicated crafting system. I knew (know) several disabled players who could not keep up with the fighting aspects of the game but really enjoyed crafting (weaponsmith, armorsmith, architect etc...). This allowed them to be part of a guild, have a social aspect of the game and feel a like part of a community without having to suffer the aggravation of player-killers and such. Also, the article mentioned hair-dresser, which is incorrect. That profession was actually Image Designer and actually served a purpose a long time ago other than to change the appearance of your toon. You used to have secondary stats that you could custom tailor your character with -- in order to change these stats you needed an Image Designer. The combat "upgrade" killed off those stats and one of the uses of Image Designers.
Another thing to keep in mind, in SWG there are no NPC vendors -- you cant just go buy stuff (weapons/clothes/armor/food/etc...) anywhere, you have to either loot it or buy it from other players. This was one of the draws of the game. And most of the stuff that was "made" by players was of much higher quality than the stuff that you looted. There was a time when chefs (cooks) where invaluable due to the fact that the buffs you got from their foods/drinks could not be gotten elsewhere. Also, there was huge variation in the quality of these products from vendor to vendor. This was due to the fact that the quality of the resources(harvested) and components (player made) had direct effect on teh quality of the end product. This extends itself to all the crafting aspects of the game.
I could go on and on, but I refrain
That is so wrong on so many levels..... But at least you didnt create a litre of chimera with it for that would be unethical. :)
It seems that my strongly held view that all MMORPGs are more or less equal, when it comes to having semi-regular to regular problems is still bearing fruit.
Having played both games I can assure you that WoW is much more polished than SWG was the entire 2 years that I played. Not to mention in SWG there were 2 game changing "upgrades" that spit on the vets all in an effort to bring in fresh blood. The problem was the code released as final was barely beta quality. The game was(is) saturated with bugs and game-stopping issues. Loot tables have been fubar for 6 months or longer. The patches, while steps in the correct direction, are far too little far too late. I dropped 3 accounts (5 toons) from SWG because, while I feel WoW does not have near the depth nor the community(at least the depth and community SWG had before that last abomination -- "The Next Grand Experiment aka NGE") I can appreciate the fact that everything just seems to work. Also, whoever the designers are at SWG -- give up the WoW copying. You are doing it very badly and have only served to remove content from what had the potential to be a great game. I played 2 years on SWG, I am not looking back. The NGE pushed me to WoW.. Until Fallen Earth goes live.
Taking this just a bit further off-topic;
Not directly related to this thread, but it might interest you to know that the U. S. Federal Government currently prohibits carriers from using VoIP circuits to provide National Service/Emergency Preparedness calls. Clearly they understand something we would be wise to understand as well.
This has more to do with being able to physically locate the origination point of a call than it does with foreseeing doom in the future. The reverse is also true -- emergency services will generally not work if the call is made from a VoIP line (you will get redirected or some such thing).
I concur 100%. If I see Bill Gates or Sam Palmisano (or even Darl McBride hhahaahahahaha) make these types of statements I might change my mind. However, until the powers that be (i.e. the ones w/money buying up and enforcing all these patents) take the necessary measures to fix the problem they have created, I don't foresee any improvement regarding software patents.
But all the same, SCO quit it, you're embarassing yourselves. Soon it will be beyond the hope of recovery...
Too late!
Not to mention 2 years in prison ~ 100k USD. So now I have to pay more taxes because some anonymous blogger posted something before hitting the 'preview' button? Oy vay.
Ummmmm....... according to Google, MySQL is the most widely used database in the world -- have you got something to show otherwise?
I am gonna go out on a limb here. Isnt this the ideal way for MS to get consumers to adopt Palladium (or whatever they are calling it this week)? I mean, isnt it much easier to avoid liability for product performance, restrictions, etc... if there is no charge? This sounds like the MS of old -- give it away for free.. keep em / get em hooked, then unleash the dogs (in the form of DRM etc...). Just my 2cents.
More importantly, nerds advise non-nerds on what to buy ;)
I said across his nose, not up it!!! -- Dark Helmet
If by reboot the VM you mean stop and restart all java processes, that does not do the trick -- memory is still in use and the app is still performing poorly. If you meant something else, please elaborate - I hate having to reboot machines remotely :)
I have had 2 third party proprietary Java apps that leaked memory like a sieve. The only fix for both applications was a reboot -- unless there is a way to tell Java VM to let go of memory that I am not aware of...
What similar technology even exists in windowsland?
Not to be a MS fanboi, but sysprep works pretty well alongside Ghost.
In the live version, none of those bugs are present and it just works very well.
You have got to be kidding me. If it works so well, how come there are 55 pages of comments in the "issues" thread alone??? -- check it out.
You must be some kind of SOE apologist. And for the record, I have 2 toons on TC (TC2 and TC5) -- I cannot tell the difference between the "live" game and testcenter.
Actually, a signature database (like what a rootkit scanner or intrusion detection system uses) could check a drive for out of place files fairly quickly. Unless you made sure in your text file, you made it the correct checksum and toggled the executable bit, that is.
Amen brother. I read your earlier post regarding jedi nerf and I agree 100%. I have 2 jedi accounts and was working on a third. I am just shy of 2 years in game. All I can say is I feel violated, both by the jedi nerf and then getting screwed buying 3 expansions. Well, 2 accounts down for me. I will keep the third to see what happens -- for a couple weeks, but I think we can call this what it is -- A complete dumbing down of the game so that a). expenses are lower (less professions = less devs, etc...) and b). it can be played on a console. And to think at one time I was a huge fan of everything Sony.
Just my 2cents.
The illegality arises when you uninstall the DRM crap but then still access the copywrited work. If you uninstall this particular DRM and no longer listen to the music, then you're in the clear.
So I forfeit the rights that I payed for when I bought the CD? Something doesnt add up here....
We all know that uninstalling this DRM crap is a (criminal) violation of the DMCA. What happens if rather than remove this from the existing operating system, you reinstall the entire OS? The first thing I do when a machine has been compromised is wipe it clean and reinstall it. Anything hiding running processes from me is in my eyes malware and has compromised my system. Am I a criminal for re-installing the OS now?
/me scratches head
I loathe the smell, and gives me horrible heaadaches if I smell too much of it.
So do many peoples perfume/cologne or general hygeine yet they are not banned anywhere. In fact, if I am not mistaken, some people have severe allergic reactions (affecting their immediate health) to other peoples cologne/perfume. Just a thought.
"It's perfectly legal to make such copies, and if you don't believe me, ask a lawyer or download the Bern Convention on Copyright and read it yourself."
You forgot to qualify your statement. It is perfectly legal as long as the disk does not have copy protection (this last segment brought to you by the letters DMCA). You have every right to make legal backups of your own software/music/movies etc. as long as you do not circumvent any protections in place on the original medium. That is the catch-22 of the DMCA -- you are not breaking any copyright law, but you are in criminal violation of the DMCA.
Just my 2cents.
Yes, those billions in profits are starting to shrink, I can hear the desperation in their voices now :)
Market share != income. The market is pretty much saturated for those products (office/os) unless MS can edge their way into some 3rd world countries (China etc...), areas that are familiar with MS but not familiar with paying for MS products.
True, the hosted application market is completely saturated. Plus, going up against all those established big boys like....
Let me finish that sentence for you with just a few examples off the top of my head: Oracle, Peoplesoft, IBM and Siebel.
After thinking about it a bit... what advantage does a shared electronic calendar offer an office with only 5-10 computers? Couldnt a whiteboard handle all the calendaring they would need? Maybe one person to update it and send an email to staffers? I fail to see where a "web services portal for collabaration... bla bla market speak bla" could prove to be cost effective.