Do I really want the "polishing" if it isn't part of a major (updated/supported) Linux Distro? Maybe. It depends on what the "polishing" entails. Usually it's just configuring some of the weird FN buttons to play with the default applications correctly - usually something you can do yourself, but an extra step anyway.
Will updating/upgrading the pre-installed Linux break the tweaks? If they do it right, no. But who knows...
I typically reload a computer at least once in it's lifetime, some computers many times. If I can not keep the tweaks between installs/upgrades, then I would rather not have them in the first place. That really just teases me.
Also, Linux is way further along than it was back in the early 90's. Lately, I have had very little problem finding drivers and tweaks for just about every device out there (made in the last 2 years). Typically you'll get a disc or two with the OS, drivers, applications, and whatever else the machine was loaded with when you bought it - which would let you restore their "polish" if you had to reload the machine. Yes, Linux is much better these days and it isn't usually too painful to find drivers for everything. But it's always easier if you've already got all the drivers and don't need to go looking. Especially when the NIC driver is the one giving you trouble...
If you're buying from Dell then it's going to be the same hardware on the Windows or Linux machine. Absolutely not true. For each model Dell sells they've got an assortment of parts that may make it into the case. If you buy a large number of the same model you'll see two or three different motherboards going in there - each with their own on-board LAN/audio/video/whatever. Some of these may have better or worse support for Linux.
If you specifically order the Linux model you know that whatever hardware they put in the box will work with Linux.
If you order the Windows model you know that whatever hardware they put in the box will work with Windows, but you might get the one motherboard out of three that doesn't like Linux so much.
The biggest reason to buy a machine that comes pre-loaded with Linux, or at least lists Linux as supported somewhere on the box, is for driver support.
Sure, most hardware will work with Linux, but you've still got some odd bits here and there that are an absolute nightmare to get working. I know I've had a lot of trouble with the integrated wireless in a couple laptops.
Hardware compatibility is an especially big issue with Dell. If you're buying one of their cheaper home-user systems you've really got no idea what is going into the case. There's a random assortments of motherboards that may wind up in that machine and some of them may support Linux better than others. This isn't as big a deal with the more expensive business-grade stuff...but I've still gotten some variation in large orders.
There's also the issue of feedback...
If Dell never sells any of their special Linux PCs they may get the impression that nobody wants them and may stop carrying them. Which sends the message to the assorted hardware manufacturers that there's no money to be made in Linux machines and there's little point in trying to build/support them.
If you buy a machine that specifically lists Linux as a feature, instead of a Windows machine, it sends the message that Linux sells. This encourages companies to offer more Linux machines and improve their support for Linux.
Dreamhost contends that "almost nobody CHOOSES a web host based on their email features." That may be true, but that's just because a robust email service is EXPECTED. If I've spent money to pay a provider to host my "acme.com" webpage every month, I damn sure expect that I will be able to make "headhoncho@acme.com" my official email address and my business card (and get reliable service out of it). The idea that I'm going to be content putting "headhoncho_acme6@gmail.com" on my business card instead is laughable. I know you're going to get eveleventy-billion responses pointing this out, but it needs to be said - you don't need to have an @gmail.com address to use Google's mail system. Google provides it apps for your domain. You can get mail, calendaring, chat, docs, all of it at whatever.acme.com We've got a couple clients we've set up with Google's domain apps specifically because they can offer a better service than we can.
If Dreamhost doesn't want to include email with their web hosting accounts (and it looks like this is the first step towards phasing it out), then they need to get out of the web hosting business. It may, or may not, be the first step in phasing out email hosting - the article really makes no mention of that either way. But even if it is, why would they get out of web hosting? There are plenty of people out there who simply want a website with no email at all. I know this for a fact because we've got some of them as clients. They could easily drop email entirely from their most basic plans and offer it as an option for the folks who really don't want to go with some other company (like Google).
They obviously don't have the kind of professionalism that it takes to run a web hosting company (as further evidenced by making glib comments referring to "studly CEO's" in an official blog). It's called "humor". If you take a look around at other official blogs you'll see other examples.
Can't you just encrypt it? Or is strong encryption some how not in keeping with the cloud computing metaphor? Depending on what you're doing with the cloud, no, you might not be able to encrypt it.
If you're looking at something like simple file storage then you could certainly encrypt your data. Encrypt it on your machine...upload it for storage...download it when you need it...decrypt it again on your machine. That's fine.
But if you're looking to use somebody else's CPU cycles that doesn't work so well. Your data has to be in some kind of executable state as it passes through their CPU. Even if the data is transmitted to and from their server in an encrypted state, it has to be decrypted for processing. And when that happens, that CPU better be very trustworthy.
You're already running in some kid of virtualized/time-shared environment... If they have physical access to the machine your code is running on, and your data at some point becomes cleartext for processing, then they've got access to your data anyway.
Sure everyone indulges in some form of escapism but whenever I read a book or watch TV I can get up and walk away whenever I want without the characters getting pissed. Of course the characters don't get pissed...they're fictitious! The NPCs in a MMOG also do not get pissed, because they are also fictitious. Comparing a MMOG to something solitary like reading a book is not the best parallel... I throw it in there because it's a past-time that many Slashdotters can relate to.
Instead, let's compare it to something that involves multiple people... Let's say you're in the middle of a good game of D&D with a few buddies when your pager goes off and you have to go in to work - are they going to be upset? Maybe "pissed" would be a strong way to put it...but I'd imagine they'd be at least a little annoyed?
Or maybe if you were entertaining guests and had to run off to the office? Or if you were out drinking with the guys and your wife needed you to come home for something? Or what if you're in bed with your wife/girlfriend and get called away on some emergency?
It isn't the characters that get annoyed/upset/pissed, it's the other people.
And I would assume that if you're enjoying yourself even a little bit you'd also be annoyed/upset/pissed to have your recreation interrupted.
Any game that you can't put down at a moments notice without some sort of penalty is saying that the game itself is more important than anything else you might have going on. This has nothing at all to do with the game. What "penalty" does the MMOG impose on you? Does WoW get upset and refuse to let you play for a week if it catches you looking at EQ? It's just a game. It's software. It's bits and pixels. It isn't the game that is the issue here, it's the people.
If you're in the middle of doing something with a bunch of friends and have to leave abruptly, people are going to be annoyed. If you routinely have to cut things short they're going to be more annoyed. If you make a real habit of disappearing in the middle of things they may not even invite you back next time. That is true regardless of whether it's a MMOG or going to the movies with friends.
Sure, you can quit any time, so long as you don't mind disappointing and/or pissing off a whole bunch of friends who have been relying on you, and supporting you, and sacrificing for you, for quite a long time. And how exactly is this different than if you were routinely playing D&D with a group of friends? Or had a regular poker night going? Or if you got together with some buddies routinely for a LAN party? Or a bridge club? Or if you were on a local sports team?
Any group activity where people start counting on you can be hard to quit. And I'd suggest that it is even harder to quit some of these RL activities than their virtual equivalents because you have to see their faces when you let them down.
This isn't unique to MMOGs. You see a lot of press about people getting addicted to MMOGs, spending craptons of time/money/whatever on them, guilds pressuring people to put the game ahead of their family/whatever. None of this is new, only the game it's happening in is. Folks have been getting addicted to TV shows, books, gambling, and whatever else for years. Folks have been pressured by their buddies to show up for various activities for years.
A MMOG is no more dangerous than any other diversion out there.
I tried Everquest 2, which is pretty much exactly the same game but with better graphics and a worse interface. Are all MMOs like this? If so I really don't see why they carry so much interest. All MMOGs are basically chat clients with a shiny GUI and monsters to kill. The whole point of a MMOG is the MM part. What makes a MMOG engaging is the community - either people you enjoy playing with or competition to be the best.
Think of it like a game of D&D, or poker night with the guys... What is it that makes those fun? Is it actually the D&D rule book, the pencils and paper, the deck of cards? Or is it the people you're playing with?
I know this was a factor for myself, atleast in the late 20's early 30's age category.
I played EQ for 7+ years from early beta, I played EQ2 for abit too, but ended up playing DAoC for abit before moving to WoW. I spend years, thousands of hours, played in the lead horde guild for that time, and got completely burnt out just before the first expansion pack came along.. with multi characters all at level 60....
Once I quit, I have not started a new game, and do not plan to, and I am sure I am not the only one... Those of us who started playing in our late teens early 20's, have probably had enough, especially those of us who finally have families or significant others who demand our attentions, and real life things like going out, playing sports (I mountain Bike) and hobbies (I woodwork), I would just not have time for a game, hell I barely play my Wii or Xbox (original) anymore, I just do not have the time. WoW will also be many people's first MMOG. Sure, there are folks like you (and me) who started playing these things a few years back and don't really have the time anymore because of friends/family/work/whatever. But there are also plenty of people who are just now entering their 20's and 30's and have plenty of time to spend on MMOGs.
People are looing for the next wow killer. People are always looking for the next -whatever- killer. Folks were waiting for the EQ killer, folks were waiting for the DAoC killer, and now folks are waiting for the WoW killer. It seems to me that a lot of people just don't really understand how MMOGs work...
They're all very similar. They'll have different settings, different themes, different gameplay dynamics... But in the end it's all the same kind of stuff. Kill critters to get better gear and more experience, so you can kill bigger critters to get better gear and more experience, so you can kill the biggest critters to get better gear and more experience... It's all grinding, all of it. It doesn't matter what game or how they try to hide it - all MMOGs boil down to grinding eventually.
What really makes or breaks a MMOG is the community. The setting/gameplay/quests/whatever will keep people interested for a while... But once you've hit the level cap with a character or two and you're at the point where you're raiding 'til your eyes bleed, what keeps you coming back is the people around you. Either friends that you enjoy playing with or competition to be the best. Take away the community and you just aren't going to have a game that is worth playing.
There will certainly be some folks who leave WoW (and all the other MMOGs out there) to play these new games. And they'll race through the content to see everything that's there. And they'll raid and get some nice gear and level up some alts. But unless there's a reason to keep playing they'll quickly get bored and go play something newer and shinier as soon as it is available.
Unless you are playing quite often, it's simply not worth the subscription fee. That is assuming it's worth the price to begin with, which may be debatable given the continuous expansion packs that eventually become necessity. That's how I see it at least. If I had no life and could play it for several hours a day almost every single day, then the subscription price might be justified (assuming the combat wasn't of the boring click-n-wait variety). But since that isn't the case, it's essentially just a waste of money. Obviously, to the folks who do pay the subscription fee and do play the game, it is worth the fee. Regardless of how much/little they play.
There are folks out there who pay multiple hundreds of dollars for a bottle of wine or a cigar. There are folks spending $100+ a month just for cable television. What's wrong with spending $15 a month on WoW, even if you only play for an hour or two?
"... start looking for a new challenge and a less happy candy colored world"
What about the real world?
(said with a bit of sarcasm and a tad seriousness)
If the only reason to leave WoW is to play another MMO game, then, maybe... Have you have played WoW for several years and still want more "challenges" why not "Get a life"? *sigh* Seriously! Why is there always such negativity associated with MMOGs? Why is there always the suggestion that people should stop wasting their time and go do something else?
Most folks have some leisure time. Some people have more than others...but most folks have at least a little. And generally speaking folks will do something fun with that time. Some people read books, others watch TV, some play board games, some go out drinking, some play video games, some listen to music, some make music... Why is any one of these wastes of time any more or less acceptable than any other?
86% sounds high. Is this really true? Given the expertise needed to competently manage customized server and network configurations, I would think that an enterprise would be very willing to meet the salary demands of the best IT staff to prevent them from jumping ship. IT is a lot more than actually managing customized server and network configurations. There are plenty of code monkeys out there, and they're as easily replaced these days as burger flippers. Sure, some of them are more talented and harder to replace with competent people...but have fun convincing management of that.
Neither would I think it is a good thing from an employers perspective for an employee to have in the back of his mind that he *wants* to leave in the near future.
What gives? Why are 860 people out of 1,000 reporting the desire to leave their current employers? Job security and job loyalty are, at least in IT, a thing of the past. Folks rarely get promoted within the same company. If you want a raise, a change of duties, different responsibilities, whatever... You need a new job. Further, outsourcing and contracting are increasingly popular. Companies don't like to hire full-time employees when they can just contract someone for a specific task and then get rid of them when the job is done.
If they're unwilling to put a dish on the roof because of looks, and unwilling to pay for a dedicated line (you don't say what kind, but I'm guessing just a second POTS line) then I wouldn't guess that Internet connectivity is a terribly big deal for them.
There are alternatives, like ISDN, that would be faster than regular dial-up... But if they're not going to pay for a second line because it costs too much, they won't be paying for ISDN.
Email is the least of your concerns. I'm not sure what you mean by "text only" email... You certainly don't need to use something like Pine. Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, Eudora, or any other offline mail reader will work just fine. That's what they were designed for, after all. Dial up, download the email, disconnect, read/reply at your liesure. The same thing goes for Usenet - there are plenty of offline newsreaders available.
The biggest problem is going to be the web. If they've gotten used to downloading movies/music on-line, always having access to Google or Wikipedia to answer questions, watching things on YouTube... None of that is going to work terribly well. And, short of spending the money on a dish or ISDN or whatever, there really isn't much they can do about it.
Well, something like this would mean they're not saying "unlimited" anymore.
In fact, having a published cap would mean that customers would know the information they need to make a decision on their ISP in advance, rather than discovering some secret shadowy cap after they've hit it and called tech support 10 times about their problems before finding someone willing (or knowledgeable enough) to admit that such a cap exists, and maybe the approximate value of said cap.
As for existing customers, they'll just send out a notice saying they are changing your contract and you have 30 days to cancel otherwise you agree to the new cap. Exactly.
I have absolutely no problem paying for the bandwidth I use. I know I use more bandwidth than many people... I do remote work on servers, sometimes I connect back home to my own computer remotely, I download torrents/movies/music, I do a lot of on-line gaming. And if the ISP decided to impose a cap or charge per MB or something that'd be absolutely fine with me.
At least if they documented it I could change my behaviors accordingly. If I knew I'd get charged an extra fee if I go over a certain amount per month I might now download the newest Ubuntu image right away... Or I might wait for Netflix to deliver my DVD instead of using Watch It Now.
Running into some invisible, unknown, undocumented cap or limit...when all the advertising claims that you're unlimited... What exactly are you supposed to do about that?
No, that's not correct. It does "hurt the pirates" and for the good schemes it can be statistically proven to be true.
Maybe I should have been more clear when I said that DRM doesn't hurt the pirates...
I do understand that DRM can slow down the speed at which something is pirated. I do understand that it can result in better sales. I'm not saying that DRM accomplishes nothing.
What I am saying is that nobody who uses a pirated copy of the software is going to have to deal with any hassles or inconveniences due to the DRM. Anyone who is pirating the software has already bypassed the DRM in order to be able to use the software at all. They've already bypassed any media check, or dongle, or phone home, or activation, or key, or whatever else.
The folks who do have to deal with the hassles of DRM are the paying customers. The paying customers have to deal with media checks that don't like their optical drive... Or activation keys that don't work... Or needing an Internet connection so the software can phone home... It is only the paying customers who actually have to deal with the DRM.
As for your quote...
Not sure if I can share the exact numbers or percentage of PC players with you, but I'll check and see; if I can I'll update with them. As the amount of people who pirate PC games is astounding. It blows me away at the amount of people willing to steal games (or anything) simply because it's not physical or it's on the safety of the internet to do.
I think whatever numbers they were seeing could very well be a bit mis-representative of the reality of the situation.
I personally wind up cracking just about every game I buy. I get sick of swapping CD's and I wind up finding a no-CD crack somewhere. I have also, on occasion, located a CD key on-line because it was easier than locating the original case and my own CD key.
I'm probably not typical... But I guarantee that there are other people like me who are skewing the numbers.
I think that almost universally there are better ways to achieve the goal of convincing people to pay for your software. One of the best ways I've seen is to add value to folks who pay money for your game, rather than penalize the folks who don't.
Stardock has done this repeatedly with their games. The software itself is not copy protected and there's nothing preventing you from downloading it and running it on any machine you want to. But if you want to get updates, or play on-line, or participate in the community, or whatever...you need a valid CD key.
If you want to see what a good DRM system can achieve compare the piracy rates of console games vs PC games. Obviously due to its nature the PC versions will not get close to such low rates anytime soon, but the contrast is remarkable (I've read a game developer blog where they searched for torrents of their game for XBox 360 vs PC and the difference in number of torrents/downloaders was huge).
I wonder if it is actually the difficulty of breaking the DRM that is lowering the piracy rates? Or is it the disincentive of getting your Live account banned if you are caught?
I can't say too much about the 360, as I don't own one and have never played on one... But A friend of mine modded his Xbox specifically so that he could pirate games on it. And he downloaded tons and tons of games on it. He had no trouble installing the modchip or finding the games. And he offered to do the same for me, but I refused.
It would not have been difficult for me at all... I wouldn't have had to do anything at all to bypass the DRM, he would have taken care of it all for me. But I did not want to lose the ability to play my games on-line. There was value added to legally purchased games on a legal Xbox that was not there with a modded Xbox and piles of pirated games.
Mostly because it won't do a thing to prevent piracy. I really don't understand how they can keep coming back to this idea of requiring a CD in the drive or an active internet connection for single-player games. It makes no sense and only inconveniences their customers. The pirates just replace the executable with a cracked version and have no trouble at all. Exactly. All this copy protection/DRM crap is absolute garbage. It never hurts the pirates, it only hurts the legitimate customers. As you said, pirates are breaking the copy protection anyway. They'll never have to deal with this crap.
The person this is going to hurt is some guy who goes out and buys the game but doesn't have an Internet connection. He won't be able to play, but there'll be a dozen downloads on BitTorrent and hundreds of pirates will be playing just fine.
STFA says "After the first activation, SecuROM requires that it re-check with the server within ten days (in case the CD Key has become public/warez'd and gets banned)." Nice... So not only does it need an Internet connection to allow you to play your entirely single player completely offline game... But it also checks periodically to see if they should ban your key.
So, what happens if somebody comes up with a keygen or something similar and your key just happens to come up? Suddenly you can't play anymore even though you've done nothing wrong?
t's worse than requiring a CD. I can easily carry a CD with me. I can't easily carry my network connection with me.
If you go to the store and buy your game on CD, it is reasonable to assume that you've got a CD-ROM drive somewhere on your computer...how else are you going to install it? And if that's the case, it's reasonable (though annoying) to require people to put the disc in the drive when playing the game. And, while I hate DRM in all its assorted forms, this at least makes some kind of sense.
But if I go out and buy a game on CD, intending to play it strictly single player...why assume that I've got an Internet connection? There are plenty of folks who still don't have a network connection.
It might make sense if you bought the game on-line and downloaded it... That establishes the fact that you do at least have a network connection... But that's not the case here.
Really? the SR-71 was designed and built in the 1960's. Last i checked that was both more than a few years ago and was more fuel efficient when traveling mach 3.
and you call me arrogant. At least I know the history of jet engines. Pedantic much?
There's a reason I was vague on the details - because I don't know them I'm not an aerospace engineer, nor a flight historian, and I don't pretend to be either one. But I guarantee you there was a point in time when we couldn't build jet engines - whether it was a "couple dozen" years ago, or "several dozen", or "two hundred" is hardly relevant to the point I was making.
There was a point, in the past, where our modern jet engines were flat-out impossible. A point where we had achieved flight but lacked the science and technology to make a jet engine. And it took years of work to discover exactly how to make it happen, and then to develop our technological infrastructure to the point that it could actually happen.
Re:This is one of the reason I want to see this mo
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The Science of Iron Man
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· Score: 4, Insightful
A real life mach 2 engine is much larger than a man. That is certainly true... But it is also irrelevant.
If you go back a couple dozen years it was outright impossible to build an engine capable of mach 2. We didn't have the science or technology to make it happen. It was maybe a glimmer in some technician's imagination, but that's it.
And before that we didn't even have the ability to fly at all.
Today we have cell phones with more processing power than an entire building full of computers a few years back.
We've got tiny motors in toys and gizmos that were also flat-out impossible a few years back.
Sure, by today's standards Iron Man is completely impossible, but that really doesn't mean much. I'm not claiming that such a thing will ever actually be possible... But claiming that our current understanding of science and technology is as good as it is ever going to get is awfully arrogant.
Re:Skill and not language used?
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The Return of Ada
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· Score: 4, Insightful
You need to make a distinction: they weren't writing new code, they were updating existing code. This is a very important distinction. We are all aware of "code rot", etc. and how over time documentation gets lost, people have to re-learn a piece of code based purely on the source, etc. However they took an older piece of code and revamped it, right on time and under budget. This is notable, and may be attributable to some of the properties of Ada.
Maybe, maybe not, but there's a good chance it had something to do with Ada. Ada is almost self-documenting. The syntax is all very verbose and human readable.
If you have to walk in blind and maintain someone else's code, Ada is the language to do it in.
I think you're taking relatively isolated examples and then portraying it as a huge problem. If you're in a huge line for like a movie or something the only person you notice is the one person annoying everyone with their cell phone, not the 200 people who aren't. Yes of course for many situations its inappropriate to be yammering on your cell phone, but most people do know and realize that; its the few who don't that garner all this talk about how "everyone needs to learn to live without their cell phones." Granted, that is the one and only time I've seen someone texting through literally an entire movie. But that is not the one and only time I've seen or heard people let their cell phones interrupt social occasions.
Every single solitary time we go out to dinner there is at least one person talking loudly on a cell phone... I've even seen groups of people at a restaurant where each person is on their cell phone, and none of them are even looking at each other. I've gone out with various people to various social occasions, and repeatedly had people take a call and yammer on about nothing important for 10 - 15 minutes while the rest of us wait for them to finish.
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Also, Linux is way further along than it was back in the early 90's. Lately, I have had very little problem finding drivers and tweaks for just about every device out there (made in the last 2 years). Typically you'll get a disc or two with the OS, drivers, applications, and whatever else the machine was loaded with when you bought it - which would let you restore their "polish" if you had to reload the machine. Yes, Linux is much better these days and it isn't usually too painful to find drivers for everything. But it's always easier if you've already got all the drivers and don't need to go looking. Especially when the NIC driver is the one giving you trouble...
If you specifically order the Linux model you know that whatever hardware they put in the box will work with Linux.
If you order the Windows model you know that whatever hardware they put in the box will work with Windows, but you might get the one motherboard out of three that doesn't like Linux so much.
The biggest reason to buy a machine that comes pre-loaded with Linux, or at least lists Linux as supported somewhere on the box, is for driver support.
Sure, most hardware will work with Linux, but you've still got some odd bits here and there that are an absolute nightmare to get working. I know I've had a lot of trouble with the integrated wireless in a couple laptops.
Hardware compatibility is an especially big issue with Dell. If you're buying one of their cheaper home-user systems you've really got no idea what is going into the case. There's a random assortments of motherboards that may wind up in that machine and some of them may support Linux better than others. This isn't as big a deal with the more expensive business-grade stuff...but I've still gotten some variation in large orders.
There's also the issue of feedback...
If Dell never sells any of their special Linux PCs they may get the impression that nobody wants them and may stop carrying them. Which sends the message to the assorted hardware manufacturers that there's no money to be made in Linux machines and there's little point in trying to build/support them.
If you buy a machine that specifically lists Linux as a feature, instead of a Windows machine, it sends the message that Linux sells. This encourages companies to offer more Linux machines and improve their support for Linux.
If you're looking at something like simple file storage then you could certainly encrypt your data. Encrypt it on your machine...upload it for storage...download it when you need it...decrypt it again on your machine. That's fine.
But if you're looking to use somebody else's CPU cycles that doesn't work so well. Your data has to be in some kind of executable state as it passes through their CPU. Even if the data is transmitted to and from their server in an encrypted state, it has to be decrypted for processing. And when that happens, that CPU better be very trustworthy.
You're already running in some kid of virtualized/time-shared environment... If they have physical access to the machine your code is running on, and your data at some point becomes cleartext for processing, then they've got access to your data anyway.
Instead, let's compare it to something that involves multiple people... Let's say you're in the middle of a good game of D&D with a few buddies when your pager goes off and you have to go in to work - are they going to be upset? Maybe "pissed" would be a strong way to put it...but I'd imagine they'd be at least a little annoyed?
Or maybe if you were entertaining guests and had to run off to the office? Or if you were out drinking with the guys and your wife needed you to come home for something? Or what if you're in bed with your wife/girlfriend and get called away on some emergency?
It isn't the characters that get annoyed/upset/pissed, it's the other people.
And I would assume that if you're enjoying yourself even a little bit you'd also be annoyed/upset/pissed to have your recreation interrupted. Any game that you can't put down at a moments notice without some sort of penalty is saying that the game itself is more important than anything else you might have going on. This has nothing at all to do with the game. What "penalty" does the MMOG impose on you? Does WoW get upset and refuse to let you play for a week if it catches you looking at EQ? It's just a game. It's software. It's bits and pixels. It isn't the game that is the issue here, it's the people.
If you're in the middle of doing something with a bunch of friends and have to leave abruptly, people are going to be annoyed. If you routinely have to cut things short they're going to be more annoyed. If you make a real habit of disappearing in the middle of things they may not even invite you back next time. That is true regardless of whether it's a MMOG or going to the movies with friends.
Any group activity where people start counting on you can be hard to quit. And I'd suggest that it is even harder to quit some of these RL activities than their virtual equivalents because you have to see their faces when you let them down.
This isn't unique to MMOGs. You see a lot of press about people getting addicted to MMOGs, spending craptons of time/money/whatever on them, guilds pressuring people to put the game ahead of their family/whatever. None of this is new, only the game it's happening in is. Folks have been getting addicted to TV shows, books, gambling, and whatever else for years. Folks have been pressured by their buddies to show up for various activities for years.
A MMOG is no more dangerous than any other diversion out there.
Think of it like a game of D&D, or poker night with the guys... What is it that makes those fun? Is it actually the D&D rule book, the pencils and paper, the deck of cards? Or is it the people you're playing with?
I played EQ for 7+ years from early beta, I played EQ2 for abit too, but ended up playing DAoC for abit before moving to WoW. I spend years, thousands of hours, played in the lead horde guild for that time, and got completely burnt out just before the first expansion pack came along.. with multi characters all at level 60....
Once I quit, I have not started a new game, and do not plan to, and I am sure I am not the only one... Those of us who started playing in our late teens early 20's, have probably had enough, especially those of us who finally have families or significant others who demand our attentions, and real life things like going out, playing sports (I mountain Bike) and hobbies (I woodwork), I would just not have time for a game, hell I barely play my Wii or Xbox (original) anymore, I just do not have the time. WoW will also be many people's first MMOG. Sure, there are folks like you (and me) who started playing these things a few years back and don't really have the time anymore because of friends/family/work/whatever. But there are also plenty of people who are just now entering their 20's and 30's and have plenty of time to spend on MMOGs.
They're all very similar. They'll have different settings, different themes, different gameplay dynamics... But in the end it's all the same kind of stuff. Kill critters to get better gear and more experience, so you can kill bigger critters to get better gear and more experience, so you can kill the biggest critters to get better gear and more experience... It's all grinding, all of it. It doesn't matter what game or how they try to hide it - all MMOGs boil down to grinding eventually.
What really makes or breaks a MMOG is the community. The setting/gameplay/quests/whatever will keep people interested for a while... But once you've hit the level cap with a character or two and you're at the point where you're raiding 'til your eyes bleed, what keeps you coming back is the people around you. Either friends that you enjoy playing with or competition to be the best. Take away the community and you just aren't going to have a game that is worth playing.
There will certainly be some folks who leave WoW (and all the other MMOGs out there) to play these new games. And they'll race through the content to see everything that's there. And they'll raid and get some nice gear and level up some alts. But unless there's a reason to keep playing they'll quickly get bored and go play something newer and shinier as soon as it is available.
There are folks out there who pay multiple hundreds of dollars for a bottle of wine or a cigar. There are folks spending $100+ a month just for cable television. What's wrong with spending $15 a month on WoW, even if you only play for an hour or two?
Worth is highly subjective.
What about the real world?
(said with a bit of sarcasm and a tad seriousness)
If the only reason to leave WoW is to play another MMO game, then, maybe... Have you have played WoW for several years and still want more "challenges" why not "Get a life"? *sigh*
Seriously! Why is there always such negativity associated with MMOGs? Why is there always the suggestion that people should stop wasting their time and go do something else?
Most folks have some leisure time. Some people have more than others...but most folks have at least a little. And generally speaking folks will do something fun with that time. Some people read books, others watch TV, some play board games, some go out drinking, some play video games, some listen to music, some make music... Why is any one of these wastes of time any more or less acceptable than any other?
What gives? Why are 860 people out of 1,000 reporting the desire to leave their current employers? Job security and job loyalty are, at least in IT, a thing of the past. Folks rarely get promoted within the same company. If you want a raise, a change of duties, different responsibilities, whatever... You need a new job. Further, outsourcing and contracting are increasingly popular. Companies don't like to hire full-time employees when they can just contract someone for a specific task and then get rid of them when the job is done.
If they're unwilling to put a dish on the roof because of looks, and unwilling to pay for a dedicated line (you don't say what kind, but I'm guessing just a second POTS line) then I wouldn't guess that Internet connectivity is a terribly big deal for them.
There are alternatives, like ISDN, that would be faster than regular dial-up... But if they're not going to pay for a second line because it costs too much, they won't be paying for ISDN.
Email is the least of your concerns. I'm not sure what you mean by "text only" email... You certainly don't need to use something like Pine. Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, Eudora, or any other offline mail reader will work just fine. That's what they were designed for, after all. Dial up, download the email, disconnect, read/reply at your liesure. The same thing goes for Usenet - there are plenty of offline newsreaders available.
The biggest problem is going to be the web. If they've gotten used to downloading movies/music on-line, always having access to Google or Wikipedia to answer questions, watching things on YouTube... None of that is going to work terribly well. And, short of spending the money on a dish or ISDN or whatever, there really isn't much they can do about it.
In fact, having a published cap would mean that customers would know the information they need to make a decision on their ISP in advance, rather than discovering some secret shadowy cap after they've hit it and called tech support 10 times about their problems before finding someone willing (or knowledgeable enough) to admit that such a cap exists, and maybe the approximate value of said cap.
As for existing customers, they'll just send out a notice saying they are changing your contract and you have 30 days to cancel otherwise you agree to the new cap. Exactly.
I have absolutely no problem paying for the bandwidth I use. I know I use more bandwidth than many people... I do remote work on servers, sometimes I connect back home to my own computer remotely, I download torrents/movies/music, I do a lot of on-line gaming. And if the ISP decided to impose a cap or charge per MB or something that'd be absolutely fine with me.
At least if they documented it I could change my behaviors accordingly. If I knew I'd get charged an extra fee if I go over a certain amount per month I might now download the newest Ubuntu image right away... Or I might wait for Netflix to deliver my DVD instead of using Watch It Now.
Running into some invisible, unknown, undocumented cap or limit...when all the advertising claims that you're unlimited... What exactly are you supposed to do about that?
I do understand that DRM can slow down the speed at which something is pirated. I do understand that it can result in better sales. I'm not saying that DRM accomplishes nothing.
What I am saying is that nobody who uses a pirated copy of the software is going to have to deal with any hassles or inconveniences due to the DRM. Anyone who is pirating the software has already bypassed the DRM in order to be able to use the software at all. They've already bypassed any media check, or dongle, or phone home, or activation, or key, or whatever else.
The folks who do have to deal with the hassles of DRM are the paying customers. The paying customers have to deal with media checks that don't like their optical drive... Or activation keys that don't work... Or needing an Internet connection so the software can phone home... It is only the paying customers who actually have to deal with the DRM.
As for your quote...I think whatever numbers they were seeing could very well be a bit mis-representative of the reality of the situation.
I personally wind up cracking just about every game I buy. I get sick of swapping CD's and I wind up finding a no-CD crack somewhere. I have also, on occasion, located a CD key on-line because it was easier than locating the original case and my own CD key.
I'm probably not typical... But I guarantee that there are other people like me who are skewing the numbers.
I think that almost universally there are better ways to achieve the goal of convincing people to pay for your software. One of the best ways I've seen is to add value to folks who pay money for your game, rather than penalize the folks who don't.
Stardock has done this repeatedly with their games. The software itself is not copy protected and there's nothing preventing you from downloading it and running it on any machine you want to. But if you want to get updates, or play on-line, or participate in the community, or whatever...you need a valid CD key.I wonder if it is actually the difficulty of breaking the DRM that is lowering the piracy rates? Or is it the disincentive of getting your Live account banned if you are caught?
I can't say too much about the 360, as I don't own one and have never played on one... But A friend of mine modded his Xbox specifically so that he could pirate games on it. And he downloaded tons and tons of games on it. He had no trouble installing the modchip or finding the games. And he offered to do the same for me, but I refused.
It would not have been difficult for me at all... I wouldn't have had to do anything at all to bypass the DRM, he would have taken care of it all for me. But I did not want to lose the ability to play my games on-line. There was value added to legally purchased games on a legal Xbox that was not there with a modded Xbox and piles of pirated games.
The person this is going to hurt is some guy who goes out and buys the game but doesn't have an Internet connection. He won't be able to play, but there'll be a dozen downloads on BitTorrent and hundreds of pirates will be playing just fine.
So, what happens if somebody comes up with a keygen or something similar and your key just happens to come up? Suddenly you can't play anymore even though you've done nothing wrong?
Gotta love DRM...
If you go to the store and buy your game on CD, it is reasonable to assume that you've got a CD-ROM drive somewhere on your computer...how else are you going to install it? And if that's the case, it's reasonable (though annoying) to require people to put the disc in the drive when playing the game. And, while I hate DRM in all its assorted forms, this at least makes some kind of sense.
But if I go out and buy a game on CD, intending to play it strictly single player...why assume that I've got an Internet connection? There are plenty of folks who still don't have a network connection.
It might make sense if you bought the game on-line and downloaded it... That establishes the fact that you do at least have a network connection... But that's not the case here.
and you call me arrogant. At least I know the history of jet engines. Pedantic much?
There's a reason I was vague on the details - because I don't know them I'm not an aerospace engineer, nor a flight historian, and I don't pretend to be either one. But I guarantee you there was a point in time when we couldn't build jet engines - whether it was a "couple dozen" years ago, or "several dozen", or "two hundred" is hardly relevant to the point I was making.
There was a point, in the past, where our modern jet engines were flat-out impossible. A point where we had achieved flight but lacked the science and technology to make a jet engine. And it took years of work to discover exactly how to make it happen, and then to develop our technological infrastructure to the point that it could actually happen.
I believe it is supposed to be read as scry.
If you go back a couple dozen years it was outright impossible to build an engine capable of mach 2. We didn't have the science or technology to make it happen. It was maybe a glimmer in some technician's imagination, but that's it.
And before that we didn't even have the ability to fly at all.
Today we have cell phones with more processing power than an entire building full of computers a few years back.
We've got tiny motors in toys and gizmos that were also flat-out impossible a few years back.
Sure, by today's standards Iron Man is completely impossible, but that really doesn't mean much. I'm not claiming that such a thing will ever actually be possible... But claiming that our current understanding of science and technology is as good as it is ever going to get is awfully arrogant.
Maybe, maybe not, but there's a good chance it had something to do with Ada. Ada is almost self-documenting. The syntax is all very verbose and human readable.
If you have to walk in blind and maintain someone else's code, Ada is the language to do it in.
Every single solitary time we go out to dinner there is at least one person talking loudly on a cell phone... I've even seen groups of people at a restaurant where each person is on their cell phone, and none of them are even looking at each other. I've gone out with various people to various social occasions, and repeatedly had people take a call and yammer on about nothing important for 10 - 15 minutes while the rest of us wait for them to finish.