Disclaimer:This is from a tech support rep. So take this with a whole can of salt, and you might want to use the umbrella too.
I work for a technical support group at a game company, and I can tell you what is wrong with Technical Support in general from our end. It has a lot to do with things like this survy. Companies like Jupiter like to make a big deal about how industries are out to screw the public, not realizing that the public causes most of these things ourselves. Our biggest complaint, hands-down, is why our company will not issue refunds for a title. In spite of the EULA(which no one reads anyway), the retailers' refund policy, and the listed minimum requirements, people want their money back when a game does not work on their P66 w/ 16MB of RAM. I did a little research into this policy, and I found out that we got fleeced by a guy for some free games by abusing our refund policy. It had nothing to do with being cheap, or arrogant.
This is typical of my day. I would say that %90 of our calls and emails fall into one of two catagories, the MCSE who thinks he owns the world because he paid his way through a test, or the 80 year old vet that has never used a computer before. Both of these two groups get very frustrated when the hear our answers, because they both expect everything to work perfectly out of the box. Very rarely do we get a question from a nice, well informed person that is willing to work with us to resolve their problem.
I used to read survey results like this one, and say "tsk, tsk. 'Pop will eat itself.'" Now I understand a little better what goes on behind the Technical Support doors.
-Jason
My senior year of high school ('98) the school installed a hidden camera covering the parking lot on campus. To my recollection, this camera caught two things:
1. kids lighting up a cigarette in their cars on the way home, but still on school property.(Hey, this is North Carolina)
2. two suspected drug dealers that were hanging around the parking lot, but not actually selling anything.
I remember one particular incident that began in the parking lot that year. A fight broke out on the lot, and this camera was mysteriously "broken." It was discovered that a few football players were involved in the fight with a goth kid they had been picking on. No one was punished, because everyone involved had conflicting stories.
My point is, video cameras don't help when the schools are biased to begin with. There are always ways around technology, and we would all do well to remember that.
Wizards has been around for quite a while now producing excellent games, and single handedly saving a well loved industry. Without Wizards, a lot of the local comic book and game stores would be out of business. Let's face it, a store owner can't make a lot of money selling $1.99 comics, especially with the dirth of crap that gets published today. These types of stores are getting increasingly reliant on CCGs (Collectable Card Games) which Wizards pioneered. Magic and Pokemon provide a steady source of income for store owners, since every three months, and sometimes more frequently, a new set gets released. The players have to purchase loads of packs, at $3.29 each, to get the best cards to play.
Then comes the tournament level of play. Wizards of the Coast gives away over over 3 million dollars a year through its Pro Tour and Gran Prix system for Magic. To get invited to a Pro Tour, a player must compete and win a Pro Tour Qualifier. Usually these qualifiers are usually held in local comic book/game stores. Depending on locale, these qualifiers can attract anywhere from 30-200 people at $20-25 a head. Add this to the various side events at $10-15 a head, and the day ends up being a profitable one for the organizer, and for the player. A chance to qualify for the "Big Time" and compete in a single tournamet with a $25,000 prize is enough of a draw for most players to come a spend a few bucks. It is this system that continues to move cards for Wizards and singles dealers.
Pokemon almost destroyed Wizards, at least from my standpoint. When Pokemon hit big in the US, it was decided that the first run of all the sets would be placed in various chain stores before they got to the local game stores. When the supplies ran out, and a lot of stores did not get their ordered shipments...you can guess what happened. Hopefully now that Pokemon is dead, and Wizards shed most of its Pokemon related budget, this will not happen again. At the game store I worked at we had a few incidents of kids and parents getting into fistfights over our very limited supply of Pokemon cards. Pissed off customers tend to not hang around and buy a new copy of Settlers of Cataan, or the latest Heavy Metal issue.
Magic singles are still a pretty hot commodity, so everyone with old collections, you may be able to get quite a little payday for your old cards. Old cards are frequently auctioned on Ebay, and there are a lot of places on the web that buy and sell cards. Try visiting here or here. Both of these sites will pay decent amounts for the more powerful older cards, and will pay a premium for cards in mint or near mint condition. Or you can mail them to me, and I will keep and cherish them forever.
Wizards also produces dozens of other CCGs and board games, some really bad (WWF Raw Deal and BattleTech CCG for example), and some very, very good. Do yourself a favor, and visit your local game store and pick up a copy of RoboRally, or get back into Magic! It's still just as fun as it was when you started playing, only now it's a bit more expensive and tour friends are a little more likely to make fun of you, now that they have seen those dumb !ss commercials.
Slashdot Mirror
from any computer manufacturer.
This only applies to Windows machines.
Call tech support and ask them to help you turn off ACPI steering. If they will not do it, it's time to find a new company to buy computers from.
Companies that will not help with this (from personal experience, mileage may vary.)
Gateway
Dell
Compaq
HP
Micron
Disclaimer:This is from a tech support rep. So take this with a whole can of salt, and you might want to use the umbrella too.
I work for a technical support group at a game company, and I can tell you what is wrong with Technical Support in general from our end. It has a lot to do with things like this survy. Companies like Jupiter like to make a big deal about how industries are out to screw the public, not realizing that the public causes most of these things ourselves. Our biggest complaint, hands-down, is why our company will not issue refunds for a title. In spite of the EULA(which no one reads anyway), the retailers' refund policy, and the listed minimum requirements, people want their money back when a game does not work on their P66 w/ 16MB of RAM. I did a little research into this policy, and I found out that we got fleeced by a guy for some free games by abusing our refund policy. It had nothing to do with being cheap, or arrogant.
This is typical of my day. I would say that %90 of our calls and emails fall into one of two catagories, the MCSE who thinks he owns the world because he paid his way through a test, or the 80 year old vet that has never used a computer before. Both of these two groups get very frustrated when the hear our answers, because they both expect everything to work perfectly out of the box. Very rarely do we get a question from a nice, well informed person that is willing to work with us to resolve their problem.
I used to read survey results like this one, and say "tsk, tsk. 'Pop will eat itself.'" Now I understand a little better what goes on behind the Technical Support doors. -Jason
My senior year of high school ('98) the school installed a hidden camera covering the parking lot on campus. To my recollection, this camera caught two things:
1. kids lighting up a cigarette in their cars on the way home, but still on school property.(Hey, this is North Carolina)
2. two suspected drug dealers that were hanging around the parking lot, but not actually selling anything.
I remember one particular incident that began in the parking lot that year. A fight broke out on the lot, and this camera was mysteriously "broken." It was discovered that a few football players were involved in the fight with a goth kid they had been picking on. No one was punished, because everyone involved had conflicting stories. My point is, video cameras don't help when the schools are biased to begin with. There are always ways around technology, and we would all do well to remember that.
-Jason
Wizards has been around for quite a while now producing excellent games, and single handedly saving a well loved industry. Without Wizards, a lot of the local comic book and game stores would be out of business. Let's face it, a store owner can't make a lot of money selling $1.99 comics, especially with the dirth of crap that gets published today. These types of stores are getting increasingly reliant on CCGs (Collectable Card Games) which Wizards pioneered. Magic and Pokemon provide a steady source of income for store owners, since every three months, and sometimes more frequently, a new set gets released. The players have to purchase loads of packs, at $3.29 each, to get the best cards to play.
Then comes the tournament level of play. Wizards of the Coast gives away over over 3 million dollars a year through its Pro Tour and Gran Prix system for Magic. To get invited to a Pro Tour, a player must compete and win a Pro Tour Qualifier. Usually these qualifiers are usually held in local comic book/game stores. Depending on locale, these qualifiers can attract anywhere from 30-200 people at $20-25 a head. Add this to the various side events at $10-15 a head, and the day ends up being a profitable one for the organizer, and for the player. A chance to qualify for the "Big Time" and compete in a single tournamet with a $25,000 prize is enough of a draw for most players to come a spend a few bucks. It is this system that continues to move cards for Wizards and singles dealers.
Pokemon almost destroyed Wizards, at least from my standpoint. When Pokemon hit big in the US, it was decided that the first run of all the sets would be placed in various chain stores before they got to the local game stores. When the supplies ran out, and a lot of stores did not get their ordered shipments...you can guess what happened. Hopefully now that Pokemon is dead, and Wizards shed most of its Pokemon related budget, this will not happen again. At the game store I worked at we had a few incidents of kids and parents getting into fistfights over our very limited supply of Pokemon cards. Pissed off customers tend to not hang around and buy a new copy of Settlers of Cataan, or the latest Heavy Metal issue.
Magic singles are still a pretty hot commodity, so everyone with old collections, you may be able to get quite a little payday for your old cards. Old cards are frequently auctioned on Ebay, and there are a lot of places on the web that buy and sell cards. Try visiting here or here. Both of these sites will pay decent amounts for the more powerful older cards, and will pay a premium for cards in mint or near mint condition. Or you can mail them to me, and I will keep and cherish them forever.
Wizards also produces dozens of other CCGs and board games, some really bad (WWF Raw Deal and BattleTech CCG for example), and some very, very good. Do yourself a favor, and visit your local game store and pick up a copy of RoboRally, or get back into Magic! It's still just as fun as it was when you started playing, only now it's a bit more expensive and tour friends are a little more likely to make fun of you, now that they have seen those dumb !ss commercials.
-Jason