Your argument falls flat when you take the print media into account. That is, unless you consider all technology and not just modern audio/video storage methods. Remember, copyright and publishing rights laws date back to the invention of the printing press.
Artists have always been at the mercy of their patrons. Whether it was aristocrats contracting compositions or keeping musicians on retainer, or writers accepting a commission to write a penny dreadful. Artists were often paid in advance.
There's also that dumb, dumb dream that you can take back what you said, or at least prevent it from being preserved for posterity. Much like how Tom Hanks tried to kill all reruns of Bosom Buddies, or how some composers like Richard Wagner tried to forbid others from playing their operas. Even your post here is now beyond your control.
Today, musicians earn more by playing concerts than by cutting albums. Most of the budding stars only make an album as a way of improving their image. Groups are discovering that non-DRM'ed music on the internet is an excellent way to generate interest.
No, the problem with studios is that they have grown accustomed to being the gatekeeper, and charging ruinous rates for using their distribution channels and production equipment. They are already losing control of production exclusivity. Now they are losing control of distribution. It's all about staving off the inevitable.
I think the GSM is part of why Apple *started* with Cingular. GSM phones are mostly unlocked (unless you're using a prepaid plan, then it's 200 Euros to unlock in Germany). Apple is looking at the global market, with quad-band GSM in this model, and I would bet plans to use UMTS in the next version.
The big question for me, though, is when this will come to Germany? Will it be with T-Mobile, Vodafone, O2, or E-Plus?
What would be brilliant for the series would be to make the 4th movie an homage on the movies of the Fifties and Sixties, much as the first three movies were an homage on the old serials. It was the age when James Bond was born as a novel, when international assassins and atomic mutants were all the rage.
It could be interesting, with a respectable Professor Jones being dragged out of his comfortable life as dean of archeology by a mysterious theft from his museum, with a wild goose chase after the mysterious villain through the museums of the world instead of dig sites, culminating in a final confrontation by a forgotten Aztec temple with a mutant giant feathered serpent and/or an atomic bomb test about to go off.
I'm afraid they'll shy away from doing what's necessary, namely Professor Jones saying "I'm too old for this crap" and acting like he now has to worry about his glasses or arthritis from his old wounds. It may be a cliché, but that's what made the movies so fun was that they polished off those old hoary clichés and made them seem fresh. They could even carry off the old trope of insisting on being called Professor Henry Jones Junior until he rediscovers the thrill, and at the end yells "the name is Indiana!"
After RTFA, the Beeb spokesman stated that this peer-to-peer programme is specifically supposed to make BBC shows available to new audience members across the globe that previously had no access.The shows will also be with DRM, but will compete with other peer-to-peers through guaranteed quality.
I doubt that the EULA will require UK residency. I also doubt that Warner will raise a stink, since the BBC has probably already vetted the legal issues. I just hope that there will be Mac and Linux clients, as well as an option to burn to DVD for home viewing/slapping the disc into the portable DVD player...
Just a minor quibble, but only NTSC video is at 30 FPS (60 half-frames per second). IIRC it was chosen to match the 60Hz of AC power, so that there would be less interference. PAL and SECAM both use 25 FPS, both to match the 24 FPS and because of the frequency of AC current in Europe (50Hz).
One of the better articles about frames per second is at 100FPS.com, where the topic of how many frames per second a human eye can see is discussed. It covers in compact form a lot of what I had to learn when becoming a multimedia producer. (I wish I had been able to read that site back then, but it probably didn't exist back in '96).
It's also important to remember that Beckstein is the Innenminister for Bavaria, not Germany. It's akin to the attorney general of Texas, not the AG of the USA.
And yes, Beckstein's a git. It's taking him far too long to realise that he is one of the most unpopular politicians in Bavaria, now that Monica ("my daddy used to OWN this state!") Hohlmeier has been run out of town in disgrace.
Only predators or prey? That is a very stunted view. It's like saying that there's only robbers or the robbed, and leaves no space for cooperation or trade.
I've only seen this statement until now from those who imagine themselves Dominants and the rest of the world potential Submissives. And of those I've met,none of those holding this philosophy are happy long, since they end up paranoid and fearful of other "predators".
For your own sake, I hope you abandon this black-or-white worldview.
Neither does George w. Bush. His oil companies were known for digging lots of holes where there wasn't any oil, and then getting bought up (and swept under the carpet) by his father's friends.
Bill Gates is smart, yes, but his intelligence and his values systems are all geared to playing different games than what a politician is expected to play. His game is to maximise profits and beat the competition, more or less to play Monopoly. It's not the right mindset for a politcal executive, since the goal is to manage a bureaucracy for the benefit of the citizens on the long term and to avoid the trap of short-term profit grabbing. Business is all about competition, but politics (outside of campaigning) is about finding consensus and accepting compromise.
It's the old geek arrogance of thinking an expert in one field can be an expert in any field. It's bullshit, and Scott Adams is either trolling or a fool.
First Ross Perot, then George W. Bush. Haven't we learned by now that businessmen make lousy politicians?
It's also important to remember that Apple almost killed itself with the clone fiasco. The Nineties saw Apple drifting and falling prey to managers and technocrats without any vision.
What makes Apple special and successful is that they make products that Jobs would pay money for if he wasn't running the show. It may lead to misses like the Cube, but it does ensure that each product is designed around somebody actually using it and not merely to meet some committee's shopping list.
Well, even club DJ's are moving more towards iPods for live usage. The sound fidelity is much lower than in the studio, and the risk of loss between the copies iPod and his priceless vinyl collection is also important. The dancers in the club want to move, and aren't listening with an overly critical ear. When in the studio recording his next album, though, we most likely will go back to his vinyl records.
Consider it more like Roger Daltrey in his prime having two different guitars: one for studio work that he cares for and frets over the settings, and one "disposable" he uses on stage that he can smash to bits.
It's this bad the world over. I used to like Warner DVD's for not having these accusatory ads, but they've fallen to the Paranoia as well. Universal's Germany release of Firefly also made me not buy Serenity, since I hate their paranoid "you could go to jail!" blurb that you can't skip, as well as their lame navigation on the DVDs themselves.
If anything, they've gotten me to stop simply consuming and to draw and write more of my own entertainment.
And yes, it is hard to laugh at this satire because it hits too close to the truth. I have no doubt that cinema chains are lobbying to force "home cinemas" to register, or otherwise fighting to prop up their crumbling empire through government intervention.
What hurts Microsoft is that there really is no compelling reason to get Vista, so they fade further into being seen as a component, not as something people must have. You're going to have Vista whether you want it or not, and nobody really sees a compelling reason to buy a non-OEM version. This may not hurt their bottom line that much, but the damage done to their self-esteem is immense.
You can see it now, as Microsoft distances itself from the name Microsoft with the XBox and the Zune. Microsoft isn't proud of itself, and it shows.
You are aware that you can enter all of the metadata yourself in iTunes without an internet connection, right? You must be aware that iTunes will otherwise just call the songs "Song 1" "Song 2" or something similar (it's been a while since I did it without Grace Note saving me time), right? You should be smart enough to realise that iTunes makes audio CDs from playlists, right? You realise we're talking about iTunes here, which works the same on Windows as on Mac OS X?
I pretty much agree with you: Apple's UI was easier to work with than Windows, as Windows did a lot of stuff in a wierd way that seemed designed only to look different than the Mac System 7 (the then-current Mac system as Win95 came out). The whole UI team seemed to be comparing itself to competitors instead of simply thinking about how to solve Task X.
Whether the underlying API's were better or not was not something most users thought about, only that they were told that Windows 95 was "just as good as the Mac".
I think there's a flaw in your argument, in that it gives the copy publisher more leverage than if the copyright length was equal for all. The starvig artist who makes it big could find himself trapped in a long-term low-royalties publishing agreement, the big studios would use copyright like a club to keep smaller artists from getting popular, and so on. Remember that a high number of artists are remarkably unconcerned about the nitty-gritty of contracts or financial management, and thus are easy to swindle.
I think a rule of copyright length without dependency on the artist's death is better, mainly because it makes collaboration works easier to manage. If Hammers and Rogerstein write a hit musical, but Hammer keels over, does Rogerstein suffer? What if Rogerstein disappears, do the copyright heirs of Hammer have to wait in limbo? What about a movie like Heavy Metal, which had a real nightmare of intertwined copyrights to sort out before it could be released to DVD?
Copyright law was written to ensure that publshers could recoup the investment they sank into artists, but nowadays its main use is to stifle, not encourage. If anything, copyright needs to recognise that artists today the publishers less to disseminate their works, but because publishers offer more reliable income.
That was one of the arguments for George W. Bush in 2000, that he would run the country like a company. Unfortunately, he was true to his promise: long vacations, a bad mix of micromanaging and hands-off attitude, and a golden parachute prepped for when it all went south.
The USA nowadays is being managed as well as Commodore was in the 1990's.
Trade secrets back then were also military secrets: better steel meant a more effective army. Guilds were careful not to let the secrets fall into the "wrong hands". Even things like the secret of making superior glass and mirrors was highly guarded, as the health of the city depended on it. Venice was famous for its especially draconic punishments it inflicted upon glass masters that were suspected of tradig off its secrets.
This is one of the two schools of information, the "you're not cleared for that" thought that information was a powerful weapon. The other is the "spread the word" thought that information must be shared so that the community could benefit and that the information couldn't be lost. Sometimes it's better to play with your cards close to your chest, and other times it's better to play with open cards so that everybody can profit.
One of the purposes of patents was to counter the need for trade secrets, to ensure compensation for the inventor so that he would reveal his invention to the general public. The spirit was that anybody could build make the invention as long as they paid the inventor a fee.
Copyright is another animal entirely. If copyright had said that anybody could copy if they compensated the author/artist, and not had such long lock-in times, I think we wouldn't be having these battles with music and film comglomerates.
Not really, as the Builder doesn't worry about winning. It's the acto fo creation that is important. The problem is that the grandparent talked about the min/max builder, the munchkin. Most builders are more interested in creating a memorable character with flaws, in the act of creation.
Builders prefer classless systems, building first a backstory and then the character according to his "history". Others like to use random systems, and then work to create a plausible backstory for the resulting character.
I know some (like me) become Builders also due to a dearth of groups. Building is a solo activity, and the true Builder doesn't worry about playing his character much; he's already thinking about his next creation.
Builders often wind up becoming GM's, evolving from building a character to building a world.
Variety probably doesn't give a hoot about home recording, really. What I saw them declaring dead was the market for selling VHS releases. Just like you can still get cassette players, but good luck finding new albums on cassette.
The trend reported here isn't the general trend, but the trend from the side of the media providers. That's also why they use the language that the ex-hipsters* that run the business prefer: they're the target readership, not you.
*actually, ex yuppies that like to pretend that they were hipsters instead of greedy suits-in-training, but that's a minor niggle
What you are suggesting sounds suspiciously like what Apple did in the transition to Mac OS X, with the older OS architecture relegated to a sandbox that is optional. An OS within the OS.
It's a path Microsoft could have taken with Windows XP, putting everything that required Win98 or older APIs into their version of "classic mode". Unfortunately, Microsoft can't differentiate as well as Apple between apps that are compatible with the new OS. The filesystem would need to store metadata about whether the programme is "classic" or "modern", or the Registry (or its successor) would become even more bloated.
Rather than think of it as theft, think of it as a form of trespassing. You aren't taking the right to copy away, but you are violating the concept of exclusivity (that only X is allowed to make a copy).
Even then, trespassing also has its limits as a metaphor, since the trespasser in the physical world is using resources that you had explusive rights to, such as using your private road as a shortcut without asking permission. Making unallowed copies isn't the same since it doesn't actively inflict wear and tear.
It's more like sitting on the roof of your house and watching the ball game in the park next door, despite the protests of the park owners and their wailing that each lawn chair on your roof is stealing ticket income from them.
The whole concept of copyright was based upon the idea that the publisher had to recoup his costs before a rival was allowed to make copies. It wasn't about directly supporting the artist, but about indirect support by letting his patrons enforce monopolies. The studios behave more like pampered pimps who complain that the johns are screwing their wives and not coming to their prostitutes any more.
The online thing was part of the original plan Bungie had for Halo: that the ringworld would be coordinated on a server but enough of the sprite and landscape data on the clients that lag would be reduced. It was supposed to take what they learned from Myth and use it to create an audience-driven story. Then Microsoft bought Bungie and changed Halo from a Mac game to an XBox game.
Or something like that.
Honestly, it's been so long I've forgotten a lot of the details. I just remember loving Bungie's games (Marathon, the Myth series) and their way of telling stories, looking forward to Halo, and growling in frustration as Microsoft gutted the soul of Bungie and the artists all left.
Slashdot Mirror
In short, piracy lets you see that the movie is a waste of money before you go to the cinema. It's a sort of "be your own critic" thingy.
All moot to me, anyways. I'm too busy reading Slashdot to watch films!
Your argument falls flat when you take the print media into account. That is, unless you consider all technology and not just modern audio/video storage methods. Remember, copyright and publishing rights laws date back to the invention of the printing press.
Artists have always been at the mercy of their patrons. Whether it was aristocrats contracting compositions or keeping musicians on retainer, or writers accepting a commission to write a penny dreadful. Artists were often paid in advance.
There's also that dumb, dumb dream that you can take back what you said, or at least prevent it from being preserved for posterity. Much like how Tom Hanks tried to kill all reruns of Bosom Buddies, or how some composers like Richard Wagner tried to forbid others from playing their operas. Even your post here is now beyond your control.
Today, musicians earn more by playing concerts than by cutting albums. Most of the budding stars only make an album as a way of improving their image. Groups are discovering that non-DRM'ed music on the internet is an excellent way to generate interest.
No, the problem with studios is that they have grown accustomed to being the gatekeeper, and charging ruinous rates for using their distribution channels and production equipment. They are already losing control of production exclusivity. Now they are losing control of distribution. It's all about staving off the inevitable.
I think the GSM is part of why Apple *started* with Cingular. GSM phones are mostly unlocked (unless you're using a prepaid plan, then it's 200 Euros to unlock in Germany). Apple is looking at the global market, with quad-band GSM in this model, and I would bet plans to use UMTS in the next version.
The big question for me, though, is when this will come to Germany? Will it be with T-Mobile, Vodafone, O2, or E-Plus?
Want one.
Now.
What would be brilliant for the series would be to make the 4th movie an homage on the movies of the Fifties and Sixties, much as the first three movies were an homage on the old serials. It was the age when James Bond was born as a novel, when international assassins and atomic mutants were all the rage.
It could be interesting, with a respectable Professor Jones being dragged out of his comfortable life as dean of archeology by a mysterious theft from his museum, with a wild goose chase after the mysterious villain through the museums of the world instead of dig sites, culminating in a final confrontation by a forgotten Aztec temple with a mutant giant feathered serpent and/or an atomic bomb test about to go off.
I'm afraid they'll shy away from doing what's necessary, namely Professor Jones saying "I'm too old for this crap" and acting like he now has to worry about his glasses or arthritis from his old wounds. It may be a cliché, but that's what made the movies so fun was that they polished off those old hoary clichés and made them seem fresh. They could even carry off the old trope of insisting on being called Professor Henry Jones Junior until he rediscovers the thrill, and at the end yells "the name is Indiana!"
After RTFA, the Beeb spokesman stated that this peer-to-peer programme is specifically supposed to make BBC shows available to new audience members across the globe that previously had no access.The shows will also be with DRM, but will compete with other peer-to-peers through guaranteed quality.
I doubt that the EULA will require UK residency. I also doubt that Warner will raise a stink, since the BBC has probably already vetted the legal issues. I just hope that there will be Mac and Linux clients, as well as an option to burn to DVD for home viewing/slapping the disc into the portable DVD player...
Just a minor quibble, but only NTSC video is at 30 FPS (60 half-frames per second). IIRC it was chosen to match the 60Hz of AC power, so that there would be less interference. PAL and SECAM both use 25 FPS, both to match the 24 FPS and because of the frequency of AC current in Europe (50Hz).
One of the better articles about frames per second is at 100FPS.com, where the topic of how many frames per second a human eye can see is discussed. It covers in compact form a lot of what I had to learn when becoming a multimedia producer. (I wish I had been able to read that site back then, but it probably didn't exist back in '96).
It's also important to remember that Beckstein is the Innenminister for Bavaria, not Germany. It's akin to the attorney general of Texas, not the AG of the USA.
And yes, Beckstein's a git. It's taking him far too long to realise that he is one of the most unpopular politicians in Bavaria, now that Monica ("my daddy used to OWN this state!") Hohlmeier has been run out of town in disgrace.
Only predators or prey? That is a very stunted view. It's like saying that there's only robbers or the robbed, and leaves no space for cooperation or trade.
I've only seen this statement until now from those who imagine themselves Dominants and the rest of the world potential Submissives. And of those I've met,none of those holding this philosophy are happy long, since they end up paranoid and fearful of other "predators".
For your own sake, I hope you abandon this black-or-white worldview.
Right. It's time we stopped calling it theft when it's more akin to trespassing. That is, after all, where the word infringement come from.
Neither does George w. Bush. His oil companies were known for digging lots of holes where there wasn't any oil, and then getting bought up (and swept under the carpet) by his father's friends.
Bill Gates is smart, yes, but his intelligence and his values systems are all geared to playing different games than what a politician is expected to play. His game is to maximise profits and beat the competition, more or less to play Monopoly. It's not the right mindset for a politcal executive, since the goal is to manage a bureaucracy for the benefit of the citizens on the long term and to avoid the trap of short-term profit grabbing. Business is all about competition, but politics (outside of campaigning) is about finding consensus and accepting compromise.
It's the old geek arrogance of thinking an expert in one field can be an expert in any field. It's bullshit, and Scott Adams is either trolling or a fool.
First Ross Perot, then George W. Bush. Haven't we learned by now that businessmen make lousy politicians?
It's also important to remember that Apple almost killed itself with the clone fiasco. The Nineties saw Apple drifting and falling prey to managers and technocrats without any vision.
What makes Apple special and successful is that they make products that Jobs would pay money for if he wasn't running the show. It may lead to misses like the Cube, but it does ensure that each product is designed around somebody actually using it and not merely to meet some committee's shopping list.
Well, even club DJ's are moving more towards iPods for live usage. The sound fidelity is much lower than in the studio, and the risk of loss between the copies iPod and his priceless vinyl collection is also important. The dancers in the club want to move, and aren't listening with an overly critical ear. When in the studio recording his next album, though, we most likely will go back to his vinyl records.
Consider it more like Roger Daltrey in his prime having two different guitars: one for studio work that he cares for and frets over the settings, and one "disposable" he uses on stage that he can smash to bits.
It's this bad the world over. I used to like Warner DVD's for not having these accusatory ads, but they've fallen to the Paranoia as well. Universal's Germany release of Firefly also made me not buy Serenity, since I hate their paranoid "you could go to jail!" blurb that you can't skip, as well as their lame navigation on the DVDs themselves.
If anything, they've gotten me to stop simply consuming and to draw and write more of my own entertainment.
And yes, it is hard to laugh at this satire because it hits too close to the truth. I have no doubt that cinema chains are lobbying to force "home cinemas" to register, or otherwise fighting to prop up their crumbling empire through government intervention.
What hurts Microsoft is that there really is no compelling reason to get Vista, so they fade further into being seen as a component, not as something people must have. You're going to have Vista whether you want it or not, and nobody really sees a compelling reason to buy a non-OEM version. This may not hurt their bottom line that much, but the damage done to their self-esteem is immense.
You can see it now, as Microsoft distances itself from the name Microsoft with the XBox and the Zune. Microsoft isn't proud of itself, and it shows.
All right, now you're really reaching.
You are aware that you can enter all of the metadata yourself in iTunes without an internet connection, right?
You must be aware that iTunes will otherwise just call the songs "Song 1" "Song 2" or something similar (it's been a while since I did it without Grace Note saving me time), right?
You should be smart enough to realise that iTunes makes audio CDs from playlists, right?
You realise we're talking about iTunes here, which works the same on Windows as on Mac OS X?
What do you mean, you're didn't know this?
I pretty much agree with you: Apple's UI was easier to work with than Windows, as Windows did a lot of stuff in a wierd way that seemed designed only to look different than the Mac System 7 (the then-current Mac system as Win95 came out). The whole UI team seemed to be comparing itself to competitors instead of simply thinking about how to solve Task X.
Whether the underlying API's were better or not was not something most users thought about, only that they were told that Windows 95 was "just as good as the Mac".
I think there's a flaw in your argument, in that it gives the copy publisher more leverage than if the copyright length was equal for all. The starvig artist who makes it big could find himself trapped in a long-term low-royalties publishing agreement, the big studios would use copyright like a club to keep smaller artists from getting popular, and so on. Remember that a high number of artists are remarkably unconcerned about the nitty-gritty of contracts or financial management, and thus are easy to swindle.
I think a rule of copyright length without dependency on the artist's death is better, mainly because it makes collaboration works easier to manage. If Hammers and Rogerstein write a hit musical, but Hammer keels over, does Rogerstein suffer? What if Rogerstein disappears, do the copyright heirs of Hammer have to wait in limbo? What about a movie like Heavy Metal, which had a real nightmare of intertwined copyrights to sort out before it could be released to DVD?
Copyright law was written to ensure that publshers could recoup the investment they sank into artists, but nowadays its main use is to stifle, not encourage. If anything, copyright needs to recognise that artists today the publishers less to disseminate their works, but because publishers offer more reliable income.
That was one of the arguments for George W. Bush in 2000, that he would run the country like a company. Unfortunately, he was true to his promise: long vacations, a bad mix of micromanaging and hands-off attitude, and a golden parachute prepped for when it all went south.
The USA nowadays is being managed as well as Commodore was in the 1990's.
Trade secrets back then were also military secrets: better steel meant a more effective army. Guilds were careful not to let the secrets fall into the "wrong hands". Even things like the secret of making superior glass and mirrors was highly guarded, as the health of the city depended on it. Venice was famous for its especially draconic punishments it inflicted upon glass masters that were suspected of tradig off its secrets.
This is one of the two schools of information, the "you're not cleared for that" thought that information was a powerful weapon. The other is the "spread the word" thought that information must be shared so that the community could benefit and that the information couldn't be lost. Sometimes it's better to play with your cards close to your chest, and other times it's better to play with open cards so that everybody can profit.
One of the purposes of patents was to counter the need for trade secrets, to ensure compensation for the inventor so that he would reveal his invention to the general public. The spirit was that anybody could build make the invention as long as they paid the inventor a fee.
Copyright is another animal entirely. If copyright had said that anybody could copy if they compensated the author/artist, and not had such long lock-in times, I think we wouldn't be having these battles with music and film comglomerates.
Not really, as the Builder doesn't worry about winning. It's the acto fo creation that is important. The problem is that the grandparent talked about the min/max builder, the munchkin. Most builders are more interested in creating a memorable character with flaws, in the act of creation.
Builders prefer classless systems, building first a backstory and then the character according to his "history". Others like to use random systems, and then work to create a plausible backstory for the resulting character.
I know some (like me) become Builders also due to a dearth of groups. Building is a solo activity, and the true Builder doesn't worry about playing his character much; he's already thinking about his next creation.
Builders often wind up becoming GM's, evolving from building a character to building a world.
Variety probably doesn't give a hoot about home recording, really. What I saw them declaring dead was the market for selling VHS releases. Just like you can still get cassette players, but good luck finding new albums on cassette.
The trend reported here isn't the general trend, but the trend from the side of the media providers. That's also why they use the language that the ex-hipsters* that run the business prefer: they're the target readership, not you.
*actually, ex yuppies that like to pretend that they were hipsters instead of greedy suits-in-training, but that's a minor niggle
What you are suggesting sounds suspiciously like what Apple did in the transition to Mac OS X, with the older OS architecture relegated to a sandbox that is optional. An OS within the OS.
It's a path Microsoft could have taken with Windows XP, putting everything that required Win98 or older APIs into their version of "classic mode". Unfortunately, Microsoft can't differentiate as well as Apple between apps that are compatible with the new OS. The filesystem would need to store metadata about whether the programme is "classic" or "modern", or the Registry (or its successor) would become even more bloated.
Rather than think of it as theft, think of it as a form of trespassing. You aren't taking the right to copy away, but you are violating the concept of exclusivity (that only X is allowed to make a copy).
Even then, trespassing also has its limits as a metaphor, since the trespasser in the physical world is using resources that you had explusive rights to, such as using your private road as a shortcut without asking permission. Making unallowed copies isn't the same since it doesn't actively inflict wear and tear.
It's more like sitting on the roof of your house and watching the ball game in the park next door, despite the protests of the park owners and their wailing that each lawn chair on your roof is stealing ticket income from them.
The whole concept of copyright was based upon the idea that the publisher had to recoup his costs before a rival was allowed to make copies. It wasn't about directly supporting the artist, but about indirect support by letting his patrons enforce monopolies. The studios behave more like pampered pimps who complain that the johns are screwing their wives and not coming to their prostitutes any more.
The online thing was part of the original plan Bungie had for Halo: that the ringworld would be coordinated on a server but enough of the sprite and landscape data on the clients that lag would be reduced. It was supposed to take what they learned from Myth and use it to create an audience-driven story. Then Microsoft bought Bungie and changed Halo from a Mac game to an XBox game.
Or something like that.
Honestly, it's been so long I've forgotten a lot of the details. I just remember loving Bungie's games (Marathon, the Myth series) and their way of telling stories, looking forward to Halo, and growling in frustration as Microsoft gutted the soul of Bungie and the artists all left.