What, they have a point. If companies were competing freely, instead of this messed up system of little fiefdoms we have now, you can bet that you'd see Comcast and Time Warner trying to outdo each other, while AT&T and Verizon raced to shove fiber everywhere. Remember - competition is good for the consumer. It forces companies to innovate or die, while keeping prices low.
But as it stands now, you basically have "The cable company" or "The phone company". Even independent DSL providers are still using the copper run by The Phone Company, and often costs more than if you got DSL from them directly.
Even the Economist points out that this stimulus package probably won't have the effect Obama is hoping for because the companies will simply sit back and wait for the government to pay them for the upgrades they would have had to pay for themselves.
The way I see it, the only way things will change is through good old capitalist competition. Someone needs to really step in with a reliable WiMAX solution for about $25/mo, and seriously start sucking business away from the DSL/Cable duopolies. In fact I'm rather surprised the cell phone companies aren't trying to jump into the residential data market. They already have the little notebook dongles, just shove that into an antenna you set on your roof (for better reception) and plug it into your router. Better yet, offer residential phone service over this as well, and really put a dent in the landline and cable telephony companies.
If you're thinking of porno, that's a different case.
It's perfectly legal for a kid to go buy or rent an R or NC-17 rated movie, or even the book based on that movie. Heck, you now have "Unrated" versions of movies, which go from an R to borderline porno being sold in mainstream stores.
With the exception of outright porno, this bill means a kid could go into a store and buy the unrated (with extra gore, blood and profanity) version of, say, Doom3, but couldn't purchase the game. Does that make sense?
If this bill pushed to have ALL forms of media rated, and withheld from minors, then it MIGHT have a chance in passing. That is until you start talking about the part about deciding what books or newspapers can be sold to minors. Then you're going to run amok of every freedom of speech group in the nation, not to mention having the judge throw the case out faster than you can say "first amendment".
These folks are going about this the wrong way. They shouldn't be wasting their time to make this a LAW - that would require the government to get involved, and they can't. Instead, if these folks feel so strongly, they should go after the stores and convince them to start implementing policies to not sell these games to kids. If anything, this would get the support of the ESRB and the videogame industry. After all, Rock* has always said their games aren't intended for people under 18. Yet, most stores don't enforce this.
Even if all stores had a 100% perfect method of preventing sales to minors, all that would happen is the kids would find someone to buy the game for them. This might be some stranger in the store, a relative or even a parent.
It goes back further than that, actually. Rap music in the 80s caused people to put those "Explicit Lyrics" stickers on tapes and CDs. This had the unintended benefit of boosting the sales of those tapes/CDs because now the kids knew what stuff they weren't supposed to be listening too!
Then there was the Dungeons&Dragons controversy, that it either made you more violent, a satan worshipper, or a gambler.
Rock music - including the stuff from 50 years ago(!) - was said to induce licentious behavior and, God forbid, DANCING.
It's the same old stupid arguments being made by people who ought to know better. After all, THEY were the ones "fighting the man" by rocking out to the Beatles!
Name a "think of the children!" type bill that actually gives children credit for not being as moronic as the people supporting the bill are.
Didn't we already go through this? In fact, didn't New York specifically go through several aborted video game bills? How many times does the judge need to say "no, you morons, get out of my court!" before they get a clue? Oh, and I'm sure the loss of several more million dollars in taxpayer money will make everyone happy-happy.
I had a few coworkers who were like the OP. They'd willingly work ridiculously long hours just because they liked what they were doing.
Problem was, management came to depend on their crazy schedules. Which meant when crunch time came, they had nothing more to give. A few times we'd come in to work the next morning, only to find one or both of them literally passed out on their keyboards after working 36+ hours straight. It wasn't healthy, and basically anything they did in those last 12 hours wasn't very useful, or even coherent, for that matter.
I agree it's not worthless, but people need to understand that the average ROI on a solar panel system is somewhere between 12-15 years. The panels themselves, however, are only rated to last 20 years.
I keep hearing about breakthroughs in solar power that are "just around the corner" that would bring the cost of a home system down from $15k to under $10k, and the ROI down to under 5 years. However, it's been about 5 years since I heard about such things and I'm still waiting.
Meanwhile, I have to wonder why more companies haven't tiled their roofs with solar panels? Google did it to their headquarters, mainly as a publicity stunt, but figures they'll cut their power usage during the day by about 30%. Putting panels on businesses makes more sense because they're in operation when the panels are at their most productive. It probably won't zero out their energy usage, as a home-based system will, but it would be a big help.
I'm surprised no one's pointed this out yet, but the national average for 1kWh of power is about $0.12, but in CA, you're going to pay much, much more. Mainly because most of our power plants are powered by natural gas. This also means that Californians are paying way more for natural gas as well. I think my last bill showed I was paying about $1.40 per cubic foot or whatever the unit for gas is. While I have a gas dryer, water heater, stove and furnace, all of them are very new and energy efficient, my bill for gas was still about $100.
Under this boneheaded ruling, a lot of anime and manga would be considered child porn. I'm not even talking about the stuff that already IS porn, mind you, I'm talking about mainstream, family oriented shows here, like "My neighbor Totoro" (Tonari no Totoro.) In that movie, you see the father and his two young daughters taking a bath together - as is the norm in Japan.
I remember I was in a video store one day when this lady came in fuming mad because one of the clerks recommended the movie to her for her kids, and she was shocked and horrified that the movie would depict kiddie-porn. The stupefied clerk tried to explain that in Japan this was considered normal, only to have the woman yell about how it's not right for Japan to force its depravity upon the rest of the world, and demanded a full refund.
On a side note here, would it still be considered child porn if the voice actresses involved were adults or children? For instance, Bart, Lisa and even Maggie are all voiced by adults - not children. Does this make the characters "children" or "adults portraying children"? And what about when your wife/girlfriend squeezes into her high school cheerleader outfit for a bit of role play? Does that make you both guilty of child porn?
The wife and I are probably pushing about 1100 discs by now. About half of which is anime, and another quarter is TV series.
Unless the show was originally done in HD, is there really a reason to repurchase it on Blu-Ray? For instance, do I really need M*A*S*H* in HD? No. M*A*S*H* on fewer discs (ala 480p on Blu-Ray might be nice, but the package will have to have something more than just fewer discs...
The same goes for anime. Most of the stuff we have is, again, TV series from pre-HD. Is remastering something that was originally released in 480p 4:3 into 1080p 4:3 really going to add anything? Probably not.
Films (anime or otherwise) sure - but so far the studios have been VERY reluctant to release anything that's older than the Blu-Ray format itself. So...forget about re-buying (or, re-re-rebuying in some cases) old favorites. They don't exist yet. Even with DVD, how long did it take for things like Indiana Jones and Star Wars (eps. 4-6 that is) to arrive on DVD? And there's still plenty of stuff that hasn't been released at all (Max Headroom? Please?)
Price is also a factor, but seriously, by the time we see $10-15 blu-ray discs in stores, we'll be back here arguing about how expensive [insert next big format] is.
If there's a game that you want to buy but won't because of DRM, then that is a sale lost.
If you weren't going to buy the game - DRM or no - then it's not a lost sale.
Even so, I found EA's response rather insulting. People complain that 3 activations is too few, so EA increases it to 5, and expects everyone to be, what, thankful?
Hah.
And then in another month maybe they'll release another patch that'll loosen up the DRM again.
If they ever do remove the DRM I'll consider buying the game. Of course by then, it'll be $20, and actually patched enough to resemble the game it was supposed to be. After all, who buys v1.0 of a game anymore? Hasn't the past 15 years of buggy PC games taught you anything?
I don't think the game ever promised things like flying creatures, but I will admit, not having them is disappointing.
As for evolution vs. creationism, I think the game is very pro-evolution. Real Life rarely gets it "right" on the first try. There are lots of examples of how a single species diversified into different variants, only to have many of those variants die off for one reason or another.
In the game, if you suddenly took your many-finned fish-like creature and dropped it into a forest, you aren't going to find it surviving very well until you go in and make some changes - turn the gills into lungs, maybe turn the fins into wings, or at least legs, change its diet from fish to say, squirrel - that sort of thing.
Spore was never intended to be a realistic biology simulator. It has its own internal rules and physics - sure - but it's a VASTLY simplified set of rules compared to anything approaching The Real World.
I think it could be used as a teaching tool, in part to help get students thinking about how organisms change and adapt based on their surroundings and environment. Quite literally, the moral of the story of life has always been "Change...or die."
Calling Spore a tech demo is wrong, but so is calling it a "game".
Spore, like The Sims, is not a game, but more of an elaborate computer toy.
Think about it. The Sims is basically nothing more than an electronic doll house with animated action figures. Do with it as you wish. Push your Sims to have good jobs and be good citizens, or just let them laze around the house watching TV - it's your choice.
In Spore, much of the content and "game" if you can call it that, will come from the users themselves. There are already millions(!) of user-created creatures available for Spore. How long do you think it'll be before you start seeing people re-enacting Star Trek, Babylon5, or the Uplift series with Spore? The tools are there, you know. Players could control one race, and vie with others to find new planets for colonization, or uplift the species they find there in a competition to see who could get the most planets/races.
Sure, you could play Spore with a goal in mind, in which case it could be a game...if you come up with some extra rules or constraints to impose on yourself. Or you could just go in and mess around, in which case it becomes a toy.
THAT's what makes these types of products so great.
One of the more common excuses game pirates use is "Well, I wouldn't have bought the game anyways..." thinking that they aren't depriving the publisher of a sale - because they never were one to begin with.
Actually, I'd say a CD that doesn't play in a computer CD drive is defective. Amazon really needs a "0 star" rating for that case. Spore would still be a 1 star rating - your opinion is that the game isn't worth buying, but at least it works (at least...SHOULD work...)
EA will misinterpret this as Spore being a badly designed game.
Either that, or they'll fire Will, and start cranking out souless sequels. Spore 2.0 - Creatures go to college. Yes, make your creatures act like crazy college kids with this add on. Coming soon: Spore 3.0 - Creatures Gone Wild, rated M for supposed "wild" nudity.
Someone mentioned Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, which I think is a very good comparison.
While defeating enemies in the game would cause them to drop health and mana orbs, bosses would drop them on a regular basis while you beat on them (I think ever 25% of so.) So, you didn't have to be able to defeat the boss without dying - just able to knock 25% of his health off so you could heal up enough to keep on beating on him.
This could work for DiabloIII as well, though I can remember some fights where I wasn't even able to put a dent in the stupid boss the first few times I faced it, dying a good 4 or 5 times before I figured out the strategy for my combination of boss and character class.
Send a copy of a signed snail-mail letter to the CEO and CMO of each major airline. The letter is short and to the point - while these new gestappo-like rules are in effect, you will no longer be flying.
If you do business with that airline, be sure to tell them your frequent flyer number so they can personally verify how much this policy of the government's will cost them.
Better yet, get your company to send this letter.
It's clear that this administration has never carried about "the people" as it just ignores whatever we say. However, they're all still whores to big business. If the airline industry suddenly found out that 30% of its business travellers were suddenly going to be taking the train because they cannot afford to risk losing vital equipment on the whim of the government, you can bet something will get changed.
While that may slow them down a little, you missed the part of the article that says they can confiscate ALL containers of data - and that includes any and all thumbdrives, SD cards, floppies, hard drive, and even physical papers.
In fact, the "rules" allow them confiscate so much, it'd be easier for them just to make a list of what they CAN'T confiscate.
So-called "TSA approved locks" have always been nothing but a scam. The TSA already has the key - that's what makes them "TSA approved" (supposedly).
If the TSA already has all the keys, who else do you think has them? Granted, if someone gets physical access to your bag, and doesn't much care about being subtle, a good knife is the only key they really need - but no lock is going to protect you against that. Therefore, what's the point of "locking" your bags if the very people you're trying to protect your posessions from already have the key AND the "right" to use it?
What? The blu-ray-360 has been rumored many times, AND shot down each and every time by Microsoft.
The inclusion of blu-ray in the 360 would easily drive the price up $150, which would make the 360 more expensive than even the 80GB PS3 at this moment. I don't see that happening until the prices on blu-ray hardware drops some more and by that time, it'll be time for the next Xbox to come out anyways. If we do see a blu-ray drive for the 360, it'll be like the HD-DVD add-on drive and will probably sell for about $200.
However, it's important to note that Microsoft has repeatedly and consistantly stated that 360 games will ONLY be on DVDs - not HD-DVD, not blu-ray. DVD only.
No doubt FFXIII will come on a handful of DVDs. My guess it'll be 6 or 7 discs. With an average FF title taking 50 or so hours to complete (and twice that if you're a completist) that's about 10 hours per disc which is reasonable.
Also, don't forget that 360 games will now be allowed to be installed to the hard drive. I have the feeling we'll see some various options here for FFXIII. The actual game itself probably wouldn't take up that much room, so maybe you could do something similar to Diablo2 - install the game to your hard drive, but leave the CD/DVD in your drive for the cinematic cutscenes.
For those who are determined to pirate the game - regardless of the price - DRM and copy protection means nothing. They'll either crack it themselves, or download a version cracked by someone else.
DRM and copy protection only impacts legitimate customers who have to put up with things like decreased performance, damaged hardware, and extended calls to tech support so they can BEG the company to let them play the game THEY LEGITIMATELY PURCHASED.
I know of no other industry that treats its customers - its PAYING CUSTOMERS - like criminals until you can prove to the company that you aren't. (Yes, OK, the TSA treats you like a criminal, but you aren't their customer.)
And people wonder why video game consoles are taking larger and larger chunks out of the PC market. Have you ever heard of any legit console game having issues because of DRM? Me neither.
Consoles have their own issues, sure, but for the most part, they're a heckuva lot easier to deal with than a PC. You buy the game, you stick the game in the console, you start playing the game.
Simple, simple, simple. No worries about the copy protection on the disc potentially slowing your console down, or even worse, damaging it. No worries about how many times you can install it. No worries about losing the license key. Just power on, and play.
Things like Steam, GameTap and now Impulse are beginning to address this insanity, but for many folks I know, it's too little, too late. They've moved over to consoles, and aren't looking back. Especially since we're seeing more PC games showing up on consoles now.
Would a lawsuit even work? Did these companies actually guarantee unfiltered access to USENET?
You can't even try to sue over censorship since these are private companies.
About all a lawsuit would accomplish is making a bunch of lawyers a heap of money. Meanwhile, all subscribers will simply get a single "$5 off your bill" type coupon, and then HIGHER rates to help pay for the money they spent on the trial.
No thanks. The company screwed up, so screw the company back by taking your business elsewhere. Yeah, you may only be a few hundred dollars in revenue a year to them, but when hundreds, if not thousands, start leaving in protest, maybe they'll take notice.
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What, they have a point. If companies were competing freely, instead of this messed up system of little fiefdoms we have now, you can bet that you'd see Comcast and Time Warner trying to outdo each other, while AT&T and Verizon raced to shove fiber everywhere. Remember - competition is good for the consumer. It forces companies to innovate or die, while keeping prices low.
But as it stands now, you basically have "The cable company" or "The phone company". Even independent DSL providers are still using the copper run by The Phone Company, and often costs more than if you got DSL from them directly.
Even the Economist points out that this stimulus package probably won't have the effect Obama is hoping for because the companies will simply sit back and wait for the government to pay them for the upgrades they would have had to pay for themselves.
The way I see it, the only way things will change is through good old capitalist competition. Someone needs to really step in with a reliable WiMAX solution for about $25/mo, and seriously start sucking business away from the DSL/Cable duopolies. In fact I'm rather surprised the cell phone companies aren't trying to jump into the residential data market. They already have the little notebook dongles, just shove that into an antenna you set on your roof (for better reception) and plug it into your router. Better yet, offer residential phone service over this as well, and really put a dent in the landline and cable telephony companies.
If you're thinking of porno, that's a different case.
It's perfectly legal for a kid to go buy or rent an R or NC-17 rated movie, or even the book based on that movie. Heck, you now have "Unrated" versions of movies, which go from an R to borderline porno being sold in mainstream stores.
In theory...
However, why only video games?
With the exception of outright porno, this bill means a kid could go into a store and buy the unrated (with extra gore, blood and profanity) version of, say, Doom3, but couldn't purchase the game. Does that make sense?
If this bill pushed to have ALL forms of media rated, and withheld from minors, then it MIGHT have a chance in passing. That is until you start talking about the part about deciding what books or newspapers can be sold to minors. Then you're going to run amok of every freedom of speech group in the nation, not to mention having the judge throw the case out faster than you can say "first amendment".
These folks are going about this the wrong way. They shouldn't be wasting their time to make this a LAW - that would require the government to get involved, and they can't. Instead, if these folks feel so strongly, they should go after the stores and convince them to start implementing policies to not sell these games to kids. If anything, this would get the support of the ESRB and the videogame industry. After all, Rock* has always said their games aren't intended for people under 18. Yet, most stores don't enforce this.
Even if all stores had a 100% perfect method of preventing sales to minors, all that would happen is the kids would find someone to buy the game for them. This might be some stranger in the store, a relative or even a parent.
It goes back further than that, actually. Rap music in the 80s caused people to put those "Explicit Lyrics" stickers on tapes and CDs. This had the unintended benefit of boosting the sales of those tapes/CDs because now the kids knew what stuff they weren't supposed to be listening too!
Then there was the Dungeons&Dragons controversy, that it either made you more violent, a satan worshipper, or a gambler.
Rock music - including the stuff from 50 years ago(!) - was said to induce licentious behavior and, God forbid, DANCING.
It's the same old stupid arguments being made by people who ought to know better. After all, THEY were the ones "fighting the man" by rocking out to the Beatles!
Name a "think of the children!" type bill that actually gives children credit for not being as moronic as the people supporting the bill are.
Didn't we already go through this? In fact, didn't New York specifically go through several aborted video game bills? How many times does the judge need to say "no, you morons, get out of my court!" before they get a clue? Oh, and I'm sure the loss of several more million dollars in taxpayer money will make everyone happy-happy.
No but working 16 hrs, 7 days a week, WILL.
I had a few coworkers who were like the OP. They'd willingly work ridiculously long hours just because they liked what they were doing.
Problem was, management came to depend on their crazy schedules. Which meant when crunch time came, they had nothing more to give. A few times we'd come in to work the next morning, only to find one or both of them literally passed out on their keyboards after working 36+ hours straight. It wasn't healthy, and basically anything they did in those last 12 hours wasn't very useful, or even coherent, for that matter.
I agree it's not worthless, but people need to understand that the average ROI on a solar panel system is somewhere between 12-15 years. The panels themselves, however, are only rated to last 20 years.
I keep hearing about breakthroughs in solar power that are "just around the corner" that would bring the cost of a home system down from $15k to under $10k, and the ROI down to under 5 years. However, it's been about 5 years since I heard about such things and I'm still waiting.
Meanwhile, I have to wonder why more companies haven't tiled their roofs with solar panels? Google did it to their headquarters, mainly as a publicity stunt, but figures they'll cut their power usage during the day by about 30%. Putting panels on businesses makes more sense because they're in operation when the panels are at their most productive. It probably won't zero out their energy usage, as a home-based system will, but it would be a big help.
I'm surprised no one's pointed this out yet, but the national average for 1kWh of power is about $0.12, but in CA, you're going to pay much, much more. Mainly because most of our power plants are powered by natural gas. This also means that Californians are paying way more for natural gas as well. I think my last bill showed I was paying about $1.40 per cubic foot or whatever the unit for gas is. While I have a gas dryer, water heater, stove and furnace, all of them are very new and energy efficient, my bill for gas was still about $100.
Under this boneheaded ruling, a lot of anime and manga would be considered child porn. I'm not even talking about the stuff that already IS porn, mind you, I'm talking about mainstream, family oriented shows here, like "My neighbor Totoro" (Tonari no Totoro.) In that movie, you see the father and his two young daughters taking a bath together - as is the norm in Japan.
I remember I was in a video store one day when this lady came in fuming mad because one of the clerks recommended the movie to her for her kids, and she was shocked and horrified that the movie would depict kiddie-porn. The stupefied clerk tried to explain that in Japan this was considered normal, only to have the woman yell about how it's not right for Japan to force its depravity upon the rest of the world, and demanded a full refund.
On a side note here, would it still be considered child porn if the voice actresses involved were adults or children? For instance, Bart, Lisa and even Maggie are all voiced by adults - not children. Does this make the characters "children" or "adults portraying children"? And what about when your wife/girlfriend squeezes into her high school cheerleader outfit for a bit of role play? Does that make you both guilty of child porn?
Mass replacement is pointless anyways.
The wife and I are probably pushing about 1100 discs by now. About half of which is anime, and another quarter is TV series.
Unless the show was originally done in HD, is there really a reason to repurchase it on Blu-Ray? For instance, do I really need M*A*S*H* in HD? No. M*A*S*H* on fewer discs (ala 480p on Blu-Ray might be nice, but the package will have to have something more than just fewer discs...
The same goes for anime. Most of the stuff we have is, again, TV series from pre-HD. Is remastering something that was originally released in 480p 4:3 into 1080p 4:3 really going to add anything? Probably not.
Films (anime or otherwise) sure - but so far the studios have been VERY reluctant to release anything that's older than the Blu-Ray format itself. So...forget about re-buying (or, re-re-rebuying in some cases) old favorites. They don't exist yet. Even with DVD, how long did it take for things like Indiana Jones and Star Wars (eps. 4-6 that is) to arrive on DVD? And there's still plenty of stuff that hasn't been released at all (Max Headroom? Please?)
Price is also a factor, but seriously, by the time we see $10-15 blu-ray discs in stores, we'll be back here arguing about how expensive [insert next big format] is.
If there's a game that you want to buy but won't because of DRM, then that is a sale lost.
If you weren't going to buy the game - DRM or no - then it's not a lost sale.
Even so, I found EA's response rather insulting. People complain that 3 activations is too few, so EA increases it to 5, and expects everyone to be, what, thankful?
Hah.
And then in another month maybe they'll release another patch that'll loosen up the DRM again.
If they ever do remove the DRM I'll consider buying the game. Of course by then, it'll be $20, and actually patched enough to resemble the game it was supposed to be. After all, who buys v1.0 of a game anymore? Hasn't the past 15 years of buggy PC games taught you anything?
I don't think the game ever promised things like flying creatures, but I will admit, not having them is disappointing.
As for evolution vs. creationism, I think the game is very pro-evolution. Real Life rarely gets it "right" on the first try. There are lots of examples of how a single species diversified into different variants, only to have many of those variants die off for one reason or another.
In the game, if you suddenly took your many-finned fish-like creature and dropped it into a forest, you aren't going to find it surviving very well until you go in and make some changes - turn the gills into lungs, maybe turn the fins into wings, or at least legs, change its diet from fish to say, squirrel - that sort of thing.
Spore was never intended to be a realistic biology simulator. It has its own internal rules and physics - sure - but it's a VASTLY simplified set of rules compared to anything approaching The Real World.
I think it could be used as a teaching tool, in part to help get students thinking about how organisms change and adapt based on their surroundings and environment. Quite literally, the moral of the story of life has always been "Change...or die."
Calling Spore a tech demo is wrong, but so is calling it a "game".
Spore, like The Sims, is not a game, but more of an elaborate computer toy.
Think about it. The Sims is basically nothing more than an electronic doll house with animated action figures. Do with it as you wish. Push your Sims to have good jobs and be good citizens, or just let them laze around the house watching TV - it's your choice.
In Spore, much of the content and "game" if you can call it that, will come from the users themselves. There are already millions(!) of user-created creatures available for Spore. How long do you think it'll be before you start seeing people re-enacting Star Trek, Babylon5, or the Uplift series with Spore? The tools are there, you know. Players could control one race, and vie with others to find new planets for colonization, or uplift the species they find there in a competition to see who could get the most planets/races.
Sure, you could play Spore with a goal in mind, in which case it could be a game...if you come up with some extra rules or constraints to impose on yourself. Or you could just go in and mess around, in which case it becomes a toy.
THAT's what makes these types of products so great.
Pirated copies don't always mean lost sales.
One of the more common excuses game pirates use is "Well, I wouldn't have bought the game anyways..." thinking that they aren't depriving the publisher of a sale - because they never were one to begin with.
The excuse is still false for other reasons.
Actually, I'd say a CD that doesn't play in a computer CD drive is defective. Amazon really needs a "0 star" rating for that case. Spore would still be a 1 star rating - your opinion is that the game isn't worth buying, but at least it works (at least...SHOULD work...)
Why should I ever have to call a company to please, oh please, let me install software I ALREADY PAID FOR!?
And if EA goes bankrupt, what then?
Vista showed that an activation scheme is severely flawed, to say the least.
EA will misinterpret this as Spore being a badly designed game.
Either that, or they'll fire Will, and start cranking out souless sequels. Spore 2.0 - Creatures go to college. Yes, make your creatures act like crazy college kids with this add on. Coming soon: Spore 3.0 - Creatures Gone Wild, rated M for supposed "wild" nudity.
Someone mentioned Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, which I think is a very good comparison.
While defeating enemies in the game would cause them to drop health and mana orbs, bosses would drop them on a regular basis while you beat on them (I think ever 25% of so.) So, you didn't have to be able to defeat the boss without dying - just able to knock 25% of his health off so you could heal up enough to keep on beating on him.
This could work for DiabloIII as well, though I can remember some fights where I wasn't even able to put a dent in the stupid boss the first few times I faced it, dying a good 4 or 5 times before I figured out the strategy for my combination of boss and character class.
Obviously if they confiscated your equipment, it's because they already think you're suspicious.
In fact, you were already guilty. Probably.
Of what? Doesn't matter. They'll think of something.
Eventually.
How to avoid them: BOYCOTT.
Send a copy of a signed snail-mail letter to the CEO and CMO of each major airline. The letter is short and to the point - while these new gestappo-like rules are in effect, you will no longer be flying.
If you do business with that airline, be sure to tell them your frequent flyer number so they can personally verify how much this policy of the government's will cost them.
Better yet, get your company to send this letter.
It's clear that this administration has never carried about "the people" as it just ignores whatever we say. However, they're all still whores to big business. If the airline industry suddenly found out that 30% of its business travellers were suddenly going to be taking the train because they cannot afford to risk losing vital equipment on the whim of the government, you can bet something will get changed.
While that may slow them down a little, you missed the part of the article that says they can confiscate ALL containers of data - and that includes any and all thumbdrives, SD cards, floppies, hard drive, and even physical papers.
In fact, the "rules" allow them confiscate so much, it'd be easier for them just to make a list of what they CAN'T confiscate.
So-called "TSA approved locks" have always been nothing but a scam. The TSA already has the key - that's what makes them "TSA approved" (supposedly).
If the TSA already has all the keys, who else do you think has them? Granted, if someone gets physical access to your bag, and doesn't much care about being subtle, a good knife is the only key they really need - but no lock is going to protect you against that. Therefore, what's the point of "locking" your bags if the very people you're trying to protect your posessions from already have the key AND the "right" to use it?
What? The blu-ray-360 has been rumored many times, AND shot down each and every time by Microsoft.
The inclusion of blu-ray in the 360 would easily drive the price up $150, which would make the 360 more expensive than even the 80GB PS3 at this moment. I don't see that happening until the prices on blu-ray hardware drops some more and by that time, it'll be time for the next Xbox to come out anyways. If we do see a blu-ray drive for the 360, it'll be like the HD-DVD add-on drive and will probably sell for about $200.
However, it's important to note that Microsoft has repeatedly and consistantly stated that 360 games will ONLY be on DVDs - not HD-DVD, not blu-ray. DVD only.
No doubt FFXIII will come on a handful of DVDs. My guess it'll be 6 or 7 discs. With an average FF title taking 50 or so hours to complete (and twice that if you're a completist) that's about 10 hours per disc which is reasonable.
Also, don't forget that 360 games will now be allowed to be installed to the hard drive. I have the feeling we'll see some various options here for FFXIII. The actual game itself probably wouldn't take up that much room, so maybe you could do something similar to Diablo2 - install the game to your hard drive, but leave the CD/DVD in your drive for the cinematic cutscenes.
For those who are determined to pirate the game - regardless of the price - DRM and copy protection means nothing. They'll either crack it themselves, or download a version cracked by someone else.
DRM and copy protection only impacts legitimate customers who have to put up with things like decreased performance, damaged hardware, and extended calls to tech support so they can BEG the company to let them play the game THEY LEGITIMATELY PURCHASED.
I know of no other industry that treats its customers - its PAYING CUSTOMERS - like criminals until you can prove to the company that you aren't. (Yes, OK, the TSA treats you like a criminal, but you aren't their customer.)
And people wonder why video game consoles are taking larger and larger chunks out of the PC market. Have you ever heard of any legit console game having issues because of DRM? Me neither.
Consoles have their own issues, sure, but for the most part, they're a heckuva lot easier to deal with than a PC. You buy the game, you stick the game in the console, you start playing the game.
Simple, simple, simple. No worries about the copy protection on the disc potentially slowing your console down, or even worse, damaging it. No worries about how many times you can install it. No worries about losing the license key. Just power on, and play.
Things like Steam, GameTap and now Impulse are beginning to address this insanity, but for many folks I know, it's too little, too late. They've moved over to consoles, and aren't looking back. Especially since we're seeing more PC games showing up on consoles now.
Would a lawsuit even work? Did these companies actually guarantee unfiltered access to USENET?
You can't even try to sue over censorship since these are private companies.
About all a lawsuit would accomplish is making a bunch of lawyers a heap of money. Meanwhile, all subscribers will simply get a single "$5 off your bill" type coupon, and then HIGHER rates to help pay for the money they spent on the trial.
No thanks. The company screwed up, so screw the company back by taking your business elsewhere. Yeah, you may only be a few hundred dollars in revenue a year to them, but when hundreds, if not thousands, start leaving in protest, maybe they'll take notice.