I live in California where the stores must - by law - display these huge 5 foot displays explaining the ESRB. This is in addition to the flyers, postcards, and other propaganda that decorates the video game aisles. You don't see anything like that over in the DVD movie section. Despite the 1 foot tall rating letters and the 50 point bold font explaining what "M" means, I still see kids handing GTA or other violent games to their parents, who just drop it into their basket without even looking at the box.
Then again, how many young kids did you see in the theater with you, late on a school night, to see the latest R-rated slasher movie?
Clearly the problem isn't with the rating system(s) but with the idiotic parents who are continually making these decisions that GTA is a great game for their 7 year old after watching Saw III...
Seriously, what happend to parental responsibility?
You have to remember it's almost time for the annual holiday shopping craze. Dropping the price on the 360 won't really help sales one way or another. Besides, Microsoft already has the "Core" unit at $300 - half of what that high-end PS3 you won't find in stores will sell at.
You also have to remember that the PS3 isn't going to be in stock anywhere. It's going to be the PS2 and the 360 all over again. And with such small numbers, it's not going to put a dent in Microsoft or Nintendo's sales.
The longer Microsoft can go without dropping their price will give them more time to sell their improved hardware (which is cheaper to produce) at the full MSRP. This will help them recoup the money lost on each 360.
Finally, Sony has done a much better job at "screwing over Sony" than Micrsoft could ever have done. It was Sony that broke its promises repeated about launch dates, allocations, and Europe. It was Sony that continually annoyed the press with their lack of information while their executives kept making horribly arrogant and/or insane statements. And Sony's behavior continues to reap sweet rewards for Microsoft. PS3 developers have been forced to delay their games, remove online content (because not even Sony knows how their online service works yet!), or make previously PS3 exclusive titles multi-platform. This last one is perhaps the biggest blow to the PS3. Initial previews of games show that there's not a whole lot of difference - if any - between the PS3 and 360 for multiplatform games. This really means the exclusive libraries of the consoles is going to be more important than ever.
While that is true, Microsoft also said to expect aprice drop once a year.
Granted, Microsoft probably eliminated that spokesperson for the same reasons you mention above, and this was also long before Sony did such an effective job at making the PS3 lanch virtually non-event for 2006.
I know that Sony is trying for a repeat of their PS2 strategy, where they made the PS2 the cheapest DVD player on the market when it released in Japan. While that worked for DVD, I think Sony is seriously deluding themselves that people are going to buy the PS3 just to get a "cheap" blu-ray player.
Let's see, first of all, at best the penetration of HDTV is at 25%.
Second, the PS3 is not launching with an actual remote for Blu-Ray playback. While I assume you'll be able to use the PS3 controller as a remote as you could with the PS2, it's less than adequate.
Third, the PS2's DVD playback ability was totally slammed by the A/V crowd - the same demographic that owns a HDTV. While the playback feature of the PS2 worked, it was outdone by all stand-alone player on the market. In short, no one, at least in the US, is going to take the PS3 seriously as a Blu-Ray player.
Finally, there's still HD-DVD. Even if you ignore the fact that HD-DVD players are cheaper than the PS3, many consumers do not want to make a choice in a media war.
I don't think we'll see any significant sales of HD movie players until one of the following happens:
1: One format dies. No one wants to repeat VHS vs. Beta. One of the reasons DVD was adopted so quickly as that there was only 1 format - unlike the DVD+/-R, or VHS/Beta messes.
2: An INEXPENSIVE multi-format player comes out. There's been R&D poured into creating a drive capable of handling both Blu-Ray, HD-DVD and everything DVD and CD can offer. However such drives have proven to be quite expensive.
That isn't the issue. Sony has the capacity. What they lack is are Blu-Ray drive components - specifically the laser diode. I'm sure Sony could produce at least 2, maybe 3 times their current rate, but if you're lacking a part, that's going to bottleneck the whole operation. The same thing happend with the PS2 and the 360 - both suffered initially from poor yields on their CPU, which ended up severely restricting the initial shipments.
Remember, Sony was originally planning to ship around 2 million (down from 6 million!) PS3s worldwide before December 31 of this year. They clearly had the assembly capacity planned.
The DMCA outlaws any and all types of modification - regardless of the purpose or audience - that requires reverse engineering, decompilation or other forms of hacking.
Heck, just dumping a save file into a binary editor is a violation of the DMCA.
While I can understand the idea behind giving extra perks to Gold members, this seems like an odd item to start out with. I would think giving Gold members access to unique downloads for games, or maybe even discounting such pay-for-download items would be a good way to start. But making an ad a "premium exclusive"?
After all, this means that you will have to pay in order to see an ad. I don't care what the ad is for - it's still an ad.
Then again, Sony's online plan will require you to pay to download demos - another boneheaded move in my opinion. But perhaps Microsoft is taking the cue from Sony, figuring if Sony can charge for content, why can't Live do the same thing?
But the REAL question here is, is Rockstar/Take Two and/or the ESRB, responsible for mis-labeling a game based on hidden content that's legally inaccessible?
The only way to access the sex scenes is to hack the game - and that's illegal thanks to the DMCA.
Most companies want employees who are "Microsoft dependent" - not "computer literate" - there's a difference.
Try telling your local temp agency that you don't know MSWord, but you know OpenOffice. Bzzt. Sorry, the buzzwords don't match. You obviously don't know word processing because you don't use MSWord. (and yes, for these people, there IS no other word processor!)
Same thing with "Outlook Express" - "Thunderbird" will not suffice, nor will Mozilla/Firefox for IE. The recruiter (and the hiring company) will assume that you do not know how to use a computer unless you say things like "MSWord", "IE", "Excel", etc.
Being computer literate means you understand the basic operation of a "spreedsheet", "word processor", etc. But this makes you overqualified and unsuitable for most of the jobs that "80% of companies" you speak of are looking for.
I've had this happen to me all too frequently. Someone asked how I would do something in a webpage, so I wrote out some HTML. The interviewer got a completely horrified look on his face. Apparentally he was (literally!) expecting me to say "I'd open up 'FrontPage', go to Insert Object..." When I told him I didn't use FrontPage, that I used vi or some other plaintext editor, he looked at me as if I were some sort of horrible demon. The very thought that you could do something without using a Microsoft product wasn't just unknown to him - it was completely repugnent.
That's partially true, but you have to also remember that Sony is the 300lb gorilla here. Well, OK, maybe not 300lbs anymore after their various screwups, but they're still seen by most people and casual gamers (ie. NO ONE HERE) as the market leader. Just based on that alone, Sony might be able to retain enough exclusive titles to once again be the leader this generation.
At any rate, I don't think we'll see Sony utterly dominating the market as decisively as they did with the PS2. And any sort of goodwill Sony has left after their performances with the press and tradeshows is gone. If Sony expects to stay in this market they're going to have to really knock gamers' socks off with the PS4.
Yes, I remember the brouhaha over D&D - my parents even made me watch 'Monsters & Mazes' with them when it was "movie of the week" (ugh).
I also remember when albums started putting those "warning" stickers on the cover, which simply resulted in those albums selling more copies than before. (imagine that)
I agree that Bully (and Rockstar) will benefit from all this stupidity, however it's going to be a bit hard to compare the sales of Bully vs. Table Tennis. Bully is only for the PS2, whereas Table Tennis is only for the 360 - and last time I checked, there's still something like 30-40x as many PS2s vs. 360s out there in the world.
The buzzword game goes both ways, unfortunatly. When I was in college, the common strategy was to load your resume with as many buzzwords as possible - mainly because your average college student is going to be light on real-world experience. But this allowed you to quickly find out which companies simply used an OCR system, and who was actually using a knowledgable human.
I have met many recruiters who actually do know a thing or two about the field they're dealing with, and also try to do some due dilligence of their own before presenting a candidate to a company. Unfortunatly, these people are outnumbered by their incompetent brethern who are little more than buzzword scanners wrapped in skin.
No surprises here - knowledgable humans have a much better track record with both employers and candidates.
The representatives of DICE (the developers, EA is the publisher) have now clarified on the forums that it only records what ads you look at and for how long you look at them - it does not monitor your browsing habits, your cookies, or your hard drive.
So how does this work? I may load the page, but I don't read or look at the ads. I always make adjust my window so that the number of visible ads is minimized. If I spend 5 minutes reading a news article that has 10 ads on it, does this mean I've "looked at" those ads for 5 minutes?
That's pretty nasty - and stupid. I hope you managed to get word somehow to a manager or better yet, a VP. While it won't really get you a job (as if you'd want to work for such a screwed up organization!) at least you might get some vindication.
It's been my general experience that the recruiting arm of HR is designed to keep people *out* of an organization.
While preparing to graduate from college, I was doing a number of interviews. I tried getting a job at the company I'd just done a co-op at, but the recruiter told me they weren't hiring. About a month after I'd found a job elsewhere, someone called asking if I'd be interested in coming back, full-time. When I told him what had happend with the recruiter, he simply said "Oh...DID she now?" before wishing me luck on my new job and hanging up.
At another company I interviewed with, I was told by the HR recruiter that since I was a CS major, I could only apply for their application development department. When I tried to explain that I had already been offered an interview with their OS/Network developer group, she said "Why would you want to do 'boring' work like that? You really want to be an application developer." I should have just walked out right there, but I kept asking everyone to PLEASE put me in touch with the other group. At the end of the day, I met with the VP who was very confused that I was seeing him - instead of going out with the other group for dinner. When I explained what had happend, he got very sad and upset. We both knew there really wasn't much for him to do other than apologize, and show me to the door. He made sure, however, that I heard him ask his receptionist to get the recruiter in his office NOW.
No, the real end of piracy will be when the companies make such lame products, no one wants to even bother pirating them any more.
I know I've been just about driven off from any mainstream PC game (eg. those you find in stores) due to their increasing DRM and other stupid restrictions. Indie stuff is still cool, but the majority of my gaming is now on consoles where I'm not punished by companies for buying legit copies of games.
I guess PC gaming wasn't dying quick enough, so companies like Ubisoft and EA decided to help kill the market faster.
Maybe Microsoft is hoping to play Good Cop/Bad Cop with Vista.
Step 1: Release a horribly restrictive piece of garbage Step 2: React in mock horror as the market spurns you. Step 3: Publically fire the scapegoat responsible. Step 4: Release a much "friendlier" OS to get people to like you again, bring them back. Step 5: Close your iron fist! Bind them to your will! PROFIT! Step 6: Laugh maniacally.
I think you and I both know that calling Super Mario 2 a RPG is really stretchin things, but still, point taken.
While computer games - by definition - have to be fairly constrained, some are more constrained than others.
If you compared Oblivion to, say, Final Fantasy 8, you'd say that Oblivion has a seemingly infinite amount of freedom. In FF8, you're handed your character - an angsty teenage boy who cares about nothing. If you were to TRULY play him that way, you'd simply leave him in his bed. Of course, the game won't let you do that and forces him(you) through the rest of the story. In Oblivion, you have a great deal more freedom. You can run amok through the world ignoring any sort of larger story or quest. You can work to just be a good villager somewhere, or perhaps, be a bandit. Granted, your options are still heavily restricted. You can't, for instance, teach your character to build a rocket ship to go to the moon - the game just doesn't know about that sort of thing.
As for your Romeo example, I guess the true difference I'm getting at is that a J-RPG is like Romeo & Juliet, whereas Obvlion is more like attending a Ren-Faire. You have a much greater degree of freedom in terms of who you interact with, and how, but you're still limited to what exists in the Faire. You can talk to any character in the Faire, but their responses are still going to be fairly limited - especially if you try to go on about that rocketship idea of yours... On the other hand, if you wish to quest to become King, then they'll be more talkative.
If you would look at Spamhaus' website, you'd see they have documented procedures on how networks get listed - AND - delisted. Their list is also a lot more sophisticated than simply saying "Everyone here is a spammer".
Of course, this means nothing until an individual mail admin decides to make decisions - ON HIS SYSTEMS - about what mail to accept or reject.
The first problem is that *legitimate* users - the ones who actually BUY the games - are being inconvienced by these stupid copy protection/DRM schemes. This is tantamount to the publisher calling their customers THIEVES - until they prove otherwise.
The second problem here is that all of this garbage only solves the smallest segment of the pirate problem - that of people making copies of games for their friends. It does nothing to attack the problem of online cracks/ISOs, nor does it do anything to attack the big profitable pirate presses overseas. You know the ones - they run those little stalls all over places like China and Malaysia where you can get software, DVD movies, games, etc. for about US$5-7/disc.
In the meantime, the honest user is stuck with an inferior product that may even damage his hardware! That's a heck of a way to say "thank you" to a paying customer. Throw in the fact that most stores won't take back opened PC software, and the of rape of the consumer is complete.
I'm all for supporting the artists/programmers, but it's getting harder and harder to justify when doing the "right" thing causes so many problems. If things don't lighten up soon, it seems to me that the best suggestion is going to be "don't pirate, but don't buy anything either."
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I live in California where the stores must - by law - display these huge 5 foot displays explaining the ESRB. This is in addition to the flyers, postcards, and other propaganda that decorates the video game aisles. You don't see anything like that over in the DVD movie section. Despite the 1 foot tall rating letters and the 50 point bold font explaining what "M" means, I still see kids handing GTA or other violent games to their parents, who just drop it into their basket without even looking at the box.
Then again, how many young kids did you see in the theater with you, late on a school night, to see the latest R-rated slasher movie?
Clearly the problem isn't with the rating system(s) but with the idiotic parents who are continually making these decisions that GTA is a great game for their 7 year old after watching Saw III...
Seriously, what happend to parental responsibility?
--
http://www.netwinner.com/?signupCode=amuro98
You have to remember it's almost time for the annual holiday shopping craze. Dropping the price on the 360 won't really help sales one way or another. Besides, Microsoft already has the "Core" unit at $300 - half of what that high-end PS3 you won't find in stores will sell at.
You also have to remember that the PS3 isn't going to be in stock anywhere. It's going to be the PS2 and the 360 all over again. And with such small numbers, it's not going to put a dent in Microsoft or Nintendo's sales.
The longer Microsoft can go without dropping their price will give them more time to sell their improved hardware (which is cheaper to produce) at the full MSRP. This will help them recoup the money lost on each 360.
Finally, Sony has done a much better job at "screwing over Sony" than Micrsoft could ever have done. It was Sony that broke its promises repeated about launch dates, allocations, and Europe. It was Sony that continually annoyed the press with their lack of information while their executives kept making horribly arrogant and/or insane statements. And Sony's behavior continues to reap sweet rewards for Microsoft. PS3 developers have been forced to delay their games, remove online content (because not even Sony knows how their online service works yet!), or make previously PS3 exclusive titles multi-platform. This last one is perhaps the biggest blow to the PS3. Initial previews of games show that there's not a whole lot of difference - if any - between the PS3 and 360 for multiplatform games. This really means the exclusive libraries of the consoles is going to be more important than ever.
While that is true, Microsoft also said to expect aprice drop once a year.
Granted, Microsoft probably eliminated that spokesperson for the same reasons you mention above, and this was also long before Sony did such an effective job at making the PS3 lanch virtually non-event for 2006.
I know that Sony is trying for a repeat of their PS2 strategy, where they made the PS2 the cheapest DVD player on the market when it released in Japan. While that worked for DVD, I think Sony is seriously deluding themselves that people are going to buy the PS3 just to get a "cheap" blu-ray player.
Let's see, first of all, at best the penetration of HDTV is at 25%.
Second, the PS3 is not launching with an actual remote for Blu-Ray playback. While I assume you'll be able to use the PS3 controller as a remote as you could with the PS2, it's less than adequate.
Third, the PS2's DVD playback ability was totally slammed by the A/V crowd - the same demographic that owns a HDTV. While the playback feature of the PS2 worked, it was outdone by all stand-alone player on the market. In short, no one, at least in the US, is going to take the PS3 seriously as a Blu-Ray player.
Finally, there's still HD-DVD. Even if you ignore the fact that HD-DVD players are cheaper than the PS3, many consumers do not want to make a choice in a media war.
I don't think we'll see any significant sales of HD movie players until one of the following happens:
1: One format dies. No one wants to repeat VHS vs. Beta. One of the reasons DVD was adopted so quickly as that there was only 1 format - unlike the DVD+/-R, or VHS/Beta messes.
2: An INEXPENSIVE multi-format player comes out. There's been R&D poured into creating a drive capable of handling both Blu-Ray, HD-DVD and everything DVD and CD can offer. However such drives have proven to be quite expensive.
That isn't the issue. Sony has the capacity. What they lack is are Blu-Ray drive components - specifically the laser diode. I'm sure Sony could produce at least 2, maybe 3 times their current rate, but if you're lacking a part, that's going to bottleneck the whole operation. The same thing happend with the PS2 and the 360 - both suffered initially from poor yields on their CPU, which ended up severely restricting the initial shipments.
Remember, Sony was originally planning to ship around 2 million (down from 6 million!) PS3s worldwide before December 31 of this year. They clearly had the assembly capacity planned.
There is no confusion about the number of units available - everyone knows it's going to be tiny.
Ergo, the number of preorders should also be tiny.
I wish it was that way, but no.
The DMCA outlaws any and all types of modification - regardless of the purpose or audience - that requires reverse engineering, decompilation or other forms of hacking.
Heck, just dumping a save file into a binary editor is a violation of the DMCA.
(enforcement is another matter...)
While I can understand the idea behind giving extra perks to Gold members, this seems like an odd item to start out with. I would think giving Gold members access to unique downloads for games, or maybe even discounting such pay-for-download items would be a good way to start. But making an ad a "premium exclusive"?
After all, this means that you will have to pay in order to see an ad. I don't care what the ad is for - it's still an ad.
Then again, Sony's online plan will require you to pay to download demos - another boneheaded move in my opinion. But perhaps Microsoft is taking the cue from Sony, figuring if Sony can charge for content, why can't Live do the same thing?
But the REAL question here is, is Rockstar/Take Two and/or the ESRB, responsible for mis-labeling a game based on hidden content that's legally inaccessible?
The only way to access the sex scenes is to hack the game - and that's illegal thanks to the DMCA.
So, they're still being sued...over questionable content...that you can't access...unless you violate the DMCA...?
Why hasn't Rockstar/Take Two launched counter-suits against people who have used the Hot Coffee hack and are outraged by it?
Most companies want employees who are "Microsoft dependent" - not "computer literate" - there's a difference.
Try telling your local temp agency that you don't know MSWord, but you know OpenOffice. Bzzt. Sorry, the buzzwords don't match. You obviously don't know word processing because you don't use MSWord. (and yes, for these people, there IS no other word processor!)
Same thing with "Outlook Express" - "Thunderbird" will not suffice, nor will Mozilla/Firefox for IE. The recruiter (and the hiring company) will assume that you do not know how to use a computer unless you say things like "MSWord", "IE", "Excel", etc.
Being computer literate means you understand the basic operation of a "spreedsheet", "word processor", etc. But this makes you overqualified and unsuitable for most of the jobs that "80% of companies" you speak of are looking for.
I've had this happen to me all too frequently. Someone asked how I would do something in a webpage, so I wrote out some HTML. The interviewer got a completely horrified look on his face. Apparentally he was (literally!) expecting me to say "I'd open up 'FrontPage', go to Insert Object..." When I told him I didn't use FrontPage, that I used vi or some other plaintext editor, he looked at me as if I were some sort of horrible demon. The very thought that you could do something without using a Microsoft product wasn't just unknown to him - it was completely repugnent.
That's partially true, but you have to also remember that Sony is the 300lb gorilla here. Well, OK, maybe not 300lbs anymore after their various screwups, but they're still seen by most people and casual gamers (ie. NO ONE HERE) as the market leader. Just based on that alone, Sony might be able to retain enough exclusive titles to once again be the leader this generation.
At any rate, I don't think we'll see Sony utterly dominating the market as decisively as they did with the PS2. And any sort of goodwill Sony has left after their performances with the press and tradeshows is gone. If Sony expects to stay in this market they're going to have to really knock gamers' socks off with the PS4.
Yes, I remember the brouhaha over D&D - my parents even made me watch 'Monsters & Mazes' with them when it was "movie of the week" (ugh).
I also remember when albums started putting those "warning" stickers on the cover, which simply resulted in those albums selling more copies than before. (imagine that)
I agree that Bully (and Rockstar) will benefit from all this stupidity, however it's going to be a bit hard to compare the sales of Bully vs. Table Tennis. Bully is only for the PS2, whereas Table Tennis is only for the 360 - and last time I checked, there's still something like 30-40x as many PS2s vs. 360s out there in the world.
The buzzword game goes both ways, unfortunatly. When I was in college, the common strategy was to load your resume with as many buzzwords as possible - mainly because your average college student is going to be light on real-world experience. But this allowed you to quickly find out which companies simply used an OCR system, and who was actually using a knowledgable human.
I have met many recruiters who actually do know a thing or two about the field they're dealing with, and also try to do some due dilligence of their own before presenting a candidate to a company. Unfortunatly, these people are outnumbered by their incompetent brethern who are little more than buzzword scanners wrapped in skin.
No surprises here - knowledgable humans have a much better track record with both employers and candidates.
The representatives of DICE (the developers, EA is the publisher) have now clarified on the forums that it only records what ads you look at and for how long you look at them - it does not monitor your browsing habits, your cookies, or your hard drive.
So how does this work? I may load the page, but I don't read or look at the ads. I always make adjust my window so that the number of visible ads is minimized. If I spend 5 minutes reading a news article that has 10 ads on it, does this mean I've "looked at" those ads for 5 minutes?
Oh, please. Sports games existed even before you had exclusive contracts and all that.
Not that it's helped EA at all. Their new Madden game is exactly like last year's model, but people still buy millions of copies.
There's nothing stopping someone from making a good football game. The only thing they can't use is any NFL-ish stuff.
That's pretty nasty - and stupid. I hope you managed to get word somehow to a manager or better yet, a VP. While it won't really get you a job (as if you'd want to work for such a screwed up organization!) at least you might get some vindication.
It's been my general experience that the recruiting arm of HR is designed to keep people *out* of an organization.
While preparing to graduate from college, I was doing a number of interviews. I tried getting a job at the company I'd just done a co-op at, but the recruiter told me they weren't hiring. About a month after I'd found a job elsewhere, someone called asking if I'd be interested in coming back, full-time. When I told him what had happend with the recruiter, he simply said "Oh...DID she now?" before wishing me luck on my new job and hanging up.
At another company I interviewed with, I was told by the HR recruiter that since I was a CS major, I could only apply for their application development department. When I tried to explain that I had already been offered an interview with their OS/Network developer group, she said "Why would you want to do 'boring' work like that? You really want to be an application developer." I should have just walked out right there, but I kept asking everyone to PLEASE put me in touch with the other group. At the end of the day, I met with the VP who was very confused that I was seeing him - instead of going out with the other group for dinner. When I explained what had happend, he got very sad and upset. We both knew there really wasn't much for him to do other than apologize, and show me to the door. He made sure, however, that I heard him ask his receptionist to get the recruiter in his office NOW.
No, the real end of piracy will be when the companies make such lame products, no one wants to even bother pirating them any more.
I know I've been just about driven off from any mainstream PC game (eg. those you find in stores) due to their increasing DRM and other stupid restrictions. Indie stuff is still cool, but the majority of my gaming is now on consoles where I'm not punished by companies for buying legit copies of games.
I guess PC gaming wasn't dying quick enough, so companies like Ubisoft and EA decided to help kill the market faster.
Yeah, and then the chinese ex-WoW-Gold-farmers would start spewing spam offering to "surf you long time" to drive up your score.
LOL.
"New from Microsoft, it's 'XP-2' - Going back to when OS's didn't suck."
Maybe Microsoft is hoping to play Good Cop/Bad Cop with Vista.
Step 1: Release a horribly restrictive piece of garbage
Step 2: React in mock horror as the market spurns you.
Step 3: Publically fire the scapegoat responsible.
Step 4: Release a much "friendlier" OS to get people to like you again, bring them back.
Step 5: Close your iron fist! Bind them to your will! PROFIT!
Step 6: Laugh maniacally.
Well, they can say whatever they want to in their EULA. Enforcing it, is another matter altogether.
At any rate, more restrictions == more reasons to avoid Vista altogether.
Seriously, other than trying to force gamers to upgrade with their lame "DX10 won't work on XP" excuse, is there ANY reason to even consider Vista?
And if Vista is going to cost so much, why not just buy a game console for the same price and less hassles? Way to go Microsoft!
I think you and I both know that calling Super Mario 2 a RPG is really stretchin things, but still, point taken.
While computer games - by definition - have to be fairly constrained, some are more constrained than others.
If you compared Oblivion to, say, Final Fantasy 8, you'd say that Oblivion has a seemingly infinite amount of freedom. In FF8, you're handed your character - an angsty teenage boy who cares about nothing. If you were to TRULY play him that way, you'd simply leave him in his bed. Of course, the game won't let you do that and forces him(you) through the rest of the story. In Oblivion, you have a great deal more freedom. You can run amok through the world ignoring any sort of larger story or quest. You can work to just be a good villager somewhere, or perhaps, be a bandit. Granted, your options are still heavily restricted. You can't, for instance, teach your character to build a rocket ship to go to the moon - the game just doesn't know about that sort of thing.
As for your Romeo example, I guess the true difference I'm getting at is that a J-RPG is like Romeo & Juliet, whereas Obvlion is more like attending a Ren-Faire. You have a much greater degree of freedom in terms of who you interact with, and how, but you're still limited to what exists in the Faire. You can talk to any character in the Faire, but their responses are still going to be fairly limited - especially if you try to go on about that rocketship idea of yours... On the other hand, if you wish to quest to become King, then they'll be more talkative.
If you would look at Spamhaus' website, you'd see they have documented procedures on how networks get listed - AND - delisted. Their list is also a lot more sophisticated than simply saying "Everyone here is a spammer".
Of course, this means nothing until an individual mail admin decides to make decisions - ON HIS SYSTEMS - about what mail to accept or reject.
The article misses the real problems here.
The first problem is that *legitimate* users - the ones who actually BUY the games - are being inconvienced by these stupid copy protection/DRM schemes. This is tantamount to the publisher calling their customers THIEVES - until they prove otherwise.
The second problem here is that all of this garbage only solves the smallest segment of the pirate problem - that of people making copies of games for their friends. It does nothing to attack the problem of online cracks/ISOs, nor does it do anything to attack the big profitable pirate presses overseas. You know the ones - they run those little stalls all over places like China and Malaysia where you can get software, DVD movies, games, etc. for about US$5-7/disc.
In the meantime, the honest user is stuck with an inferior product that may even damage his hardware! That's a heck of a way to say "thank you" to a paying customer. Throw in the fact that most stores won't take back opened PC software, and the of rape of the consumer is complete.
I'm all for supporting the artists/programmers, but it's getting harder and harder to justify when doing the "right" thing causes so many problems. If things don't lighten up soon, it seems to me that the best suggestion is going to be "don't pirate, but don't buy anything either."