Under Bush we all got "Stimulus checks" redistribution of wealth, we "nationalized banks", we "nationalized insurance companies", we "nationalized brokerage houses", and we gave trillions in welfare to Iraq...
And now you're worried about socialism?
Welcome to last year.
I get it. I've been banned from games for complaining about a company allowing volunteers to see everyone's personal information (name, address, phone numbers, the whole account less the CC number) on game accounts.
Yes, I was a volunteer... What does SOE care? They don't.
Unless you know them personally, never ever interact with game company representatives.
There are no criteria for banning people only impressions and opinions.
Avoid game operators and customer service like the plague or suffer the consequences when you complain about poor service.
There will be poor service. Oh yes, there will be poor service. EA is laying off another 800 people.
"It's simply not realistic to expect a game with the complexity of a MMO to be entirely bug free."
Complexity? Cleaning drinking water is more complex than a MMO and clean water costs a lot less to make too.
I wish I were kidding.
You take clean water for granted and worship MMO games... Therefore you're trying to say that making a God Damn game must be the hardest thing in the whole world to do!
Well, it's just not true. Accounting software? Ever even noticed? Taken for granted is it?
Game designers and programmers are considered lazy bums by true software professionals.
Meanwhile the real programmers will keep your bank, hospital, police and every other essential service you take for granted running bug free and we might even occasionally mock the "pretty boys" of programing once in a while, because they're skills are a God Damned joke.
The truth is a few hundred thousand Americans are going to wake up someday and be very, very sad about how they've spent years of their lives.
Call it flame bait all you want kids. The truth is the truth, games like World of Warcraft are soul sucking black holes of regret.
Does anyone still play this game? I would have thought most players would have grown up and left school by now. Life gets in the way. Or perhaps WOW has destroyed many lives!
Personally I think games like WOW make it easier for the rest of us to get jobs.
If you were looking for a job at McDonald's, maybe?
I kind of doubt that is even a viable option. There is no "I play a little." with these games.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HicElm2PIGQ
well...
19.99 + 29.99 + 29.99 = 79.97
so that gets you WoW, WoW:BC, WoW:WOTLK
November 23, 2004 - November 23, 2008
@14.99 per mon = 719.52 for 4 years
$799.49 grand total.
Yeah, I mean that's a totally reasonable price for 1 game and 2 expansions.... or not.
The truth! It burns!
Your comment will of course be followed up by the following comments:
"It's cheaper than *.*"
Blizzard. Stealing the human soul four years running and mankind is still blissfully unaware! MUHAHAHAHA!/slurping sound of creature eating human eyes
Just think of how pathetically sad it would be if there was a insanely long uncut movie of your retarded ass sitting there for day after day after day after day wasting your useless life away in front of the absolute bottom of the barrel/mass market/Brittany Spears of MMORPGs, WoW.
"A contract in which only one side is getting value lacks consideration and is legally invalid."
That was a true statement up until about twenty years ago. Now all one side has to do is show "intent of good will" and they do not have to provide anything at all, even when they actually possess the ability to provide the service.
And you can't sue. You go to arbitration which does not hold the same legal view of a contract that a court of law does.
"6. Termination. This License Agreement is effective until terminated. You may terminate the License Agreement at any time by (i) permanently destroying all copies of the Game in your possession or control; (ii) removing the Game Client from your hard drive; and (iii) notifying Blizzard of your intention to terminate this License Agreement. Blizzard may terminate this Agreement at any time for any reason or no reason. In such event, you must immediately and permanently destroy all copies of the Game in your possession and control and remove the Game Client from your hard drive. Upon termination of this Agreement for any reason, all licenses granted herein shall immediately terminate. "
You really should go read that EULA because it is everything I said it was and in fact it is more...
This little line right here:
"b. Binding Arbitration. If you and Blizzard are unable to resolve a Dispute through informal negotiations, either you or Blizzard may elect to have the Dispute (except those Disputes expressly excluded below) finally and exclusively resolved by binding arbitration. Any election to arbitrate by one party shall be final and binding on the other. YOU UNDERSTAND THAT ABSENT THIS PROVISION, YOU WOULD HAVE THE RIGHT TO SUE IN COURT AND HAVE A JURY TRIAL. The arbitration shall be commenced and conducted under the Commercial Arbitration Rules of the American Arbitration Association ("AAA") and, where appropriate, the AAA s Supplementary Procedures for Consumer Related Disputes ("AAA Consumer Rules"), both of which are available that the AAA website www.adr.org. The determination of whether a Dispute is subject to arbitration shall be governed by the Federal Arbitration Act and determined by a court rather than an arbitrator. Your arbitration fees and your share of arbitrator compensation shall be governed by the AAA Rules and, where appropriate, limited by the AAA Consumer Rules. If such costs are determined by the arbitrator to be excessive, Blizzard will pay all arbitration fees and expenses. The arbitration may be conducted in person, through the submission of documents, by phone or online. The arbitrator will make a decision in writing, but need not provide a statement of reasons unless requested by a party. The arbitrator must follow applicable law, and any award may be challenged if the arbitrator fails to do so. Except as otherwise provided in this License Agreement, you and Blizzard may litigate in court to compel arbitration, stay proceeding pending arbitration, or to confirm, modify, vacate or enter judgment on the award entered by the arbitrator."
The above means you can't use Blizzard for anything ever and but they can sue you for literally anything, any time.
If you were to go to http://www.adr.org/ as Blizzard Recommends, you'd see this:
Additional AAA services include the design and development of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) systems for corporations, unions, government agencies, law firms, and the courts. The Association also provides elections services as well as education, training, and publications for those seeking a broader or deeper understanding of alternative dispute resolution.
Because they are far more draconian than At&T's ever was.
Just saying, most Game Company EULAs actually state that you don't even get a service in return for your payments and that your payments are non-refundable and you have no expectations of privacy and your computer is for all intents and purposes the property of the gaming company for as long as their software resides on your computer...
Your RAM is actually Blizzards. You have no right to sue. You have no right to a refund. You have no right to class action. You have no right to communicate to anyone about what Blizzard communicates to you. Because, it is all copyright. That is a huge legal determination.
This brings us back to the topic at hand, AT&T.
Because in all honesty, "waive the right to class actions, require confidentiality, shorten the Washington Consumer Protection Act statute of limitations, and limit availability of attorney fees." these things have already been ruled as legal in several gaming company cases and RIAA cases (which for brevity I did not touch on).
To tell AT&T (and every other company on the planet)that they are breaking the law because they are not using copyright as the rational for their arguments makes absolutely no legal sense whatsoever.
Because the end result is that all company claims against their consumers will be twisted in to copyright claims and therefore automatically upheld...
The biggest effect of being stoned is the ability to not over react to difficult situations and the enhanced ability to remain calm and be decisive.
At least for me, being being stoned keeps me calm and sure of my decisions. Both are keys to victory.
These games (not just W.O.W.) are meant to be addictive.
The sole purpose of these games is to get as many people paying $15 a month as possible.
People talk about "friends" keeping them in these games but what really keeps them in the game is the Skinner Box effect.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinner_box
A great many people get seriously angry when the comparison to Skinner Boxes is made but the truth is there are MMRPGs that do not use the Skinner Box System (Guild Wars is one) because they are not monthly fee based and they are not nearly as successful as games that do use the Skinner Box effect (W.O.W. does use the Skinner Box system).
It isn't about friends or story lines or anything at all, except an addictive rewards system.
Consumer fear and intimidation.
Because, Kenneth Doroshow would gladly have people tortured and then publicly executed for downloading a single copyrighted song, if that's what the law allowed.
Now he gets to go after them evil 14 year-old gaming pirates!
Kenneth has no ethics or morals or sense of justice, he's a vile, evil, hateful, vengeful and petty little man.
You have to give up a substantial portion of your life to play the damn things and enjoy it.
The organization required to do high end things requires time. The grind to the high end requires time. It's like a hamster wheel. Sure the Hamster enjoys running on his wheel but everyone knows he's not going anywhere or accomplishing anything.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States
Compared to what half of the house hold's in this country make, $48,201.00. A catastrophic or chronic illness is of course the leading cause of bankruptcy. http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/bankruptcy_study.html
I don't think thinning the "insurable herd" with some "illness score" is going to solve any problem but one... Making insurance companies wealthier.
We are so close to a civil revolution in so many ways... This kind of data gathering is just one more step in the direction of anarchy. Equal and oppiset and all that.
Slashdot Mirror
Oh, people can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. 14% of people know that.
On the bottom of the ocean. What do you call that? A good start.
Because users are installing Windows XP printer drivers on Vista machines.
Work with Vista and users long enough and you'll hate both too.
If Vista took three years to boot it wouldn't be long enough.
Under Bush we all got "Stimulus checks" redistribution of wealth, we "nationalized banks", we "nationalized insurance companies", we "nationalized brokerage houses", and we gave trillions in welfare to Iraq...
And now you're worried about socialism? Welcome to last year.
I get it. I've been banned from games for complaining about a company allowing volunteers to see everyone's personal information (name, address, phone numbers, the whole account less the CC number) on game accounts. Yes, I was a volunteer... What does SOE care? They don't.
He wasn't a volunteer he is a PAID employee. I hope he's one of the 800 let go during the next round of lay offs.
Unless you know them personally, never ever interact with game company representatives. There are no criteria for banning people only impressions and opinions. Avoid game operators and customer service like the plague or suffer the consequences when you complain about poor service. There will be poor service. Oh yes, there will be poor service. EA is laying off another 800 people.
Clean water, by the way, is a simple matter of pouring it through activated charcoal.
http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/wwvisit.html
Because, you're going to drink it again.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_supply_network
"It's simply not realistic to expect a game with the complexity of a MMO to be entirely bug free."
Complexity? Cleaning drinking water is more complex than a MMO and clean water costs a lot less to make too.
I wish I were kidding.
You take clean water for granted and worship MMO games... Therefore you're trying to say that making a God Damn game must be the hardest thing in the whole world to do!
Well, it's just not true. Accounting software? Ever even noticed? Taken for granted is it?
Game designers and programmers are considered lazy bums by true software professionals.
Meanwhile the real programmers will keep your bank, hospital, police and every other essential service you take for granted running bug free and we might even occasionally mock the "pretty boys" of programing once in a while, because they're skills are a God Damned joke.
This type of behavior is required and expected.
How many Viagra's are there now? Five?
How many Statins are there now? Six?
How many SRIs are there now? Six?
Sorry, couldn't resist the irony of this being a Federal Gubment thing and the FDA is the Feds.
Shouldn't these "other game" post just stop? W.o.W. Dot needs to focus on W.o.W..
Old patch notes get +5 Informative ratings? Fuck /. let's just start calling is WoWDot
The truth is a few hundred thousand Americans are going to wake up someday and be very, very sad about how they've spent years of their lives. Call it flame bait all you want kids. The truth is the truth, games like World of Warcraft are soul sucking black holes of regret.
Does anyone still play this game? I would have thought most players would have grown up and left school by now. Life gets in the way. Or perhaps WOW has destroyed many lives!
Personally I think games like WOW make it easier for the rest of us to get jobs.
If you were looking for a job at McDonald's, maybe? I kind of doubt that is even a viable option. There is no "I play a little." with these games. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HicElm2PIGQ
well... 19.99 + 29.99 + 29.99 = 79.97 so that gets you WoW, WoW:BC, WoW:WOTLK November 23, 2004 - November 23, 2008 @14.99 per mon = 719.52 for 4 years $799.49 grand total. Yeah, I mean that's a totally reasonable price for 1 game and 2 expansions.... or not.
The truth! It burns! Your comment will of course be followed up by the following comments: "It's cheaper than *.*" Blizzard. Stealing the human soul four years running and mankind is still blissfully unaware! MUHAHAHAHA! /slurping sound of creature eating human eyes
"On that note, I'm a total fucking loser."
Fixed that for you.
Just think of how pathetically sad it would be if there was a insanely long uncut movie of your retarded ass sitting there for day after day after day after day wasting your useless life away in front of the absolute bottom of the barrel/mass market/Brittany Spears of MMORPGs, WoW.
LOL, loser.
Even with the hate, that was a damn good comment.
"A contract in which only one side is getting value lacks consideration and is legally invalid."
That was a true statement up until about twenty years ago. Now all one side has to do is show "intent of good will" and they do not have to provide anything at all, even when they actually possess the ability to provide the service.
And you can't sue. You go to arbitration which does not hold the same legal view of a contract that a court of law does.
The agreement has been upheld in arbitration numerous times. To bad none of that arbitration is public.
I quote from http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/eula.html
"6. Termination. This License Agreement is effective until terminated. You may terminate the License Agreement at any time by (i) permanently destroying all copies of the Game in your possession or control; (ii) removing the Game Client from your hard drive; and (iii) notifying Blizzard of your intention to terminate this License Agreement. Blizzard may terminate this Agreement at any time for any reason or no reason. In such event, you must immediately and permanently destroy all copies of the Game in your possession and control and remove the Game Client from your hard drive. Upon termination of this Agreement for any reason, all licenses granted herein shall immediately terminate. "
You really should go read that EULA because it is everything I said it was and in fact it is more...
This little line right here:
"b. Binding Arbitration. If you and Blizzard are unable to resolve a Dispute through informal negotiations, either you or Blizzard may elect to have the Dispute (except those Disputes expressly excluded below) finally and exclusively resolved by binding arbitration. Any election to arbitrate by one party shall be final and binding on the other. YOU UNDERSTAND THAT ABSENT THIS PROVISION, YOU WOULD HAVE THE RIGHT TO SUE IN COURT AND HAVE A JURY TRIAL. The arbitration shall be commenced and conducted under the Commercial Arbitration Rules of the American Arbitration Association ("AAA") and, where appropriate, the AAA s Supplementary Procedures for Consumer Related Disputes ("AAA Consumer Rules"), both of which are available that the AAA website www.adr.org. The determination of whether a Dispute is subject to arbitration shall be governed by the Federal Arbitration Act and determined by a court rather than an arbitrator. Your arbitration fees and your share of arbitrator compensation shall be governed by the AAA Rules and, where appropriate, limited by the AAA Consumer Rules. If such costs are determined by the arbitrator to be excessive, Blizzard will pay all arbitration fees and expenses. The arbitration may be conducted in person, through the submission of documents, by phone or online. The arbitrator will make a decision in writing, but need not provide a statement of reasons unless requested by a party. The arbitrator must follow applicable law, and any award may be challenged if the arbitrator fails to do so. Except as otherwise provided in this License Agreement, you and Blizzard may litigate in court to compel arbitration, stay proceeding pending arbitration, or to confirm, modify, vacate or enter judgment on the award entered by the arbitrator."
The above means you can't use Blizzard for anything ever and but they can sue you for literally anything, any time.
If you were to go to http://www.adr.org/ as Blizzard Recommends, you'd see this:
Additional AAA services include the design and development of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) systems for corporations, unions, government agencies, law firms, and the courts. The Association also provides elections services as well as education, training, and publications for those seeking a broader or deeper understanding of alternative dispute resolution.
Sounds great huh? Well just who is the AAA?
Never before has one sentence
Because they are far more draconian than At&T's ever was.
Just saying, most Game Company EULAs actually state that you don't even get a service in return for your payments and that your payments are non-refundable and you have no expectations of privacy and your computer is for all intents and purposes the property of the gaming company for as long as their software resides on your computer...
I wish I was making this up but as you can see here (the most popular online game in the world):
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/eula.html
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.shtml
I'm not. And as an even more negative note this EULA actually stood up in court of law.
http://virtuallyblind.com/2008/07/14/blizzard-wins-sj-mdy/
Your RAM is actually Blizzards. You have no right to sue. You have no right to a refund. You have no right to class action. You have no right to communicate to anyone about what Blizzard communicates to you. Because, it is all copyright. That is a huge legal determination.
This brings us back to the topic at hand, AT&T. Because in all honesty, "waive the right to class actions, require confidentiality, shorten the Washington Consumer Protection Act statute of limitations, and limit availability of attorney fees." these things have already been ruled as legal in several gaming company cases and RIAA cases (which for brevity I did not touch on).
To tell AT&T (and every other company on the planet)that they are breaking the law because they are not using copyright as the rational for their arguments makes absolutely no legal sense whatsoever.
Because the end result is that all company claims against their consumers will be twisted in to copyright claims and therefore automatically upheld...
I'm not sure where you get your stats from. Aren't you minimizing the main point?
The people who make MMRPGs want everyone who even tries the game to become addicted. Is that a true statement or not?
Some times the obvious need not be pointed out. This is one of those times.
The biggest effect of being stoned is the ability to not over react to difficult situations and the enhanced ability to remain calm and be decisive. At least for me, being being stoned keeps me calm and sure of my decisions. Both are keys to victory.
These games (not just W.O.W.) are meant to be addictive. The sole purpose of these games is to get as many people paying $15 a month as possible. People talk about "friends" keeping them in these games but what really keeps them in the game is the Skinner Box effect. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinner_box A great many people get seriously angry when the comparison to Skinner Boxes is made but the truth is there are MMRPGs that do not use the Skinner Box System (Guild Wars is one) because they are not monthly fee based and they are not nearly as successful as games that do use the Skinner Box effect (W.O.W. does use the Skinner Box system). It isn't about friends or story lines or anything at all, except an addictive rewards system.
Consumer fear and intimidation.
Because, Kenneth Doroshow would gladly have people tortured and then publicly executed for downloading a single copyrighted song, if that's what the law allowed.
Now he gets to go after them evil 14 year-old gaming pirates!
Kenneth has no ethics or morals or sense of justice, he's a vile, evil, hateful, vengeful and petty little man.
You have to give up a substantial portion of your life to play the damn things and enjoy it.
The organization required to do high end things requires time. The grind to the high end requires time. It's like a hamster wheel. Sure the Hamster enjoys running on his wheel but everyone knows he's not going anywhere or accomplishing anything.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States Compared to what half of the house hold's in this country make, $48,201.00. A catastrophic or chronic illness is of course the leading cause of bankruptcy. http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/bankruptcy_study.html I don't think thinning the "insurable herd" with some "illness score" is going to solve any problem but one... Making insurance companies wealthier. We are so close to a civil revolution in so many ways... This kind of data gathering is just one more step in the direction of anarchy. Equal and oppiset and all that.