There is no way such a licence could be attached after the fact- so, at the very least, snapster could still own every CD that now exists without such 'shrink wrap' restrictions.
Remember, if this is really something that can be done, used CD would work just as well as new ones (hows that for a slap in the RIAA's face?). If licenses went into effect tomorrow, used CD's would still be free of them.
I really think that the RIAA would have already tried some kind of shrink-wrap license if such a thing were really possible. Haven't they tried everything else? More legal changes would seem like the prefered response anyway.
What copyright infringement does is affect your potential for deriving profit from the information concerned.
Very true. But does any one else find this pretty silly? There are many ways of depriving the music industry of revenue.
Amazon and eBay deprive them of a great deal of revenue through online used-CD sales. Why buy a new CD when you can find a virtually new one for the same price? It happens all the time. Money changes hands all the time but the only people who see any of it are the sellers and the websites. I mean come on,
someone obviously wanted to buy a CD, and the producers and the artists never see a dime of it.
When the selection of used CD's was more sparse, this wasn't such an attractive way of buying but the web now makes it possible to deny a huge amount of revenue to producers even if people decide to stop sharing.
But where is the outrage? Well, there isn't any, of course, even though big dot-coms are making lots of money by taking food out of the mouths of Dr. Dre's kids.
It's all pretty arbitrary to me. File sharing is 'wrong' because it is illegal. Maybe it's time it wasn't. The people of this country have the same right to act in their own selfish self-intrest as the recording industry- and 50 million or so file-sharers is a pretty big voting bloc.
Companies exisiting for profit is the worst approach. They should exist for the customer. We should be their masters, not the other way around.
The customer IS the master, the problem is, they aren't the ONLY master of a business. A company needs money, and lots of it, to get started and keep going. This means investors and creditors, and unfortunately they expect something in return for the hassle of giving their money to someone else. You would too. Have a 401k? If they are going to give their hard-earned money to someone to piss away without profit, it usually goes to finding a cure for AIDS or something more useful than providing cheap laptops to middle-class schmucks.
That type of scruitiny is extremely counter-productive. Wall Street seems to be allergic to anything other than a steady-string of ever-increasing EPS. Real life doesn't work that way, synced to neat little three month periods. When a company makes a big investment in it's future it's going to be in the hole for a while until it really starts paying off. It looks shitty for EPS but it's the best thing for the company.
No one who puts money in a company (or works for one) would want their CEO's playing this kind of game. Think about it:
1. Cut company down to bone and say hell with the future. 2. See stock price soar with record EPS for a few years 3. Cash in options and get the hell out of there i.e. Profit!!!!!!!!!!!
Wall Street LOVES this game though. Of course, it's not too surprising. They (unlike you the employee or Warren the massive shareholder) can get the hell out with a phone call. People like this probably own a whole lot of YOUR company too. I really think that if there is one thing worse than leadership without accountablity, it's ownership without accountablity. You dont have to look far to find it.
Not to qibble, but it's a little unfair to say that the reason we pay rediculous taxes is so we can support people on welfare. Its a drop in the bucket compared to defense and social security/medicare, among other things.
It's a sad fact, but when an industry becomes obsolete, people stop making money.
People shouldn't feel hung up on the rights of the recording industry or any other one concerning their right to make money. What should matter, since it is the public that should decide, is the overwhelming public good. Why should we reward people who attempt to sell us something that can be produced and distributed for practically nothing. It makes no sense. It is an entirely useless allocation of capital that could be better spent on other things.
Don't let anyone scare you, there will still be good music around when the recording industry dies. It is inevitable, no matter what the laws are. Letting the industry die makes too much sense, and keeping it propped up would be far more costly than any impartial person would think reasonable.
Holywood is a business. The primary goal of business is to make money, not to entertain.
Yeah, but... they suck at it.
Well, no one should go into the movie business just for the sake of making money. For a sound, investment-quality businness you could do light years better (unless you have, say, virtually the sole ownership of the Star Wars franchise- at least for a picture or two).
Its a shitty business because people are fickle and returns are very unpredictable. Big corperations think they can squeeze the risk out of the business by making formula pictures and endless sequels, but in reality, most, if not all, had very mixed success over the years.
In the end, the only reason you go into the movie business is because it's glamorous or you love movies. Even if big media company CEO's convince themselves of the soundness of this 'investment', what they are really doing is justifing the purchase of a neat toy for themselves with someone else's dollar. No one should doubt the inclination of many of these companies to do such grandious, arrogant things. God help you if you owned stock in some of them.
The synergies that they try to develop with their distibution channels often end up not working very well. Getting a good picture to show on your network (etc) for no addtional cost (since you made it) is a very good thing, but being forced to distribute some piece of shit using the same precious resources because you're desperate to recoup the production costs is, obviously, no fun.
The good news is they never buy much content from middle men....and so is the bad news.
Reminds me of something Richard Feynman said about the term 'computer science' being a misnomer. Science is the study of nature through observation, whereas computers and math are human creations and therefore not natural. They were created by us to do useful things and are quite helpful for placing the natural world in terms that are explict and understandable. However, the laws that these disciplines are built from are, in the end, created by us for their utility. Mathematics is changed and altered by our scientific research, but it is morphed to fit by our doing. The new rules were not 'discovered', but created by necessity. It is like a bridge we design to span a particular space. We cannot 'discover' the bridge because it did not exist before we saw a need for it. Math has no carte blanche. When it does not help us illustrate the natural world it is useless, though pretty, mumbo-jumbo- like numerology.
The difference seems subtle, but it is profound. We cannot blindly take math to be the 'language of god'. It is our language and nothing more or less.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say this is a good idea. I don't think most of us would question whether emerging fields such as biotechnology could open up a pretty nasty pandoras box for people with bad intentions. No one wants the small group of unbalanced bad guys to be making super-smallpox in clandestine labs located in some state that would be unable or unwilling to counter them.
There will be some control over technology like this, and we all should want there to be. Technology will make it more and more possible for bad people to do ever more terrible things with ever fewer resources. We all remember Steven Hawking and others taking about the challenge facing us due to technology and our own possible self-destruction. Will we survive another 1000 years? We have to make sure the answer is yes.
You had better believe the government is concerned with it, especially with everything that has happened. recently. There WILL be some kind of controls, the only question is what form they will take. Technology can be an incredibly powerful thing. We always, always need to respect that, and it should start, as it most sensibly should, with those who pursue the science that can bring us further forward, or use our own insights to destroy us.
"That the targeted strike this night against Saddam (definitely assassination, and not kosher by international convention) wasn't just revenge by Bush for Saddam trying to knock off his dad?"
Hmmm... well I may be just another member of the great gullible masses- but I thaught it was so they could avoid having a big war.
As opposed to socialism which, obviously, just keeps getting better.
Everyone's got a simple frickin solution.
You're concerned about corporations having too much power, yet putting most of the power in ONE entity- the GOVERNMENT (of all things) seems like a good idea? Oh they'd be _way_ more responsible. Right. No one would ever think of a way to take advantage of _that_ situation.
Everyone bitches about corporations/government/whatever but no one talks much about human nature. Corportations, however powerful, still only have their individual slivers of power in terms of the big picture. Giving the government a huge piece of the pie would seem like killing the patient to cure him if you didn't find 'corporation' such a dirty word. Power corrupts, period. You think eliminating greed would help, but you'd just put yourself at the mercy of corruption and incompetence.
Say what you want about our system, but at least it doesn't depend on everyone playing nice with each other to function, nor does it attempt to make sure everything is 'fair' at all times. Neither of those things are ever going to happen.
People, no matter what their position, are always going to act in their self interest to a certain extent in a big society because it's far too easy to impersonally screw over strangers.
Yes, it sounds trite, but I really believe an excellent game is the best marketing intrument of all. Dominating the conversation around the lunchroom/dormroom/office about what games are worth playing is the most important battleground when it comes to selling a game, I think.
People buy the game, toss all the fancy-ass packaging in the trash and pop the CD in. They had better be blown away too, because more and more games are staking their success on online play- and you know people are going to be playing what their friends are playing. If you are capable of producing an awesome game, you had better do it, because if you don't you'll only sell enough copies to get the word out that your game isn't worth a damn. If you have great marketing, you'll just do that faster.
Games should be released _when they're done_ and not a day sooner. Duh. It's not just an art vs. business thing either. Releasing a buggy or incomplete game is just a stupid business decision bent on making Wall Street's quarterly earnings targets- instead of improving the long term success of the company.
Oh, and people who have spent most of their lives passionately making cool games should realize selling out to a greedy, stupid and public company like EA isn't necessarily going to make their lives better- even if they are very (very) rich.
"Nothing like having a bi-sexual girlfriend who liked to share and that all the women wanted."
Did you meet her on IRC? because if you did, dude... she might have been a guy.
Man, that would really suck dude. I really hope you left the lights on at least once.
Cheer up geeks of the world- YOU WILL GET LAID!
on
A 1974 Review of D&D
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· Score: 5, Insightful
So you are totally socially inept, spend much of your time doing things that most would condider nerdy and haven't gotten laid in a very long time or probably never.
There are actually a lot of girls JUST LIKE THAT. Right now! On your campus! Attractive ones! In fact, even basic statistics and probability (and I know you're down with statistics and probability) tells us that some of them would willing, hell, even _excited_ to FUCK YOU!
Think you're insecure? Guess what? Girls are actually worse. WAY worse. Even the pretty ones- hell ESPECIALLY the pretty ones. Watch TV some time and look at the way women are still portayed, even in this day and age. Many, if not most, girls feel uncool, unsexy, and out of place a MILLION times a day and they actually prize above all else in a relationship is to feel like they are actually worthwhile _people_ and not maids, bitches or fuck toys.
YOU, a geek, nerd or dork can actually give them this feeling by doing nothing more than BEING YOURSELF. Feel unattractive? You can do a surprising amount to fix this. Loose weight! spend an extra 10 bucks on a haircut! Get a decent wardrobe that can STILL INCLUDE ANIME T-SHIRTS! Moisturize! Most girls are good at improving a persons looks. Ask one. She will probably love to help you.
Why are they so hung up on it? because our society tells them that they HAVE to be attractive while NEVER allowing them to live up to its standard of perfection. But you know what? Maybe they've learned something but you don't even need to be a chiseled slab of beef. Shocked?? Read on!
What you learned in high school is now WRONG! YOU CAN get a wonderful, even SEXY girl simply by NOT treating her like a SEX OBJECT and choosing NOT to be a FAKE ASS PLAYER! Believe it or not people just as nerdy as you have gotten HOT, smart, wonderful girlfriends by simply being loving, _attentive_, down to earth (like the way you are with your friends) people and also NOT DATE RAPING THEM!
No, you won't hit it off with every girl, but you are picky too remember? Find one that is like you. You have a star wars figure collection? Well your girl might have a collection of plastic horses from when she was twelve that she was TERRIFIED of anyone finding out about in high school. You will be able to relate a hell of a lot more than you expect. She might even love computers! She might even love linux! There's more and more every day! No, she's not Natalie Portman, but you know what? You won't care!!
You are, smart, well-educated, compassionate and a nice guy (or girl)-- in addition to being sexy (you are sexy right? If not, see above.) You are willing to be a good boyfriend instead of just a dick delievery service. YOU ARE A DAMN GOOD GUY (or girl). So stop whinning and get to work!!!.
GEEKS OF THE WORLD- YOU WILL GET LAID!!!!! /robbins>
Note: Does not apply to those currently in or about to enter high school. You are all still shit out luck for a few years. Don't cry, we all had to be patient too.
(And I am absolutely serious, guys I kid because I love, and I been there, I am not trying to troll.)
Also: Go to a doctor and get treated for your depression/anxiety/bi-polar/ADD etc if you think you have it. Don't be ashamed, just fucking do it. Some (not all or even a whole lot- don't flame me) of you out there have some of these and they will fuck with your life until it gets fixed. Be brave. They are wonderful people and they can work miracles now days. They really can. Dealing with women is, as you know, very hard psycholoically at times. Especially meeting them.
I quickly grew sick of the people I played with because of endless rule bending. Every game people were recreating the same type of 'bad-ass' characters who always kicked ass and never lost.
I saw something on TV about a place in Hollywood where (for a price)they'll arrange for you to participate in a mock Academy-Award ceremony complete with limo, screaming (but hired) fans, and a little gold statue at the end. Our sessions reminded me of this. Kind of takes the feeling out of slaying dragons if they just lay down at your feet and die. Sigh. I loved the game and my friends were great guys but I couldn't play like that. THAT mde me feel like a dork. It wasn't the whole fantasy world thing at all, it was the self-gratification.
Nethack comes the closest to real D&D I've ever played on the computer. Hack and Slash D&D, true, but the best kind of H&S. It felt like a real dungeon because it never stopped finding ways to bite you in the ass. And every time you would think "Aw man- I should have known better. What a great game.
I really wish people didn't give up on that kind of game, building in complexity instead of pretty graphics. Graphical systems aside from simple "what is where" systems limit good game play by ensuring that the programmers will have to make a bazzillion complex animations (etc) anytime you want to add a new feature. Nethack was 8 Meg and it had NO GRAPHICS. We still have cool old school wargames coming out, how about an old-school RPG?
"Provoking a bear twice my size by poking it with a stick doesn't make me a victim when it mauls me. It makes me a fool who should have watched what he was doing."
I spend half my goddamn life trying to justify who I was. I _should_ have poked the fucking bear with the stick, at least a little bit, but I did the 'smart' thing and I feel, quite frankly, like a coward now. Nerds have every right to say that MTV is a big damn commercial or that paying 60 bucks for the priviledge of owning a flimsy, cheap Abercrombie shirt that looks like it was pulled out of my hamper is totally fucking rediculous. If you hate sports stand up for the fact that your life is a hell of a lot richer for it. That agile jock might have had polio instead if it wasn't for 'nerds' like us.
Nerd.
I use that term for myself like black people use 'nigger.' I hated it so much growing up but I won't let anyone hurt me with it anymore.
The sad thing is that you don't need to even do anything to anyone to provoke someone. Many nerds 'provoke' others simply by being themselves and by refusing to walk the same line everyone else does. They suffer from prejudice plain and simple many times. No one should have to defend who they are if they keep to themselves and don't bother anyone.
I never got a wedgie or was stuffed into a locker. But you're right though- I was smart enough to keep my mouth shut. However, I never felt good about myself for about 12 years and that was vicious in a far worse way. People told me that being myself was wrong and if you want a better recipe for self-hatred I can't think of one. If I wanted to wear a t-shirt I got at the science museum to school I should have been able to do it for christs sake. People get so fake because of all that bullshit in high school and what not that it is actually far better to do your own thing when you get older. People respect it in a real way, at least most people in my expierience. I'm glad I finally remembered how. I finally got a wonderful, smart as hell and (even objectively) sexy girlfriend as well as a decent job that I actually like. I felt like the guy in Harrison Bergeron(exact title?? Kurt Vonnegut Story- anyone remember?) before. I'm glad I'm me now. It's nothing to take for granted so never ever let anyone take that from you.
I think it is much easier today. No one thaught a 386 with a EGA card was cool stuff when I was in high school. There were no 'cool' mp3's or cool 3D games. Now days, the computer seems like it is close to replacing the TV as the pop-culture delivery device of choice for just about everyone.
Also, it seems like people are more achievement-oriented today, even in public k-12, than they were while I was in school not so very long ago. College is getting more competitive and expensive. Acheivement academically is more respected because college is no longer such an elitist thing. This has been steadily changing for many years.
People are very diverse and this often causes people to misunderstand those that are different. I think the internet age has helped to temper this. Skateboarding used to be a fringe sort of thing and look at it now. People understand it much better now that they have been exposed to it much more. Ditto for much of 'geekdom'. I never thaught that you would be able to talk about your shiny new computer to more than 5 people at your big suburban school but now you can.
There are a million factors involved in crime, but one thing stands above all else: if you can afford a real lawyer you will do much much better. What was the recent story? More or less 100% of those on death row in Nevada had public defenders? Yikes. I known friends who have gotten lawyers for things much more minor and they all swear by them. Around here, suburban prosecutors moonlight as defense attorneys across town...where sometime tennis-partner defense attorneys are procescutors...hmmm... I'm not speaking for everywhere but it seems like what matters to the politicans is asses in cells... and how they make their quota is something they aren't concerned enough about.
Sans backscratching, a good lawyer knows what judges are most sympathetic, what the procescutors are like... they'll move a court date around six days to sunday until they have a few cards in their deck- and if you can make the prosecutor sweat a little bit- bam you have a not-so-bad plea bargain. If you ever land in a sticky situation, deservedly or not, you'll never spend money more wisely than on an expierienced lawyer. It's sad, but true.
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There is no way such a licence could be attached after the fact- so, at the very least, snapster could still own every CD that now exists without such 'shrink wrap' restrictions.
Remember, if this is really something that can be done, used CD would work just as well as new ones (hows that for a slap in the RIAA's face?). If licenses went into effect tomorrow, used CD's would still be free of them.
I really think that the RIAA would have already tried some kind of shrink-wrap license if such a thing were really possible. Haven't they tried everything else? More legal changes would seem like the prefered response anyway.
This will save me that trip to Niger.
What copyright infringement does is affect your potential for deriving profit from the information concerned.
Very true. But does any one else find this pretty silly? There are many ways of depriving the music industry of revenue.
Amazon and eBay deprive them of a great deal of revenue through online used-CD sales. Why buy a new CD when you can find a virtually new one for the same price? It happens all the time. Money changes hands all the time but the only people who see any of it are the sellers and the websites. I mean come on, someone obviously wanted to buy a CD, and the producers and the artists never see a dime of it.
When the selection of used CD's was more sparse, this wasn't such an attractive way of buying but the web now makes it possible to deny a huge amount of revenue to producers even if people decide to stop sharing.
But where is the outrage? Well, there isn't any, of course, even though big dot-coms are making lots of money by taking food out of the mouths of Dr. Dre's kids.
It's all pretty arbitrary to me. File sharing is 'wrong' because it is illegal. Maybe it's time it wasn't. The people of this country have the same right to act in their own selfish self-intrest as the recording industry- and 50 million or so file-sharers is a pretty big voting bloc.
Companies exisiting for profit is the worst approach. They should exist for the customer. We should be their masters, not the other way around.
The customer IS the master, the problem is, they aren't the ONLY master of a business. A company needs money, and lots of it, to get started and keep going. This means investors and creditors, and unfortunately they expect something in return for the hassle of giving their money to someone else. You would too. Have a 401k? If they are going to give their hard-earned money to someone to piss away without profit, it usually goes to finding a cure for AIDS or something more useful than providing cheap laptops to middle-class schmucks.
That type of scruitiny is extremely counter-productive. Wall Street seems to be allergic to anything other than a steady-string of ever-increasing EPS. Real life doesn't work that way, synced to neat little three month periods. When a company makes a big investment in it's future it's going to be in the hole for a while until it really starts paying off. It looks shitty for EPS but it's the best thing for the company.
No one who puts money in a company (or works for one) would want their CEO's playing this kind of game. Think about it:
1. Cut company down to bone and say hell with the future.
2. See stock price soar with record EPS for a few years
3. Cash in options and get the hell out of there
i.e.
Profit!!!!!!!!!!!
Wall Street LOVES this game though. Of course, it's not too surprising. They (unlike you the employee or Warren the massive shareholder) can get the hell out with a phone call. People like this probably own a whole lot of YOUR company too. I really think that if there is one thing worse than leadership without accountablity, it's ownership without accountablity. You dont have to look far to find it.
Welcome to hell.
Not to qibble, but it's a little unfair to say that the reason we pay rediculous taxes is so we can support people on welfare. Its a drop in the bucket compared to defense and social security/medicare, among other things.
It's a sad fact, but when an industry becomes obsolete, people stop making money.
People shouldn't feel hung up on the rights of the recording industry or any other one concerning their right to make money. What should matter, since it is the public that should decide, is the overwhelming public good. Why should we reward people who attempt to sell us something that can be produced and distributed for practically nothing. It makes no sense. It is an entirely useless allocation of capital that could be better spent on other things.
Don't let anyone scare you, there will still be good music around when the recording industry dies. It is inevitable, no matter what the laws are. Letting the industry die makes too much sense, and keeping it propped up would be far more costly than any impartial person would think reasonable.
Holywood is a business. The primary goal of business is to make money, not to entertain.
Yeah, but... they suck at it.
Well, no one should go into the movie business just for the sake of making money. For a sound, investment-quality businness you could do light years better (unless you have, say, virtually the sole ownership of the Star Wars franchise- at least for a picture or two).
Its a shitty business because people are fickle and returns are very unpredictable. Big corperations think they can squeeze the risk out of the business by making formula pictures and endless sequels, but in reality, most, if not all, had very mixed success over the years.
In the end, the only reason you go into the movie business is because it's glamorous or you love movies. Even if big media company CEO's convince themselves of the soundness of this 'investment', what they are really doing is justifing the purchase of a neat toy for themselves with someone else's dollar. No one should doubt the inclination of many of these companies to do such grandious, arrogant things. God help you if you owned stock in some of them.
The synergies that they try to develop with their distibution channels often end up not working very well. Getting a good picture to show on your network (etc) for no addtional cost (since you made it) is a very good thing, but being forced to distribute some piece of shit using the same precious resources because you're desperate to recoup the production costs is, obviously, no fun.
The good news is they never buy much content from middle men....and so is the bad news.
Reminds me of something Richard Feynman said about the term 'computer science' being a misnomer. Science is the study of nature through observation, whereas computers and math are human creations and therefore not natural. They were created by us to do useful things and are quite helpful for placing the natural world in terms that are explict and understandable. However, the laws that these disciplines are built from are, in the end, created by us for their utility. Mathematics is changed and altered by our scientific research, but it is morphed to fit by our doing. The new rules were not 'discovered', but created by necessity. It is like a bridge we design to span a particular space. We cannot 'discover' the bridge because it did not exist before we saw a need for it. Math has no carte blanche. When it does not help us illustrate the natural world it is useless, though pretty, mumbo-jumbo- like numerology.
The difference seems subtle, but it is profound. We cannot blindly take math to be the 'language of god'. It is our language and nothing more or less.
Anyone with me?
I'm going to go out on a limb and say this is a good idea. I don't think most of us would question whether emerging fields such as biotechnology could open up a pretty nasty pandoras box for people with bad intentions. No one wants the small group of unbalanced bad guys to be making super-smallpox in clandestine labs located in some state that would be unable or unwilling to counter them.
There will be some control over technology like this, and we all should want there to be. Technology will make it more and more possible for bad people to do ever more terrible things with ever fewer resources. We all remember Steven Hawking and others taking about the challenge facing us due to technology and our own possible self-destruction. Will we survive another 1000 years? We have to make sure the answer is yes.
You had better believe the government is concerned with it, especially with everything that has happened. recently. There WILL be some kind of controls, the only question is what form they will take. Technology can be an incredibly powerful thing. We always, always need to respect that, and it should start, as it most sensibly should, with those who pursue the science that can bring us further forward, or use our own insights to destroy us.
..would be some damn charmin instead of that horrible industrial stuff.
"That the targeted strike this night against Saddam (definitely assassination, and not kosher by international convention) wasn't just revenge by Bush for Saddam trying to knock off his dad?"
Hmmm... well I may be just another member of the great gullible masses- but I thaught it was so they could avoid having a big war.
I obviously have a lot to learn.
As opposed to socialism which, obviously, just keeps getting better.
Everyone's got a simple frickin solution.
You're concerned about corporations having too much power, yet putting most of the power in ONE entity- the GOVERNMENT (of all things) seems like a good idea? Oh they'd be _way_ more responsible. Right. No one would ever think of a way to take advantage of _that_ situation.
Everyone bitches about corporations/government/whatever but no one talks much about human nature. Corportations, however powerful, still only have their individual slivers of power in terms of the big picture. Giving the government a huge piece of the pie would seem like killing the patient to cure him if you didn't find 'corporation' such a dirty word. Power corrupts, period. You think eliminating greed would help, but you'd just put yourself at the mercy of corruption and incompetence.
Say what you want about our system, but at least it doesn't depend on everyone playing nice with each other to function, nor does it attempt to make sure everything is 'fair' at all times. Neither of those things are ever going to happen.
People, no matter what their position, are always going to act in their self interest to a certain extent in a big society because it's far too easy to impersonally screw over strangers.
Yes, it sounds trite, but I really believe an excellent game is the best marketing intrument of all. Dominating the conversation around the lunchroom/dormroom/office about what games are worth playing is the most important battleground when it comes to selling a game, I think.
People buy the game, toss all the fancy-ass packaging in the trash and pop the CD in. They had better be blown away too, because more and more games are staking their success on online play- and you know people are going to be playing what their friends are playing. If you are capable of producing an awesome game, you had better do it, because if you don't you'll only sell enough copies to get the word out that your game isn't worth a damn. If you have great marketing, you'll just do that faster.
"Video games are evil! They inspire the youth of our nation to kill and..."
I agree. I'm keeping my kids away from those things. They're going to play something safe like Mazes and Monsters instead.
Games should be released _when they're done_ and not a day sooner. Duh. It's not just an art vs. business thing either. Releasing a buggy or incomplete game is just a stupid business decision bent on making Wall Street's quarterly earnings targets- instead of improving the long term success of the company.
Oh, and people who have spent most of their lives passionately making cool games should realize selling out to a greedy, stupid and public company like EA isn't necessarily going to make their lives better- even if they are very (very) rich.
"Nothing like having a bi-sexual girlfriend who liked to share and that all the women wanted."
Did you meet her on IRC? because if you did, dude... she might have been a guy.
Man, that would really suck dude. I really hope you left the lights on at least once.
So you are totally socially inept, spend much of your time doing things that most would condider nerdy and haven't gotten laid in a very long time or probably never.
There are actually a lot of girls JUST LIKE THAT. Right now! On your campus! Attractive ones! In fact, even basic statistics and probability (and I know you're down with statistics and probability) tells us that some of them would willing, hell, even _excited_ to FUCK YOU!
Think you're insecure? Guess what? Girls are actually worse. WAY worse. Even the pretty ones- hell ESPECIALLY the pretty ones. Watch TV some time and look at the way women are still portayed, even in this day and age. Many, if not most, girls feel uncool, unsexy, and out of place a MILLION times a day and they actually prize above all else in a relationship is to feel like they are actually worthwhile _people_ and not maids, bitches or fuck toys.
YOU, a geek, nerd or dork can actually give them this feeling by doing nothing more than BEING YOURSELF. Feel unattractive? You can do a surprising amount to fix this. Loose weight! spend an extra 10 bucks on a haircut! Get a decent wardrobe that can STILL INCLUDE ANIME T-SHIRTS! Moisturize! Most girls are good at improving a persons looks. Ask one. She will probably love to help you.
Why are they so hung up on it? because our society tells them that they HAVE to be attractive while NEVER allowing them to live up to its standard of perfection. But you know what? Maybe they've learned something but you don't even need to be a chiseled slab of beef. Shocked?? Read on!
What you learned in high school is now WRONG! YOU CAN get a wonderful, even SEXY girl simply by NOT treating her like a SEX OBJECT and choosing NOT to be a FAKE ASS PLAYER! Believe it or not people just as nerdy as you have gotten HOT, smart, wonderful girlfriends by simply being loving, _attentive_, down to earth (like the way you are with your friends) people and also NOT DATE RAPING THEM!
No, you won't hit it off with every girl, but you are picky too remember? Find one that is like you. You have a star wars figure collection? Well your girl might have a collection of plastic horses from when she was twelve that she was TERRIFIED of anyone finding out about in high school. You will be able to relate a hell of a lot more than you expect. She might even love computers! She might even love linux! There's more and more every day! No, she's not Natalie Portman, but you know what? You won't care!!
You are, smart, well-educated, compassionate and a nice guy (or girl)-- in addition to being sexy (you are sexy right? If not, see above.) You are willing to be a good boyfriend instead of just a dick delievery service. YOU ARE A DAMN GOOD GUY (or girl). So stop whinning and get to work!!!.
GEEKS OF THE WORLD- YOU WILL GET LAID!!!!!
/robbins>
Note: Does not apply to those currently in or about to enter high school. You are all still shit out luck for a few years. Don't cry, we all had to be patient too.
(And I am absolutely serious, guys I kid because I love, and I been there, I am not trying to troll.)
Also: Go to a doctor and get treated for your depression/anxiety/bi-polar/ADD etc if you think you have it. Don't be ashamed, just fucking do it. Some (not all or even a whole lot- don't flame me) of you out there have some of these and they will fuck with your life until it gets fixed. Be brave. They are wonderful people and they can work miracles now days. They really can. Dealing with women is, as you know, very hard psycholoically at times. Especially meeting them.
I quickly grew sick of the people I played with because of endless rule bending. Every game people were recreating the same type of 'bad-ass' characters who always kicked ass and never lost.
I saw something on TV about a place in Hollywood where (for a price)they'll arrange for you to participate in a mock Academy-Award ceremony complete with limo, screaming (but hired) fans, and a little gold statue at the end. Our sessions reminded me of this. Kind of takes the feeling out of slaying dragons if they just lay down at your feet and die. Sigh. I loved the game and my friends were great guys but I couldn't play like that. THAT mde me feel like a dork. It wasn't the whole fantasy world thing at all, it was the self-gratification.
Nethack comes the closest to real D&D I've ever played on the computer. Hack and Slash D&D, true, but the best kind of H&S. It felt like a real dungeon because it never stopped finding ways to bite you in the ass. And every time you would think "Aw man- I should have known better. What a great game.
I really wish people didn't give up on that kind of game, building in complexity instead of pretty graphics. Graphical systems aside from simple "what is where" systems limit good game play by ensuring that the programmers will have to make a bazzillion complex animations (etc) anytime you want to add a new feature. Nethack was 8 Meg and it had NO GRAPHICS. We still have cool old school wargames coming out, how about an old-school RPG?
"Provoking a bear twice my size by poking it with a stick doesn't make me a victim when it mauls me. It makes me a fool who should have watched what he was doing."
I spend half my goddamn life trying to justify who I was. I _should_ have poked the fucking bear with the stick, at least a little bit, but I did the 'smart' thing and I feel, quite frankly, like a coward now. Nerds have every right to say that MTV is a big damn commercial or that paying 60 bucks for the priviledge of owning a flimsy, cheap Abercrombie shirt that looks like it was pulled out of my hamper is totally fucking rediculous. If you hate sports stand up for the fact that your life is a hell of a lot richer for it. That agile jock might have had polio instead if it wasn't for 'nerds' like us.
Nerd.
I use that term for myself like black people use 'nigger.' I hated it so much growing up but I won't let anyone hurt me with it anymore.
The sad thing is that you don't need to even do anything to anyone to provoke someone. Many nerds 'provoke' others simply by being themselves and by refusing to walk the same line everyone else does. They suffer from prejudice plain and simple many times. No one should have to defend who they are if they keep to themselves and don't bother anyone.
I never got a wedgie or was stuffed into a locker. But you're right though- I was smart enough to keep my mouth shut. However, I never felt good about myself for about 12 years and that was vicious in a far worse way. People told me that being myself was wrong and if you want a better recipe for self-hatred I can't think of one. If I wanted to wear a t-shirt I got at the science museum to school I should have been able to do it for christs sake. People get so fake because of all that bullshit in high school and what not that it is actually far better to do your own thing when you get older. People respect it in a real way, at least most people in my expierience. I'm glad I finally remembered how. I finally got a wonderful, smart as hell and (even objectively) sexy girlfriend as well as a decent job that I actually like. I felt like the guy in Harrison Bergeron(exact title?? Kurt Vonnegut Story- anyone remember?) before. I'm glad I'm me now. It's nothing to take for granted so never ever let anyone take that from you.
I think it is much easier today. No one thaught a 386 with a EGA card was cool stuff when I was in high school. There were no 'cool' mp3's or cool 3D games. Now days, the computer seems like it is close to replacing the TV as the pop-culture delivery device of choice for just about everyone.
Also, it seems like people are more achievement-oriented today, even in public k-12, than they were while I was in school not so very long ago. College is getting more competitive and expensive. Acheivement academically is more respected because college is no longer such an elitist thing. This has been steadily changing for many years.
People are very diverse and this often causes people to misunderstand those that are different. I think the internet age has helped to temper this. Skateboarding used to be a fringe sort of thing and look at it now. People understand it much better now that they have been exposed to it much more. Ditto for much of 'geekdom'. I never thaught that you would be able to talk about your shiny new computer to more than 5 people at your big suburban school but now you can.
The same technological changes that make file sharing possible also make the big music companies unnecessary. Let them die.
It's an idle threat!
There are a million factors involved in crime, but one thing stands above all else: if you can afford a real lawyer you will do much much better. What was the recent story? More or less 100% of those on death row in Nevada had public defenders? Yikes. I known friends who have gotten lawyers for things much more minor and they all swear by them. Around here, suburban prosecutors moonlight as defense attorneys across town...where sometime tennis-partner defense attorneys are procescutors...hmmm... I'm not speaking for everywhere but it seems like what matters to the politicans is asses in cells... and how they make their quota is something they aren't concerned enough about.
Sans backscratching, a good lawyer knows what judges are most sympathetic, what the procescutors are like... they'll move a court date around six days to sunday until they have a few cards in their deck- and if you can make the prosecutor sweat a little bit- bam you have a not-so-bad plea bargain. If you ever land in a sticky situation, deservedly or not, you'll never spend money more wisely than on an expierienced lawyer. It's sad, but true.
Mr. Valenti, you've already said that piracy will eventually destroy the movie business- but are there disadvantages to it as well?