I don't even own a console (apart from the missus' Wii) but I doubt anyone would pay $50 (insert local currency as appropriate) for a copy of Angry Birds, good game though it may be - they are completely different markets and therefore comparison between the two is ludicrous.
Look at Mafia Wars and their ilk on Facebook (again, not something I play) - they've been going a year or two now but (not that I'm an expert) I've not seen the number of console games reduce particularly, so I don't think they've affected sales much. If anything, the people who play Mafia Wars tend to be those who have never gamed much anyway.
It all comes down to value for money, nothing more. I'm a middle-aged old fart PC gamer, I buy very few new games these days as I've more than enough classic & emulated games to fill my gaming needs - but put the word "Fallout" in the title of a new PC game and I'll be there queueing and frothing at the mouth with the rest of them because by the time I've replayed the games a few times with some additional free mods, I don't think I've ever encountered better value for money gaming in terms of entertainment time against cost.
I don't begrudge paying (the equivalent of) $50 for weeks of gaming time in Fallout 3 or Fallout New Vegas, in the same way that someone else getting an hour or two entertainment from a 99c copy of Angry Birds won't either.
...and that attitude is precisely why old people like me can sit here enjoying our many years of experience and nice salaries, safe in the knowledge that there are no young knowledgeable whippersnappers coming up throught the ranks with an ability to displace us.
...because everyone I know with a baby or toddler spends their *WHOLE* time either updating their status about it or putting up *YET MORE* photos of it.
I don't wish harm to anyone or any kid on this planet but I just wish these people would GET A FUCKING LIFE outside their kids sometimes because it is FUCKING BORING!
Come out from behind the AC, then we can talk - until that point your just this annoying squeaky little voice in my head that isn't there really and that I'm just going to ignore from this point onwards.
I don't do piracy, if I don't want to pay the going price for something then I just don't buy it & don't copy/download it either - if the rest of the world did that then they'd have the music/movie/software companies would have no reason to employ DRM, the only thing they could do is reduce prices to sell more - basic economics. Otherwise, patronising lecture mode over...
With that said, I'm getting bored with the whole capitalism thing now anyway, it's dying as we speak and it needs a reboot.
I'm in a good job, live comfortably and have learnt to be careful with money, even during the good times. But like most honest hard-working people, I'm starting to get sick and tired of higher food and fuel prices, more taxes and year-on-year of no wage increases - that means cutting back a bit and lowering my standard of living each time.
I wouldn't mind doing my bit if everyone else had to - but they don't have to. Around me I see more and more people screwing the system & seemingly getting more money - either lazy good-for-nothings who choose not to work but leech from the system and drop another kid when they want more money from the state; or, at the other end of the spectrum, fat CEOs and bankers still paying themselves huge bonuses while they sack people.
Big businesses don't care. They don't accept that in lean times they have to be satisfied with lower profit margins just like I have to be satisified with less disposable income. In the case of music, movie & games companies, they should lower prices if they want more sales because otherwise most people will just not pay it and copy it - it's that simple. Yes, there are people who will always copy, just like there are always people who will steal from stores and carjack - put those down to experience.
Unfortunately, with their incessant greed, they are just accelerating the death of a corrupt system where already the wealthy own far more money than there actually is because all the people at the bottom are up to their eyes in credit. The banking crises of a couple of years ago was the bubble starting to burst, now in the Middle East we're seeing revolt from the common man who are sick and tired of being screwed more and more by the wealthy few at the top. Personally, I hope the revolt spreads to us, and when it does I hope its no more than mass peaceful demonstrations of defiance.
I'm actually quite looking forward to it, if I'm honest. I'm surrounded in a nice warm house by lots of nice stuff, I'll be hacked off if I lose it or it all gets razed to the ground, but it is just "stuff" and if I need it, I'll be able to get hold of it again.
And I don't want to see anarchy or communism in its place, I'm happy with giving capitalism another go but this time we put some rules around it - like when you've accumulated more wealth than you need to buy that island refuge, then you go buy it, build your nice house on it, stick some in the bank to live the rest of your days in comfort, then throw the rest of it back into the system to give less fortunate people a chance.
Dare I say it, we also need to have imposed limits on childbirth.
People are living longer, therefore they are spending more of their retirement years reliant on state pensions and social care - to cover that additional expense, governments are raising the retirement age by a year or two.
That means that as well as there being less jobs due to technology, there are also less jobs because people work longer.
It's definitely the time to start restricting birth rates - maybe the planet can cope with a few billion more people, but not economically.
Actually, it teaches the kids one of life's important lessons that many of them seem to lack these days - namely that before taking action, make sure you've done your best to work out the likely consequences of that action first.
The one thing that separates a child from an adult is (one hopes) being able to act responsibly.
i.e. Cute and nice looking when you first come across them but vicious little bastards if you give them the chance.
Actually, that's quite a good analogy thinking about it - because let's say you went and re-watched "Return Of The Jedi" with all of the Ewok bits cut out, you'd certainly notice if they weren't there any longer but it wouldn't ruin your overall experience too much.
I resent strongly your implication that one who is of heterosexual leanings is automatically entirely unappreciative of pulchritude in those things that are in existence around his or her personage.
Indeed, in some circles is not considered a display of virility when a man, in the company of his colleagues, is openly complementary of the magnitude and shape of a nubile young maiden's mammary glands within his near vicinity?
Sir, you are nothing more than an angst-ridden teenage onanist who must forthwith escape the confines of his parent's subterranean storage room and seek copulative relations with a flesh-and-blood woman, rather than with your modern day personal equivalent of the Babbage Difference Engine.
I really must impress upon you that my inability to use profanities is not down to any self-control upon my part but a genetic disorder of extreme magnitude.
Therefore, you, sir, will refrain from this utter stubbornness and placate me somewhat with some words of ancient Anglo-Saxon derivation that I can at least appreciate but, unfortunately, not return in equally profane volleys of poor diction.
I sit here in repose in utter misery, my heart desiring nothing more than an infrequent gift of an ability to use punctuation entirely incorrectly, to not begin sentences with capital letters & to curse like a merchant seaman.
Nothing stops you running any software you want on a Windows platform, look at the amount of Open Source applications there are for it.
Microsoft have never said you have to get all your software from them and if you want to look at porn or run emulation software on a Windows OS, there is nothing stopping you.
And before anyone flames me, I'm mostly a Linux user.
What Apple is and what Apple does is no concern of anybody who comes here, except as CONSUMERS of Apple products or possibly as shareholders.
Actually, you're wrong - completely so.
Evil corporations use clever marketing to try & hide the evils in products they sell - DRM, walled gardens, etc.
It is therefore entirely important & right to counteract marketing lies & give people the truth - if they didn't have the truth then every smoker would still believe that cigarettes don't cause lung cancer & make them look like the Marlboro man.
Vendor lock-in restricts consumer choice & if enough people fall for the lies & buy locked-in products just because they look shiny, then that could eventually end up with everyone's freedoms being sold down the river.
Therefore, those of us in the know need to keep repeating the same message to drive it home to the sheeple.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't even own a console (apart from the missus' Wii) but I doubt anyone would pay $50 (insert local currency as appropriate) for a copy of Angry Birds, good game though it may be - they are completely different markets and therefore comparison between the two is ludicrous.
Look at Mafia Wars and their ilk on Facebook (again, not something I play) - they've been going a year or two now but (not that I'm an expert) I've not seen the number of console games reduce particularly, so I don't think they've affected sales much. If anything, the people who play Mafia Wars tend to be those who have never gamed much anyway.
It all comes down to value for money, nothing more. I'm a middle-aged old fart PC gamer, I buy very few new games these days as I've more than enough classic & emulated games to fill my gaming needs - but put the word "Fallout" in the title of a new PC game and I'll be there queueing and frothing at the mouth with the rest of them because by the time I've replayed the games a few times with some additional free mods, I don't think I've ever encountered better value for money gaming in terms of entertainment time against cost.
I don't begrudge paying (the equivalent of) $50 for weeks of gaming time in Fallout 3 or Fallout New Vegas, in the same way that someone else getting an hour or two entertainment from a 99c copy of Angry Birds won't either.
...and that attitude is precisely why old people like me can sit here enjoying our many years of experience and nice salaries, safe in the knowledge that there are no young knowledgeable whippersnappers coming up throught the ranks with an ability to displace us.
A piece of advice:
"If you can't cope with your own kids, then don't have them. Put something on the end of it."
There, that one's free.
There's one problem with you plan - babies.
Yes, go on Facebook and everyone from here to Timbuktu who has had a baby is taking photographs of their baby and putting it up on Facebook.
Oh, and talking about their babies.
Lots.
...because everyone I know with a baby or toddler spends their *WHOLE* time either updating their status about it or putting up *YET MORE* photos of it.
I don't wish harm to anyone or any kid on this planet but I just wish these people would GET A FUCKING LIFE outside their kids sometimes because it is FUCKING BORING!
Come out from behind the AC, then we can talk - until that point your just this annoying squeaky little voice in my head that isn't there really and that I'm just going to ignore from this point onwards.
Thanks for your time.
I don't do piracy, if I don't want to pay the going price for something then I just don't buy it & don't copy/download it either - if the rest of the world did that then they'd have the music/movie/software companies would have no reason to employ DRM, the only thing they could do is reduce prices to sell more - basic economics. Otherwise, patronising lecture mode over...
With that said, I'm getting bored with the whole capitalism thing now anyway, it's dying as we speak and it needs a reboot.
I'm in a good job, live comfortably and have learnt to be careful with money, even during the good times. But like most honest hard-working people, I'm starting to get sick and tired of higher food and fuel prices, more taxes and year-on-year of no wage increases - that means cutting back a bit and lowering my standard of living each time.
I wouldn't mind doing my bit if everyone else had to - but they don't have to. Around me I see more and more people screwing the system & seemingly getting more money - either lazy good-for-nothings who choose not to work but leech from the system and drop another kid when they want more money from the state; or, at the other end of the spectrum, fat CEOs and bankers still paying themselves huge bonuses while they sack people.
Big businesses don't care. They don't accept that in lean times they have to be satisfied with lower profit margins just like I have to be satisified with less disposable income. In the case of music, movie & games companies, they should lower prices if they want more sales because otherwise most people will just not pay it and copy it - it's that simple. Yes, there are people who will always copy, just like there are always people who will steal from stores and carjack - put those down to experience.
Unfortunately, with their incessant greed, they are just accelerating the death of a corrupt system where already the wealthy own far more money than there actually is because all the people at the bottom are up to their eyes in credit. The banking crises of a couple of years ago was the bubble starting to burst, now in the Middle East we're seeing revolt from the common man who are sick and tired of being screwed more and more by the wealthy few at the top. Personally, I hope the revolt spreads to us, and when it does I hope its no more than mass peaceful demonstrations of defiance.
I'm actually quite looking forward to it, if I'm honest. I'm surrounded in a nice warm house by lots of nice stuff, I'll be hacked off if I lose it or it all gets razed to the ground, but it is just "stuff" and if I need it, I'll be able to get hold of it again.
And I don't want to see anarchy or communism in its place, I'm happy with giving capitalism another go but this time we put some rules around it - like when you've accumulated more wealth than you need to buy that island refuge, then you go buy it, build your nice house on it, stick some in the bank to live the rest of your days in comfort, then throw the rest of it back into the system to give less fortunate people a chance.
Dare I say it, we also need to have imposed limits on childbirth.
People are living longer, therefore they are spending more of their retirement years reliant on state pensions and social care - to cover that additional expense, governments are raising the retirement age by a year or two.
That means that as well as there being less jobs due to technology, there are also less jobs because people work longer.
It's definitely the time to start restricting birth rates - maybe the planet can cope with a few billion more people, but not economically.
Nope, sorry, please try again.
My post was definitely the funnier of the two.
It'll be coming to an overnight queue outside your nearest Apple Store in the very near future.
That would depend whether or not I am an asshole in the first place, which, from my point of view, you have yet to establish.
Actually, it teaches the kids one of life's important lessons that many of them seem to lack these days - namely that before taking action, make sure you've done your best to work out the likely consequences of that action first.
The one thing that separates a child from an adult is (one hopes) being able to act responsibly.
i.e. Cute and nice looking when you first come across them but vicious little bastards if you give them the chance.
Actually, that's quite a good analogy thinking about it - because let's say you went and re-watched "Return Of The Jedi" with all of the Ewok bits cut out, you'd certainly notice if they weren't there any longer but it wouldn't ruin your overall experience too much.
You'll need to tell me how wide you are holding your fingers or arms apart when you say "this much" such that I can get a sense of scale from you.
Once I know that, I can indeed inform you quite categorically whether I am indeed a bigger or smaller asshole than that.
Sir
Kindly divest yourself of all regalia and impel yourself into a large, land-locked body of fresh water that exists in your vicinity.
Sir,
I resent strongly your implication that one who is of heterosexual leanings is automatically entirely unappreciative of pulchritude in those things that are in existence around his or her personage.
Indeed, in some circles is not considered a display of virility when a man, in the company of his colleagues, is openly complementary of the magnitude and shape of a nubile young maiden's mammary glands within his near vicinity?
Sir, you are nothing more than an angst-ridden teenage onanist who must forthwith escape the confines of his parent's subterranean storage room and seek copulative relations with a flesh-and-blood woman, rather than with your modern day personal equivalent of the Babbage Difference Engine.
I really must impress upon you that my inability to use profanities is not down to any self-control upon my part but a genetic disorder of extreme magnitude.
Therefore, you, sir, will refrain from this utter stubbornness and placate me somewhat with some words of ancient Anglo-Saxon derivation that I can at least appreciate but, unfortunately, not return in equally profane volleys of poor diction.
I sit here in repose in utter misery, my heart desiring nothing more than an infrequent gift of an ability to use punctuation entirely incorrectly, to not begin sentences with capital letters & to curse like a merchant seaman.
Oh woe is me!
...and you've just been hooked.
Hey, got to burn off some of this Excellent karma anyway.
Microsoft were, and are, far less evil.
Nothing stops you running any software you want on a Windows platform, look at the amount of Open Source applications there are for it.
Microsoft have never said you have to get all your software from them and if you want to look at porn or run emulation software on a Windows OS, there is nothing stopping you.
And before anyone flames me, I'm mostly a Linux user.
What Apple is and what Apple does is no concern of anybody who comes here, except as CONSUMERS of Apple products or possibly as shareholders.
Actually, you're wrong - completely so.
Evil corporations use clever marketing to try & hide the evils in products they sell - DRM, walled gardens, etc.
It is therefore entirely important & right to counteract marketing lies & give people the truth - if they didn't have the truth then every smoker would still believe that cigarettes don't cause lung cancer & make them look like the Marlboro man.
Vendor lock-in restricts consumer choice & if enough people fall for the lies & buy locked-in products just because they look shiny, then that could eventually end up with everyone's freedoms being sold down the river.
Therefore, those of us in the know need to keep repeating the same message to drive it home to the sheeple.
I suspect in a race to Steve Jobs' bottom, you'd win.
... develop a strong sense of self-worth & recognise that someone throwing profanities at you who has never met you is entirely unimportant.
Get over that, then you can have fun baiting them, reeling them in, playing with them a while, then throwing them back when you're bored.
Guess what - to a non-zealot Linux user, it matters not one iota how many other people are using it on the desktop.
All that matters to me is that I've used it for years, it's getting better & better all of the time & long may that continue.
Thanks, but don't givvashit either way.