Whether we gamers like it or not, games are made to make money and extending the playable life of a game probably means that some gamers will keep playing the same game rather than buying a new one. So, at that level, UGC could be seen as something games companies would be reluctant to support because it will hit their profits.
I would suggest that one of the best compromises, which I don't think any games company has done yet, would be to publish UGC on their own game web site, make a small charge for downloading it and pass on some of the money to the gamers who created it. That gives encouragement to the fans to create good quality UGC and mods whilst putting some money back to the games company as well.
I'm a big fan of UGC and always grateful to the people who work long and hard to create great user maps and mods - but there's nothing more disappointing than going to ModDB and seeing a great idea for a mod being abandoned a few months later due to lack of interest - maybe putting some money the creators' way will lessen that?
Wow, you have some serious anger issues, my friend.
Not that I care what you personally think about me, least alone the fact you lack the backbone to post under anything other than AC, but just for your information, I've now been with my woman for 18 years and we're still happy and in love.
Perhaps if you yourself had any kind of sense of humour or intelligence, then you would recognise that my describing myself as a "middle-aged, overweight fat computer bloke" is perhaps just me poking fun at myself a little, because I have enough personality to be able to take criticism as well as dish it out.
And I managed to type all of that without needing to fire any abuse back at you as well - so I guess that makes me better than you and gives me a victory.
Sure, I know that new cool thing is to hate on Apple, the iPhone, iTunes, and the like
I'm a middle-aged, overweight fat computer bloke that moans if he has to spend more than £8 (=$12) on a pair of jeans and listens to Jethro Tull in his spare time - believe me, I gave up on "cool" a long time ago...
I just don't want you getting the impression that most people like or hate things because it's "cool" to do so. In 30+ years of working and playing with computers, I've never found a single reason to own anything or buy anything made by Apple and that isn't going to change any time soon.
Yes, maybe if Apple were less proprietary and locked in than Microsoft, I might consider ditching both Windows and Linux for their products, but the fact is I don't like Apple because they charge far too much for something that looks nice yet doesn't let you do what you want with it......and my experience with most (but not all) Apple users is that they pay a premium price in order to join an exclusive little club where they are permitted to sneer at anyone who doesn't use Apple products without having any requirement to give any technical justifications for it. That, in turn, creates the anti-Apple backlash.
IANAL but I'm not sure it is "legal" to make a backup copy, but it may come under "permissive use" which I don't believe has been challenged too much in the court system.
But perhaps you'd like to manually go get yourself a backbone so that you can demonstrate some strength of character...
Don't like Windows or don't want to pay for it? Then don't use it, get off your backside and spend some time learning about a free alternative like Linux or BSD.
Smart-mouthed idiots like you just give the evil corporations the justification they need to stick on DRM and all manner of protection that make it bad for legitimate users as well.
So please don't expect me to be impressed because when it comes down to it, if you're a pirate then you're a jerk.
In other words, you're a WoW fan but not a Fallout 3 fan...
I, on the other hand, have never played WoW & have no plans to, so cannot really comment on it.
But I do play Fallout 3, which I bought some months after release in a "3 for £25" offer ($40 approx or $13 per game). So far, I've bought two of the DLC expansions, one of which adds additional levels over the original limit of 20 to 30 - so I could argue that expansion alone increases the gameplay time by an additional 50%.
So I cannot make a comparison to WoW but your figures for Fallout 3 don't stack up, I'm afraid - especially as I am over here in supposedly "Rip-Off Britain".
Since it's kids & teenagers who play the most games, and who also have the most limited incomes, then the thinking behind the console game creators is that they may end up buying fewer console games in favour of games on the mobile phones.
...because if the fanbois were not so eager to part with their hard-earned cash to buy DRM'ed AAC content, then actions like this could never get off the ground in the first place.
But because the fanbois have allowed themselves to be squeezed so readily, you can guarantee some other greedy corporation will squeeze them and us even more.
If you're stupid enough to by DRMed products in the first place, then prepare to lie in the bed you've made for yourselves.
If you cannot be bothered to learn to play a "real freakin' guitar" then go make some friends, go buy some tickets to a local pub gig or stadium event, have a beer or two and enjoy a pleasant evening out.
That way you'll support those people who have learnt to play instruments properly, rather than staying indoors masturbating over a plastic guitar & downloading all your music for free.
I will ***GLADLY*** continue to pay the BBC TV license so that I can enjoy a reasonable amount of ***ADVERT FREE*** radio & TV programming, as well as for access to some good resources on the BBC web site.
What I will ***NEVER*** do is pay any money to line your dirty, profiteering pockets, especially now you've exposed yourself as nothing more than a whining maggot!
Oh, and ***PAY*** money for Sky TV that sits there feeding me advertising every few minutes? The answer is two words, "FUCK YOU".
...who have allowed the mega-corporations to become far too powerful.
I have no issue with the development of the Third World, but not at the expense of the Western World - all that is happening here is more and more of the money going into the pockets of the rich elite.
If a corporation trades in the US, Europe or other rich parts of the world but, at the same time, outsources more and more jobs outside those countries, then the governments need to step in and tax their profits heavily.
Simply go for a walk around any UK town or city centre on a Saturday night and you'll see the Neanderthals out in force vomiting into gutters and pushing glasses into each other's faces.
1. No-one is going to steal a paperback book from my bag when I'm not looking.
2. I can't read more than one book at once and don't need to unless I'm computing or programming - in which case I will have all the books I need on a flash stick or portable drive to plug into that computer.
3. I buy most books I read secondhand from charity shops and take them back there when I've finished - so there's a whole heap of recycling going on and money going to good causes.
4. I can take any book from my bookshelves and lend it to a friend or family, just like I can with a music CD.
5. A paper book that I buy today will still be readable in 5 years time.
6. I don't have the constant need to seek the approval from my peers or impress strangers by openly displaying the type and amount of gadgets that I own.
Well, sonny, guess what? You're as BAD as they are - Sony, the RIAA, DRM...
It's because of schmucks like you that evil corporations create justifications to foist their crappy protection and DRM on the rest of us honest consumers.
If you don't like the price of something then DON'T BUY IT and have the courage to then LEAVE IT BE rather than fooling yourself into believing you're FIGHTING THE SYSTEM sat their in your bedroom with your P2P client downloading pirated games.
Over here in the UK, you hardly ever see Segways but whilst at our place in Spain, me and the missus came across a brochure of some company offering a few hours of riding around our local salt flats on them along with a guide.
We both thoroughly enjoyed it. It took about 20 minutes with the instructor/guide getting to grips with the machine but after that it was quite straightforward.
I don't think I'd want to pay the 6,000 Euro price for one that the guide said they cost but we'd both definitely hire them again for a morning of whizzing around on the sands...
Your intelligent argument is totally trashed by the fact that I, as a buyer of music on CD, create the demand for that and more music to be created in the first place, which thus allows someone else to download it freely.
Therefore, I myself am subsidising the music collections of those who choose the copyright infringement path - and if everyone chose that path, then there would be no profit to be made from music meaning it wouldn't get made in the first place leaving no material to infringe the copright thereof.
Just one small point - this doesn't apply just to we Linux FOSS users but also to people like my missus who bought herself a EEE PC 1000HE to replace her aging laptop that went faulty.
She doesn't use Linux, is happy with XP and has a licensed copy of Windows XP Professional (not OEM-ed to a specific PC). I did tell her to try for the refund for the license on the new Asus because she could just use her existing XP Pro one - but she said she couldn't be bothered with reinstallation of everything.
While cooler heads are trying (with varying degrees of success) to find an implementation of DRM that isn't too onerous
Whilst I agree with the rest of your comments, this one above is wrong.
I've been listening to and buying music for 35+ years of my life and I've spent thousands of pounds on vinyl, audio cassettes and CDs over the years. I don't have any problem with having done that, listening to music is my first hobby and truly great albums (of which I have many) are well worth the £10 or so price of a CD if they've entertained me over and over again over the space of two, three or four decades - not to mention the wealth of new talent out there as well.
But my whole interest in music is based around it being a social thing - listening to music with friends, going in a group to concerts and lending/borrowing albums to/from others. The whole point of DRM is to restrict that social aspect, whether in a relatively insignificant way or by limiting you to music with a lifespan - in either way, it's wrong and it's evil.
"Global warming" implies man-made causes whereas anyone who actually went to secondary school and did geography and/or geology knows that for millions of years the Earth's ice has been expanding & contracting, resulting in at least four Ice Ages and all of which happened before man was ever here.
Sure, let's recycle more and let's burn less hydrocarbons because that's a good thing to do anyway - but "global warming" is about tax expansion, not ice contraction.
Slashdot Mirror
Funnily enough, you speak and rant exactly like I would expect a rabid Apple fanboi to speak and rant - so well done for preserving the stereotype.
Whether we gamers like it or not, games are made to make money and extending the playable life of a game probably means that some gamers will keep playing the same game rather than buying a new one. So, at that level, UGC could be seen as something games companies would be reluctant to support because it will hit their profits.
I would suggest that one of the best compromises, which I don't think any games company has done yet, would be to publish UGC on their own game web site, make a small charge for downloading it and pass on some of the money to the gamers who created it. That gives encouragement to the fans to create good quality UGC and mods whilst putting some money back to the games company as well.
I'm a big fan of UGC and always grateful to the people who work long and hard to create great user maps and mods - but there's nothing more disappointing than going to ModDB and seeing a great idea for a mod being abandoned a few months later due to lack of interest - maybe putting some money the creators' way will lessen that?
Wow, you have some serious anger issues, my friend.
Not that I care what you personally think about me, least alone the fact you lack the backbone to post under anything other than AC, but just for your information, I've now been with my woman for 18 years and we're still happy and in love.
Perhaps if you yourself had any kind of sense of humour or intelligence, then you would recognise that my describing myself as a "middle-aged, overweight fat computer bloke" is perhaps just me poking fun at myself a little, because I have enough personality to be able to take criticism as well as dish it out.
And I managed to type all of that without needing to fire any abuse back at you as well - so I guess that makes me better than you and gives me a victory.
Seeya.
Sure, I know that new cool thing is to hate on Apple, the iPhone, iTunes, and the like
I'm a middle-aged, overweight fat computer bloke that moans if he has to spend more than £8 (=$12) on a pair of jeans and listens to Jethro Tull in his spare time - believe me, I gave up on "cool" a long time ago...
I just don't want you getting the impression that most people like or hate things because it's "cool" to do so. In 30+ years of working and playing with computers, I've never found a single reason to own anything or buy anything made by Apple and that isn't going to change any time soon.
Yes, maybe if Apple were less proprietary and locked in than Microsoft, I might consider ditching both Windows and Linux for their products, but the fact is I don't like Apple because they charge far too much for something that looks nice yet doesn't let you do what you want with it... ...and my experience with most (but not all) Apple users is that they pay a premium price in order to join an exclusive little club where they are permitted to sneer at anyone who doesn't use Apple products without having any requirement to give any technical justifications for it. That, in turn, creates the anti-Apple backlash.
IANAL but I'm not sure it is "legal" to make a backup copy, but it may come under "permissive use" which I don't believe has been challenged too much in the court system.
But perhaps you'd like to manually go get yourself a backbone so that you can demonstrate some strength of character...
Don't like Windows or don't want to pay for it? Then don't use it, get off your backside and spend some time learning about a free alternative like Linux or BSD.
Smart-mouthed idiots like you just give the evil corporations the justification they need to stick on DRM and all manner of protection that make it bad for legitimate users as well.
So please don't expect me to be impressed because when it comes down to it, if you're a pirate then you're a jerk.
In other words, you're a WoW fan but not a Fallout 3 fan...
I, on the other hand, have never played WoW & have no plans to, so cannot really comment on it.
But I do play Fallout 3, which I bought some months after release in a "3 for £25" offer ($40 approx or $13 per game). So far, I've bought two of the DLC expansions, one of which adds additional levels over the original limit of 20 to 30 - so I could argue that expansion alone increases the gameplay time by an additional 50%.
So I cannot make a comparison to WoW but your figures for Fallout 3 don't stack up, I'm afraid - especially as I am over here in supposedly "Rip-Off Britain".
Since it's kids & teenagers who play the most games, and who also have the most limited incomes, then the thinking behind the console game creators is that they may end up buying fewer console games in favour of games on the mobile phones.
Yes, but not when it was first launched.
...because if the fanbois were not so eager to part with their hard-earned cash to buy DRM'ed AAC content, then actions like this could never get off the ground in the first place.
But because the fanbois have allowed themselves to be squeezed so readily, you can guarantee some other greedy corporation will squeeze them and us even more.
If you're stupid enough to by DRMed products in the first place, then prepare to lie in the bed you've made for yourselves.
...since so many misguided people mistook "Halo" for a real game.
You forgot to mention all of the product placements they want you to see in their videos also.
...and just to add to the above:
If you cannot be bothered to learn to play a "real freakin' guitar" then go make some friends, go buy some tickets to a local pub gig or stadium event, have a beer or two and enjoy a pleasant evening out.
That way you'll support those people who have learnt to play instruments properly, rather than staying indoors masturbating over a plastic guitar & downloading all your music for free.
I will ***GLADLY*** continue to pay the BBC TV license so that I can enjoy a reasonable amount of ***ADVERT FREE*** radio & TV programming, as well as for access to some good resources on the BBC web site.
What I will ***NEVER*** do is pay any money to line your dirty, profiteering pockets, especially now you've exposed yourself as nothing more than a whining maggot!
Oh, and ***PAY*** money for Sky TV that sits there feeding me advertising every few minutes? The answer is two words, "FUCK YOU".
...who have allowed the mega-corporations to become far too powerful.
I have no issue with the development of the Third World, but not at the expense of the Western World - all that is happening here is more and more of the money going into the pockets of the rich elite.
If a corporation trades in the US, Europe or other rich parts of the world but, at the same time, outsources more and more jobs outside those countries, then the governments need to step in and tax their profits heavily.
Science fiction???
Simply go for a walk around any UK town or city centre on a Saturday night and you'll see the Neanderthals out in force vomiting into gutters and pushing glasses into each other's faces.
I see that you've been to a Metallica concert then?
1. No-one is going to steal a paperback book from my bag when I'm not looking.
2. I can't read more than one book at once and don't need to unless I'm computing or programming - in which case I will have all the books I need on a flash stick or portable drive to plug into that computer.
3. I buy most books I read secondhand from charity shops and take them back there when I've finished - so there's a whole heap of recycling going on and money going to good causes.
4. I can take any book from my bookshelves and lend it to a friend or family, just like I can with a music CD.
5. A paper book that I buy today will still be readable in 5 years time.
6. I don't have the constant need to seek the approval from my peers or impress strangers by openly displaying the type and amount of gadgets that I own.
Well, sonny, guess what? You're as BAD as they are - Sony, the RIAA, DRM...
It's because of schmucks like you that evil corporations create justifications to foist their crappy protection and DRM on the rest of us honest consumers.
If you don't like the price of something then DON'T BUY IT and have the courage to then LEAVE IT BE rather than fooling yourself into believing you're FIGHTING THE SYSTEM sat their in your bedroom with your P2P client downloading pirated games.
I think xkcd suffers from the reverse syndrome - namely, far too many people pretending to like it for the sake of trying to be cool.
Sorry, I've tried to like it but xkcd ***JUST ISN'T FUNNY***.
Give me this any day for a daily chuckle.
Over here in the UK, you hardly ever see Segways but whilst at our place in Spain, me and the missus came across a brochure of some company offering a few hours of riding around our local salt flats on them along with a guide.
We both thoroughly enjoyed it. It took about 20 minutes with the instructor/guide getting to grips with the machine but after that it was quite straightforward.
I don't think I'd want to pay the 6,000 Euro price for one that the guide said they cost but we'd both definitely hire them again for a morning of whizzing around on the sands...
Your intelligent argument is totally trashed by the fact that I, as a buyer of music on CD, create the demand for that and more music to be created in the first place, which thus allows someone else to download it freely.
Therefore, I myself am subsidising the music collections of those who choose the copyright infringement path - and if everyone chose that path, then there would be no profit to be made from music meaning it wouldn't get made in the first place leaving no material to infringe the copright thereof.
Just one small point - this doesn't apply just to we Linux FOSS users but also to people like my missus who bought herself a EEE PC 1000HE to replace her aging laptop that went faulty.
She doesn't use Linux, is happy with XP and has a licensed copy of Windows XP Professional (not OEM-ed to a specific PC). I did tell her to try for the refund for the license on the new Asus because she could just use her existing XP Pro one - but she said she couldn't be bothered with reinstallation of everything.
While cooler heads are trying (with varying degrees of success) to find an implementation of DRM that isn't too onerous
Whilst I agree with the rest of your comments, this one above is wrong.
I've been listening to and buying music for 35+ years of my life and I've spent thousands of pounds on vinyl, audio cassettes and CDs over the years. I don't have any problem with having done that, listening to music is my first hobby and truly great albums (of which I have many) are well worth the £10 or so price of a CD if they've entertained me over and over again over the space of two, three or four decades - not to mention the wealth of new talent out there as well.
But my whole interest in music is based around it being a social thing - listening to music with friends, going in a group to concerts and lending/borrowing albums to/from others. The whole point of DRM is to restrict that social aspect, whether in a relatively insignificant way or by limiting you to music with a lifespan - in either way, it's wrong and it's evil.
It is "climate change" not "global warming".
"Global warming" implies man-made causes whereas anyone who actually went to secondary school and did geography and/or geology knows that for millions of years the Earth's ice has been expanding & contracting, resulting in at least four Ice Ages and all of which happened before man was ever here.
Sure, let's recycle more and let's burn less hydrocarbons because that's a good thing to do anyway - but "global warming" is about tax expansion, not ice contraction.