In the 90ies a PC was obsolete the moment you exited the shop. Computing power doubled every 2-3 years. Memory prices came down in a steep decline complete with incompatibility to whatever you just had. And when you switch to the late 90ies you'l find that the 3D card you bought months ago is not supported by any current games since you are supposed to buy a new one every few months.
The only thing you could buy in the 90ies that'd last you a lifetime is a Soundblaster 16. Except the connectors are now obsolete...
2000 AD: Apple begins selling its products to hipsters, more than just self-righteous gear nerds.
2012 AD: The hipster mentality takes over Apple entirely. When faced with a court ruling, Apple stamps its feet like a petulant child, lights up an "American Spirit," and talks about how music was cooler back when it was DIY and this court has never heard of that.
This is what irks me the most. I smoke American Spirit and I did it before it was co.....oh SHIT! DAMMIT!
Can't we just kill them? It wouldn't be euthanasia but self-defense. In a "stand your soapbox" kind of way.
Getting a second opinion is far from novel. People do it all the time. The novelty is the scale in which he takes that second opinion thing.
Will it help him?
No, it won't. In fact it will get in the way.
The problem is that he will get a lot of opinions with a lot of different treatments which will be mutually exclusive. Also he will get a lot of BS suggestions ranging from homeopathy, feng shui to praying. Quod capita tot census.
The only surefire cure -in fact the only medical discipline that REALLY is able to cure by itsself- is surgery. If it isn't applicable then you will be limited to the unpleasant other alternatives. Or praying. Or homeopathy. Or feng shui.
I really do sympathise with him. He is understandably grasping for straws and hopes there is somebody out there who can help him and he hopes his fishing expedition will actually find that person. But even if there were a silver bullet it is very unlikely he will be able to identify it.
You memorized levels and opponent movement which pretty much was on rails. If you deviated from the optimum you pretty much got your head ripped off. Xenon2 and Star Goose spring to mind. Also you could very easily get stuck for not getting a MacGuffin in a previous chapter which you couldn't return to.
Also timers.
In the olden days a challenge was also a case of hit&miss.
It'd be interesting to compare how many people got the level 10 achievement, the level 60 achievement and the "I killed Diablo in Inferno and all I got was this lousy T- Shirt" achievement.
Given the stink Blizzard got over monetizing the un-fun of Diablo 3 game developers need to re-examine what a challenge is. Nowadays it seems to be cheap deaths.
Or take for instance Assassins Creed. They change the game mechanics so often your head goes dizzy. One time you can kill your mark whichever way you see fit and another time you will arbitrarily fail when you get spotted. Add in tower defense games, board games, races against the clock with wonky controls, naval attles, mini strategy games and farm ville light. The series hasn't executed its core mechanic competently for some time and shovels stuff with arbitrary fail states on top of that. The only series that pulled that off competently was the Arkham series.
Contrast that with the very shallow Skyrim. It has graceful quest failstates and lets you go about your business. Even if it isn't very balanced.
Game designers have to take a look at the successful indies who have been eating their lunch for some time now. They mostly have one core mechanic, take care that it's properly executed and sell at a justifyable price.
I can't remember having The Kid jump against a corner when I wanted him to run around it.The War Mage kills orks by the score and doesn't second guess your inputs. He doesn't sit down for a board game either.
Tablet: Where's the joystick? Where are the good games?
They are actually coming or already there. In fact a couple of oldish titles got ported to Android. And tablet gaming is moving away from tower defense and aggravated avians. And the more recent Android tablets have PS3 controller support out of the box. Most of the more serious games also support it. And HDMI output is quite common. My Transformer Prime is even capable to output 3D in that nVidia standard. Works nicely, too. Tho game support for that is predicatbly lousy.
I can't speak for iPads but I have a feeling that standard stuff doesn't work with those.
There is a reason why the Ouya seems to be a good idea. Although I think it should also get Google Play support to take full advantage of the plattform.
Also TES has become quite famous for its mods. I wouldn't buy a moddable game for console because on PC you have much more freedom to totally screw up without having to pass every bit you put on your system through some digital committee.
Also Skyrim on PS3 was a desaster you could see a long time coming.
...and then they get shamed by things like the Ouya that use bottom shelf components that already gets produced by the beeelions. Most of the time I don't understand design process. At all.
I know that designing a game console means you design for the next couple of years. I understand that you can't change your platform too much for compatibility reasons. I also understand that most of your hardware choices are a bet on what will be commodity components within a couple of years.
None of which explains any design choice Sony has ever made with its PlayStation line. Only thing they ever did right was selling the PS2 as an alternative to a DVD player. And then they even fumbled that.
Some tablets have more memory than cutting edge consoles. And they are catching up on graphics capability. Add an HDMI port and ability to bluetoth a PS3 dual shock controller and then ask yourself why you need a console.
My year old Transformer Prime lives up to a PS2 when you want to directly compare games. At times I feel it nearly is on par with a PS3. I can only imagine where we will be in another year.
Also a lot of very successful indie titles could easily run on such limited hardware as tablets. It's only the overproduced pap that requires thousands of artists who create 12gigs of Disney level artwork that really need a much more powerful machine. Also the dull crowd of gamers who shout for photorealism in games(and very often are completely ambivalent about actual gameplay) need a much more powerful machine.
That being said I feel a deep sense of satisfaction Skyrim doesn't run on PS3.
The only growth market for games atm seem to be indie games that could also run on tablets. I think the market for AAA overproduced titles is the one that's shrinking. In fact it seems to be reduced to about 10 or so derivative works of an already established series.
Just take a look at what you get for a full priced AAA game. I know this is anecdotal but when I take a look at what I played for how long then Bastion is a better game than AssCreed: Revelations. Or Warlock: Master of the Arcane is a better game than The Witcher 2. If you know all 4 games then you'd agree that they are roughly the same in longevity and enjoyment. I bought all 4 right when they got published at full price. In that respect, Warlock and Bastion were a steal. Together they didn't cost as much as AssCreed: Revelations. And they didn't need as much work. You'd be a fool to spend 60 bucks on a AAA game. And you'd be a fool if you (over)produced a AAA game outside of a well established series.
The market may be oversaturated but it is also shifting. Game producers who'd better produce the next Hollywood pap with explosions and no story at all are going the way of the dodo.
On a sidenote:
Warlock has become a very nice game after a bit of DLC and patches. It was sadly rushed. Not quite MoM but what is?
well.. daggerfall, an older game in the elder scrolls series, is actually much bigger than skyrim(iirc about the size of england in real life), because it uses generated content. which on that days graphics and level complexity worked pretty nice.
No, it didn't. The generated dungeons very often had unreachable segments that contained the McGuffin you had to find for the mages guild. It was a soulless game all in all. I wouldn't call it a successful application of procedurally generated content but rather a cautionary tale.
TES has had a rightfully deserved reputation of shallowness. Especially RPGs live and die by carefully crafted worlds. Given the choice between Planescape: Torment and Daggerfall I know which one I'd choose.
Of course there is the other extreme of RPG where you are basically on rails and you are basically relegated to the position of spectator. Or the game isn't about the world but constant repitition of the same old. MMOs and ARPGs fall into the latter category.
If you don't know that you are doing something wrong while cheating I will call you a sociopath.
If you know you are doing something wrong but you do it anyway I will call you weak willed.
Ify you forget about your SO while cheating then I will call you an insincere idiot.
And I will say that calling cheating "a mistake" is a euphemism that has to die.
Well, jumping out of the 11th floor is a mistake. And since I've never done that and therefore obviously being a person who doesn't make mistakes(employing your logic here) I can tell you that living with a strong moral compass is actually easier than living without.
Well, whenever I walk over to my Coworkers they are playing one of those games. They still get their stuff(mostly) done. So there is no explanation that will keep the space/time continuum intact.
Adblocking is an act of self defense. Too often has my system been halted to a crawl by Flash and bad JS. Also I have a 2gb mobile data plan. You trying to sell me stuff using resources I have to pay for is not acceptable.
If the adoids and other mad men showed some restraint then this wouldn't be such a big problem. Instead they do this LOOK AT ME BLINK FLASH BANG stuff that really gets in the way. Also targeted ads for stuff I searched for online is becoming creepy. I don't appreciate being stalked by cellphones I decided not to buy.
The subscription model works if you manage to get single sign on done(I don't want to memorize another password for another website) and if you get micropayments/subscriptions to a level that is practical and reasonable. People buy apps for a buck on a whim. I buy kindle newspaper editions on a whim. Yet in many cases payment gets in the way. For instance I was really interested getting the online edition of DER SPIEGEL(one of the few remaining respectable weeklies worldwide) for my tablet. Their subscription process mimicks what they had used for their print edition. I wasn't able to pay on Amazon. I wasn't able to pay via Google Play. I decided I didn't need it. If your process still uses snail mail, fax or me setting up monthly payments via online banking and a week-long approval process then you got no sale. Good luck with that ad revenue and dead tree editions.
No failed business practice has ever been successfully defended by a lawyer. They only can slow down the inevitable and become rich in the process.
Forget the retraining argument. It is pure and utter nonsense FUD which always gets thrown around by MS salesmen.
You NEED extensive retraining when you change to a competitor's product.
You do NOT need retraining when MS changed the UI araound. In fact it boosted efficiency.
Also MS Office amounts propably to a third of daily software usage by the average office drone. The other two thirds is custom stuff they propably also didn't get training for. And the reamining quarter is time wasters like Solitaire.
This project has been going on for some time. Also OpenOffice's UI isn't that far from MS Office of yesteryear.
Also you don't seem to be aware of the reality of IT workplaces in large organizations. They use custom software. Software built specifically for them. Stuff that doesn't come up when you google for it. They are used to learning new stuff. The Kreisverwaltungsreferat alone propably has a couple of hundred custom software solutions created from scratch and each of it unprecedented.
THC is one of the oldest drugs known to mankind. It may even predate alcohol since it is much easier to produce. Also people have been taking this stuff despite the prohibition that's been going on for the last hundred years or so.
So how is this a new problem? I think there is much more lazyness involved or this is another scare tactic. The "but we can't easily detect DUI" argument has been used against the abolishment of the prohibition since forever.
If the person you just stopped is not showing any outward signs of any kind of intoxication then he propably is fine to drive. If he shows signs of intoxication then you'd take him in anyhow. In that case there is enough time for him to pee on a stick or something.
Overall it would be cheaper not to be shot at. That also would be less inconvenient.
Given that the Israeli hawkish behaviour surely has contributed to the rise of the bat-shit crazy Hamas and the hawkish behaviour has yet to deliver comfortable peace and quiet one might be so bold as to suggest a change in politics is in order? Or is everything hunky-dory?
One would expect that both sides might be a bit bored of being shot at by now.
It might be a money grab. But riddle me this, holy Antisharkspray.
Legit services will do this to you:
Steam will cut you off of your sizeable and paid for and possibly extensive games library simply for moving into another region.
Amazon will cut you off of your whole Kindle library simply for moving into another region.
This is not even for real but only contractual law since publishing rights still honour the outmoded notion of country borders.
Would you accept if you were to move to Europe to forfeit everything you ever bought on Kindle, Steam, or any other sevice?
Copyright stuff has moved beyond the usual 100 years after creator's death + Disney shenanigans into the crazy realm of publishing rights into however the world got carved up into publishing rights areas.
I for one have deDRMed my whole Kindle-bought Batman collection just in case I might want to move away and if I put it onto Rapidshare just to protect my investment then it shouldn't be viewed as outlawnessnessitude but a failure of copyright law. Took me a whole weekend. Which in turn made me realise I spend too much on Batman.
Also, Batman.
Copyrightpublisherlaw shouldn't stand a chance of a snowball in hell but it instead thrives like The Penguin in Nomansland. How come?
Comply?
COMPLY!
Sorry, try as I might, the pirates offer the better service.
While I deDRMed my Batman collection I went on search for my favourite childhood radio show. Amazon had an offer for the first 4 shows of 40. The second episode cost 30€ from "affiliiates". Nada, zip, zilch for the next 36 episodes. So I went for another online shop. Same misery, less cutthroat. 36 episodes not published. And even if they were, it still would have been 10€ per episode. Pay 400€ for stuff I recorded from radio to tape as a kid? I could afford that but guess who took to Teh Mighty Internets to torrent that stuff from kids who managed to have backups of their old tapes? Worse even still, the originals got lost and they tried to restore it from amateurs who still had recordings in their attic.
Current copyright reality is worse than the fire in the Library of Alexandria. Copy that floppy and shoot a lawyer.
I beg of you, just because somebody carved up the world into publishing areas and only stuff that will offer short term yield will get archived(read: put into the back catalogue) copy the hell out of that stuff. Future generations will thank you.
Oh, but I'm pretty much hardcore and I never see 'bad endings' in games even if I have to start over and over again. But this particular mission was just frustrating.
There's a difference when you are subjected to random insta-fails(like 3 bombers simultaneously launching 2 fatal torpedoes each at a freighter or impossible monster affixes in D3) and hard games(like Xenon2 which you could beat with practice).
The industry has forgotten what difficult really is. You either get "press X to win" or your head ripped off at random. The new X-Com found a good balance.
Yup, there is. Eve Online is nice if you want to immerse yourselv in the latest shitstorm. But I have no inclanation whatsoever to play that.
I'm much more excited by the prospect of a new Elite. Perhaps with(optional) explosions-in-space level of realism? Dogfighting could be very frustrating in Elite. An X -Wing level of complexity with an Elite openness and scale would be my wet dream.
Slashdot Mirror
In the 90ies a PC was obsolete the moment you exited the shop. Computing power doubled every 2-3 years. Memory prices came down in a steep decline complete with incompatibility to whatever you just had. And when you switch to the late 90ies you'l find that the 3D card you bought months ago is not supported by any current games since you are supposed to buy a new one every few months.
The only thing you could buy in the 90ies that'd last you a lifetime is a Soundblaster 16. Except the connectors are now obsolete...
And I tell them that I may be unique but that doesn't make me a beautiful snowflake.
2000 AD: Apple begins selling its products to hipsters, more than just self-righteous gear nerds.
2012 AD: The hipster mentality takes over Apple entirely. When faced with a court ruling, Apple stamps its feet like a petulant child, lights up an "American Spirit," and talks about how music was cooler back when it was DIY and this court has never heard of that.
This is what irks me the most. I smoke American Spirit and I did it before it was co.....oh SHIT! DAMMIT!
Can't we just kill them? It wouldn't be euthanasia but self-defense. In a "stand your soapbox" kind of way.
The chance of those agreeing on anything is exactly zero. How do you pick one?
Getting a second opinion is far from novel. People do it all the time. The novelty is the scale in which he takes that second opinion thing.
Will it help him?
No, it won't. In fact it will get in the way.
The problem is that he will get a lot of opinions with a lot of different treatments which will be mutually exclusive. Also he will get a lot of BS suggestions ranging from homeopathy, feng shui to praying. Quod capita tot census.
The only surefire cure -in fact the only medical discipline that REALLY is able to cure by itsself- is surgery. If it isn't applicable then you will be limited to the unpleasant other alternatives. Or praying. Or homeopathy. Or feng shui.
I really do sympathise with him. He is understandably grasping for straws and hopes there is somebody out there who can help him and he hopes his fishing expedition will actually find that person. But even if there were a silver bullet it is very unlikely he will be able to identify it.
You memorized levels and opponent movement which pretty much was on rails. If you deviated from the optimum you pretty much got your head ripped off. Xenon2 and Star Goose spring to mind. Also you could very easily get stuck for not getting a MacGuffin in a previous chapter which you couldn't return to.
Also timers.
In the olden days a challenge was also a case of hit&miss.
It'd be interesting to compare how many people got the level 10 achievement, the level 60 achievement and the "I killed Diablo in Inferno and all I got was this lousy T- Shirt" achievement.
Given the stink Blizzard got over monetizing the un-fun of Diablo 3 game developers need to re-examine what a challenge is. Nowadays it seems to be cheap deaths.
Or take for instance Assassins Creed. They change the game mechanics so often your head goes dizzy. One time you can kill your mark whichever way you see fit and another time you will arbitrarily fail when you get spotted. Add in tower defense games, board games, races against the clock with wonky controls, naval attles, mini strategy games and farm ville light. The series hasn't executed its core mechanic competently for some time and shovels stuff with arbitrary fail states on top of that. The only series that pulled that off competently was the Arkham series.
Contrast that with the very shallow Skyrim. It has graceful quest failstates and lets you go about your business. Even if it isn't very balanced.
Game designers have to take a look at the successful indies who have been eating their lunch for some time now. They mostly have one core mechanic, take care that it's properly executed and sell at a justifyable price.
I can't remember having The Kid jump against a corner when I wanted him to run around it.The War Mage kills orks by the score and doesn't second guess your inputs. He doesn't sit down for a board game either.
Tablet: Where's the joystick? Where are the good games?
They are actually coming or already there. In fact a couple of oldish titles got ported to Android. And tablet gaming is moving away from tower defense and aggravated avians. And the more recent Android tablets have PS3 controller support out of the box. Most of the more serious games also support it. And HDMI output is quite common. My Transformer Prime is even capable to output 3D in that nVidia standard. Works nicely, too. Tho game support for that is predicatbly lousy.
I can't speak for iPads but I have a feeling that standard stuff doesn't work with those.
There is a reason why the Ouya seems to be a good idea. Although I think it should also get Google Play support to take full advantage of the plattform.
Also TES has become quite famous for its mods. I wouldn't buy a moddable game for console because on PC you have much more freedom to totally screw up without having to pass every bit you put on your system through some digital committee.
Also Skyrim on PS3 was a desaster you could see a long time coming.
...and then they get shamed by things like the Ouya that use bottom shelf components that already gets produced by the beeelions. Most of the time I don't understand design process. At all.
I know that designing a game console means you design for the next couple of years. I understand that you can't change your platform too much for compatibility reasons. I also understand that most of your hardware choices are a bet on what will be commodity components within a couple of years.
None of which explains any design choice Sony has ever made with its PlayStation line. Only thing they ever did right was selling the PS2 as an alternative to a DVD player. And then they even fumbled that.
Some tablets have more memory than cutting edge consoles. And they are catching up on graphics capability. Add an HDMI port and ability to bluetoth a PS3 dual shock controller and then ask yourself why you need a console.
My year old Transformer Prime lives up to a PS2 when you want to directly compare games. At times I feel it nearly is on par with a PS3. I can only imagine where we will be in another year.
Also a lot of very successful indie titles could easily run on such limited hardware as tablets. It's only the overproduced pap that requires thousands of artists who create 12gigs of Disney level artwork that really need a much more powerful machine. Also the dull crowd of gamers who shout for photorealism in games(and very often are completely ambivalent about actual gameplay) need a much more powerful machine.
That being said I feel a deep sense of satisfaction Skyrim doesn't run on PS3.
The only growth market for games atm seem to be indie games that could also run on tablets. I think the market for AAA overproduced titles is the one that's shrinking. In fact it seems to be reduced to about 10 or so derivative works of an already established series.
Just take a look at what you get for a full priced AAA game. I know this is anecdotal but when I take a look at what I played for how long then Bastion is a better game than AssCreed: Revelations. Or Warlock: Master of the Arcane is a better game than The Witcher 2. If you know all 4 games then you'd agree that they are roughly the same in longevity and enjoyment. I bought all 4 right when they got published at full price. In that respect, Warlock and Bastion were a steal. Together they didn't cost as much as AssCreed: Revelations. And they didn't need as much work. You'd be a fool to spend 60 bucks on a AAA game. And you'd be a fool if you (over)produced a AAA game outside of a well established series.
The market may be oversaturated but it is also shifting. Game producers who'd better produce the next Hollywood pap with explosions and no story at all are going the way of the dodo.
On a sidenote:
Warlock has become a very nice game after a bit of DLC and patches. It was sadly rushed. Not quite MoM but what is?
well.. daggerfall, an older game in the elder scrolls series, is actually much bigger than skyrim(iirc about the size of england in real life), because it uses generated content. which on that days graphics and level complexity worked pretty nice.
No, it didn't. The generated dungeons very often had unreachable segments that contained the McGuffin you had to find for the mages guild. It was a soulless game all in all. I wouldn't call it a successful application of procedurally generated content but rather a cautionary tale.
TES has had a rightfully deserved reputation of shallowness. Especially RPGs live and die by carefully crafted worlds. Given the choice between Planescape: Torment and Daggerfall I know which one I'd choose.
Of course there is the other extreme of RPG where you are basically on rails and you are basically relegated to the position of spectator. Or the game isn't about the world but constant repitition of the same old. MMOs and ARPGs fall into the latter category.
Torchlight 2. Diablo 2, and Diablo 3.
Calling those three RPGs is like calling watching porn "sex".
Multiplayer online RPGs tend to ruin the experience for everyone. When the roflcopter lands the immersion is gone.
Just a nit I had to pick.
If you don't know that you are doing something wrong while cheating I will call you a sociopath.
If you know you are doing something wrong but you do it anyway I will call you weak willed.
Ify you forget about your SO while cheating then I will call you an insincere idiot.
And I will say that calling cheating "a mistake" is a euphemism that has to die.
Well, jumping out of the 11th floor is a mistake. And since I've never done that and therefore obviously being a person who doesn't make mistakes(employing your logic here) I can tell you that living with a strong moral compass is actually easier than living without.
Well, whenever I walk over to my Coworkers they are playing one of those games. They still get their stuff(mostly) done. So there is no explanation that will keep the space/time continuum intact.
Adblocking is an act of self defense. Too often has my system been halted to a crawl by Flash and bad JS. Also I have a 2gb mobile data plan. You trying to sell me stuff using resources I have to pay for is not acceptable.
If the adoids and other mad men showed some restraint then this wouldn't be such a big problem. Instead they do this LOOK AT ME BLINK FLASH BANG stuff that really gets in the way. Also targeted ads for stuff I searched for online is becoming creepy. I don't appreciate being stalked by cellphones I decided not to buy.
The subscription model works if you manage to get single sign on done(I don't want to memorize another password for another website) and if you get micropayments/subscriptions to a level that is practical and reasonable. People buy apps for a buck on a whim. I buy kindle newspaper editions on a whim. Yet in many cases payment gets in the way. For instance I was really interested getting the online edition of DER SPIEGEL(one of the few remaining respectable weeklies worldwide) for my tablet. Their subscription process mimicks what they had used for their print edition. I wasn't able to pay on Amazon. I wasn't able to pay via Google Play. I decided I didn't need it. If your process still uses snail mail, fax or me setting up monthly payments via online banking and a week-long approval process then you got no sale. Good luck with that ad revenue and dead tree editions.
No failed business practice has ever been successfully defended by a lawyer. They only can slow down the inevitable and become rich in the process.
Forget the retraining argument. It is pure and utter nonsense FUD which always gets thrown around by MS salesmen.
You NEED extensive retraining when you change to a competitor's product.
You do NOT need retraining when MS changed the UI araound. In fact it boosted efficiency.
Also MS Office amounts propably to a third of daily software usage by the average office drone. The other two thirds is custom stuff they propably also didn't get training for. And the reamining quarter is time wasters like Solitaire.
This project has been going on for some time. Also OpenOffice's UI isn't that far from MS Office of yesteryear.
Also you don't seem to be aware of the reality of IT workplaces in large organizations. They use custom software. Software built specifically for them. Stuff that doesn't come up when you google for it. They are used to learning new stuff. The Kreisverwaltungsreferat alone propably has a couple of hundred custom software solutions created from scratch and each of it unprecedented.
They are constantly adapting just fine.
Easy. If suing gets them nowhere then they'll sue some more.
SCO is a pioneer for this business model.
Why do they worry about this now?
THC is one of the oldest drugs known to mankind. It may even predate alcohol since it is much easier to produce. Also people have been taking this stuff despite the prohibition that's been going on for the last hundred years or so.
So how is this a new problem? I think there is much more lazyness involved or this is another scare tactic. The "but we can't easily detect DUI" argument has been used against the abolishment of the prohibition since forever.
If the person you just stopped is not showing any outward signs of any kind of intoxication then he propably is fine to drive. If he shows signs of intoxication then you'd take him in anyhow. In that case there is enough time for him to pee on a stick or something.
Overall it would be cheaper not to be shot at. That also would be less inconvenient.
Given that the Israeli hawkish behaviour surely has contributed to the rise of the bat-shit crazy Hamas and the hawkish behaviour has yet to deliver comfortable peace and quiet one might be so bold as to suggest a change in politics is in order? Or is everything hunky-dory?
One would expect that both sides might be a bit bored of being shot at by now.
It might be a money grab. But riddle me this, holy Antisharkspray.
Legit services will do this to you:
Steam will cut you off of your sizeable and paid for and possibly extensive games library simply for moving into another region.
Amazon will cut you off of your whole Kindle library simply for moving into another region.
This is not even for real but only contractual law since publishing rights still honour the outmoded notion of country borders.
Would you accept if you were to move to Europe to forfeit everything you ever bought on Kindle, Steam, or any other sevice?
Copyright stuff has moved beyond the usual 100 years after creator's death + Disney shenanigans into the crazy realm of publishing rights into however the world got carved up into publishing rights areas.
I for one have deDRMed my whole Kindle-bought Batman collection just in case I might want to move away and if I put it onto Rapidshare just to protect my investment then it shouldn't be viewed as outlawnessnessitude but a failure of copyright law. Took me a whole weekend. Which in turn made me realise I spend too much on Batman.
Also, Batman.
Copyrightpublisherlaw shouldn't stand a chance of a snowball in hell but it instead thrives like The Penguin in Nomansland. How come?
Comply?
COMPLY!
Sorry, try as I might, the pirates offer the better service.
While I deDRMed my Batman collection I went on search for my favourite childhood radio show. Amazon had an offer for the first 4 shows of 40. The second episode cost 30€ from "affiliiates". Nada, zip, zilch for the next 36 episodes. So I went for another online shop. Same misery, less cutthroat. 36 episodes not published. And even if they were, it still would have been 10€ per episode. Pay 400€ for stuff I recorded from radio to tape as a kid? I could afford that but guess who took to Teh Mighty Internets to torrent that stuff from kids who managed to have backups of their old tapes? Worse even still, the originals got lost and they tried to restore it from amateurs who still had recordings in their attic.
Current copyright reality is worse than the fire in the Library of Alexandria. Copy that floppy and shoot a lawyer.
I beg of you, just because somebody carved up the world into publishing areas and only stuff that will offer short term yield will get archived(read: put into the back catalogue) copy the hell out of that stuff. Future generations will thank you.
Oh, but I'm pretty much hardcore and I never see 'bad endings' in games even if I have to start over and over again. But this particular mission was just frustrating.
There's a difference when you are subjected to random insta-fails(like 3 bombers simultaneously launching 2 fatal torpedoes each at a freighter or impossible monster affixes in D3) and hard games(like Xenon2 which you could beat with practice).
The industry has forgotten what difficult really is. You either get "press X to win" or your head ripped off at random. The new X-Com found a good balance.
Yup, there is. Eve Online is nice if you want to immerse yourselv in the latest shitstorm. But I have no inclanation whatsoever to play that.
I'm much more excited by the prospect of a new Elite. Perhaps with(optional) explosions-in-space level of realism? Dogfighting could be very frustrating in Elite. An X -Wing level of complexity with an Elite openness and scale would be my wet dream.