Yes, I consider those things my personal details, along with my street address, phone number, bank account number, etc. etc.
Something interesting about public information and personal information is it varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Email addresses are used by both individuals and businesses. In the case of politicians or when requesting public records, in many situations emails are public knowledge. Not to mention many email providers provide indexes listing their members which are opt in. Your address is public knowledge as well as personally identifiable and is even listed on the side of your house and often times painted on the curb out front, and probably listed in a phone book. Look out Google Streetview! Your phone number is public knowledge and personally identifiable. It's also spread around when/if you: sign up for any discount memberships through a supermarket, opened a new business, registered a domain name (without the 'privacy guard').
TL;DR: Besides the financial information, it's a legal question and depends where you reside.
It contains information (an account name and a server IP address etc.). When paired with information only Blizzard has, they're able to identify the account.
This should read:
It contains information (an account name and a server IP address etc.). When paired with information only Blizzard has, they're able to identify the account holder (the one who is responsible and agreed to certain things etc.)
So, like I said, it can't be used to identify THE PERSON who is breeching the ToS.
Well that's arguable. If you're doing something you're not supposed to be doing (say breaking an NDA) why would you take pictures and distribute them? Unless their machine was compromised (then there are bigger issues at stake) or someone else has access to the machine and the contents within.
If it isn't personally identifying, they can't tie the image to you.
It contains information (an account name and a server IP address etc.). When paired with information only Blizzard has, they're able to identify the account. None of the information included in the screenshots is personally identifiable information. It is not a name, date and place of birth, mother's maiden name, social security number, or biometric record.
I learned a lot about what personal information and cardholder data is when implementing a payment system. There are very clear definitions of what is and isn't personal information. I don't profess to be an expert, all of what I've stated is available online.
So why is it there?
Seems like a great method to identify NDA breakers and identify pirate servers among other things. Perhaps instead of speculating we'll have an official response?
This has nothing to do with copyright OR personal information (none was disclosed).
So when google spiders stuff on the internet with the "default allow" of the internet requirement, this is real bad to copyright content owners.
A web server responds to requests. The act of putting files in a shared directory on a web server is authorization. Barring any exploits if I ask for information and "you" provide it, how is than anything but stupidity and/or incompetence if you're upset that I have access to it? This doesn't address if the publisher (the entity who put the files online) is authorized to release the information, medical records or something for example.
TL;DR
Don't put files in a shared directory you don't want shared.
As every user has read the TOS which they agreed to (*snickers*)
What kind of person doesn't read what they're agreeing to in the first place? It explains why we have a mortgage crisis, "Oh a Mortgage document, TL;DR"/sarcasm
The data is part of the JPG image itself, it is not metadata. Metadata can easily be removed from a file, the data Blizzard has placed into a JPG would require removal with Gimp or Photoshop.
Or using a program like Fraps which apparently side steps this whole fiasco.
This is really sloppy on Blizzard's part and they deserve the firestorm headed their way.
Relating to what? This realistically (potentially) affects people who may sign NDAs or play on pirate servers. None of the information disclosed is private information. Any personally identifiable information they have was given to them by the player in the first place.
What is personally identifiable information in the US?
Information which can be used to distinguish or trace an individual's identity, such as their name, social security number, biometric records, etc. alone, or when combined with other personal or identifying information which is linked or linkable to a specific individual, such as date and place of birth, mother’s maiden name, etc.
An account name or server IP address does not meet these requirements. The only way for it to be linked up with an individual is with the help of Blizzard. From their privacy page:
For some activities, we may ask you to create a username and password and/or to provide other, non-personal information such as your age, date of birth, gender, and/or game and platform preferences; and, combine such information with your personal information.
And what, exactly, is it in the TOS that they might be breaking that warrants this anyway?
Since the account name feature hasn't been used since the launch of the Real ID service (enabling you to communicate with your friends across all* of the Battle.net games instead of having to add them per character per game). Older titles such as Diablo 3 wouldn't feature this for example. This would apply to Wrath (2008/9ish) NDAs and perhaps situations involving pirate servers.
Information which can be used to distinguish or trace an individual's identity, such as their name, social security number, biometric records, etc. alone, or when combined with other personal or identifying information which is linked or linkable to a specific individual, such as date and place of birth, mother’s maiden name, etc.
The embedded IP address is the IP address of the server you're connected to. IP addresses are not personal information. The account name is not personal. If I follow this logic your email address is personal information, and so is your license plate? From their terms of service:
I've come to expect ALL megacorps act like asshats nowadays. It's a challenge to find one that doesn't.
What do you expect, they're made up of people. I can see this really impacting someone who signed an NDA not to disclose things which they willingly agreed to in the first place. I'm sure you've never played Wow for any period of time because if you had, you'd realize when updates happen to their Terms, they present them to you and require you scroll through them and agree to them before you'll be able to access the game. I don't have some hardon for Blizzard but none of what they're collecting is personal.
Ouch. That's gotta hurt. I think there's a case for even places like the EU commission there, if people are unknowingly distributing other's data.
I can imagine it now, having to get model releases signed for any screenshots which have other characters present. If you look closely at the terms Blizzard specifically tells you that everything is their property (this is apparent if you ever try to sell 'your' account) from the contents of your characters inventory, to the character itself.
That said, I don't really care because I've never touched WoW. But, yeah, I can see the problem. 4 years of IP -> client records, plus things like date-time stamps. If nothing else, that's a whole host of web-crawling to link people to IP's, accounts.
The embedded IP address is the IP address of the server the game client is connected to. I imagine this to be a concern if you're operating an unofficial server.
You kind of expect it in pre-release reviews or betas or something but in the full client and in every screenshot? Bit nasty.
Initial evidence shows that this only affects JPEG screenshots below quality 10 settings, if you use a 3rd party program such as Fraps to create screenshots you apparently avoid this issue entirely.
they may be aweful, but the hosted email has been damn decent for the 4+ years I've been with them. I've always sort of snickered at the shit anonymous did, but now their vendetta against a big company fucks us little guys too.
Please don't misconstrue this as support for Anonymous' actions. You seem to forget that SOPA would fuck the little guys, too. Perhaps you've forgotten who supported that legislation, and why Wikipedia and many others (including myself, a customer for over 10 years) have left GoDaddy.
For the record I'm not a Microsoft shill, I don't own any stock, and I could care less how well they do.
Apple *makes* their stuff.
Foxconn makes most of their stuff which Apple charges a huge markup on. Microsoft makes lots of stuff too, they're a software company after all, perhaps you've heard of Windows, Office, Visual Studio, and more.
Microsoft is telling a third party what the third party can put on the machines they sell running windows.
Remind us how that works with iOS again? You want to run software, you download it through the App Store. Who gets to decide what goes onto the App Store? Apple and $100 developers license. Its not like they've retroactively removed apps, oh wait. How do you change the browser iOS uses? Apple is the one that made the Walled garden approach mainstream. Something in stark contrast to where they began (unless you made a clone). Sounds like you need to think differently.
Buyers can pay zero or whatever they please up to £99.99 (about $212) for the album in MP3 form...
...The band and its managers are not releasing the download’s sales figures or average price, and may never do so. “It’s our linen,” Mr. Hufford said. “We don’t want to wash it in public.” A statement from the band rejected estimates by the online survey company ComScore that during October about three-fifths of worldwide downloaders took the album free, while the rest paid an average of $6.
Factoring in free downloads, ComScore said the average price per download was $2.26. But it did not specify a total number of downloads, saying only that a “significant percentage” of the 1.2 million people who visited the Radiohead Web site, inrainbows.com, in October downloaded the album. Under a typical recording contract, a band receives royalties of about 15 percent of an album’s wholesale price after expenses are recovered. Without middlemen, and with zero material costs for a download, $2.26 per album would work out to Radiohead’s advantage — not to mention the worldwide publicity.
From the New York Times. Obviously there is some merit to this model otherwise we wouldn't see more indy bundles. Unless the band releases figures we can merely speculate as to how successful it really was.
You're forgetting that Glide was arguably the best API around at the time. That's why so many games supported it. I owned a lot of different 3D accelerators and the only ones that I can remember being worth anything back in 98 were the 3Dfx Voodoo cards and the Rendition Verite cards. Further, the software renderer in Unreal was actually quite good.
Glide was only supported by a single manufacturer. For an interesting read on Unreal 1 tech and various bugs and issues with various cards take a look here. It details things like lines of code required to support DirectX, Glide, OpenGL etc. I have fond memories of my Voodoo 3 2000. I also owned a 5500 (didn't buy it new) and the glorious Sound Blaster AWE64. And I'll agree with you that the Unreal Software renderer was very good and supported (nearly?) everything the hardware one did. It's a tough sell to say hardware will be slower than software (on identical setups).
Sales numbers don't usually reflect upon quality.
Very true! But, awards and peoples' (professional and amateur) reviews do which is why I mentioned them. Failing that there are always screenshots, which may not tell the entire story but help validate claims.
As far as Quake engines, Unreal surpassed id Tech 2 in every way. id Tech 3 surpassed Unreal in many ways, but was not as much of a technological leap as Unreal was from Q2. The comparison shots you've linked aren't equal because they show Q3 at maximum detail, while the UT shot is clearly someone playing with settings turned way down.
Surpassed them in every way? Perhaps you're not aware that when Unreal was released it featured poorly performing netcode and no OpenGL support (Directly from Tim Sweeny's own mouth and low hanging wiki fruit). Quake II came out before Unreal and ID Tech 2 beat them to the punch with multicolored lighting. Unreal's strengths were Unreal Script and their texture technology (which only worked with Glide, even then it was problematic thread lamenting the fact circa 2000). As far as the screenshots I didn't cherry pick them, you're welcome to find some better vintage shots along with hardware specs.
Games had been using redbook audio for years by then (ie. Mechwarrior 2, Super Street Fighter II, Little Big Adventure, FX Fighter, etc.), but it wasn't always the best choice because you couldn't have seamless transitions for dynamic music as you could with MIDI and MOD like formats.
Red book audio is not the same as an API provided by the Operating System. A specification enables you to write an implementation whereas an API is already implemented. Needless to say it isn't 3D nor is it specific to games, it's the specification for audio CDs developed by Phillips and Sony describing the CD's physical specifications, such as the tracks, sector and block layout, coding, and sampling etc.
"One of the best ever made" is not the same thing as "the best ever made". And I disagree with you about Mario. Star Control II is my personal choice for best ever.
I'll raise you a Robotron 2084.
But how did Windows get to that point? It didn't always have that huge library of applications and it wasn't always familiar to people. It gained popularity despite being a worse product than competitors (ie. GEOS and OS/2) in much the same way as Half-Life.
I provided some examples, which I'll refine and add to: it ran on a wide variety of hardware, it was easy to develop for, it ran DOS games which many people had and were quite familiar with (didn't require you to buy new everything). Dire
If you register a game at Steam, you shouldn't have to create yet another account with $publisher and register there too. One place and one user name / password should be enough.
In an ideal world this would be true. Unfortunately Steam (nor Origin) run multiplayer servers, this is handled by the publishers or studios, or less and less the community. Servers use proprietary and/or undocumented protocols. To cite some examples: Rockstar games have a user account which you need to create to make use of some features such as online play. Some games use GFWL (Games For Windows Live) (Fallout 3).
Having to remember twenty user name / passwords and keep all the accounts updated for twenty different games becomes a chore.
You could always make them the same;). I have user accounts and passwords galore so you're not alone. There have been attempts to create single sign-ons in the past. See Microsoft Passport, Facebook, Open Auth etc. The issue is it becomes a single point of failure. Imagine having everything tied to this account and having your credentials compromised. GG Bank account, web email... what are your thoughts on a single sign-on?
They did? Duke Nukem 3D had levels that looked like real places. Half-Life looked like some hodge-podge of hastily thrown together empty box rooms and random stuff with signs tacked on afterwards.
It's called early 3D. Things were blocky due to hardware limitations of the day, at least Half Life was fully 3D and not using sprites like Duke 3D and HL supported TCPIP out of the box (Quake came out around the same time ('96) and supported TCPIP). Duke was dated when it came out (see Quake).
You keep mentioning sales figures and accolades, which have absolutely nothing to do with how good a game is.
Yes, to back up the fact that it sold well because people liked it. Because it was (arguably) better than the other games (Why would you buy something that sucked compared to what was out there at the time?).More so than any of the offerings you've mentioned. You also switch between using good and fun like they're synonyms, they're not. Don't discount that people may buy multiplayer games because of their friends.
Unreal set the benchmark for game visuals for years to come and featured an absolutely awesome, dynamic soundtrack composed by ex-demoscene musicians. The game was overall one of the best ever made.
The same Unreal which used a software renderer, advanced visuals that only performed well in Glide? Unreal was overshadowed by Unreal Tournement which came out in 1999, which is still played to this day. Quake II beat them to the punch as far as engine tech in many regards. Also in 1999 Quake 3 was released which was the big engine of its day and also supported curves (1999 thread about it). A comparison of vintage screenshots: UT screenshot circa Sept 1999Quake 3 circa Feb 2000. I'm a fan of the demoscene btw and happen to like 'chiptunes' so while I think this is awesome, in 1996 Quake had CD audio made by none other than Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails fame. Perhaps you know of GL Quake (or the Quakeworld client) which is responsible for many mods, such as Team Fortress. The Quake engines featured many impressive things from lighting to OpenGL support. Unreal featured some really cool texture technology but it only worked well in Glide (remember that?). As for the "The game was overall one of the best ever made" claim I think Mario takes that cake.
I don't know, hype probably.Why don't other desktop operating systems sell as well as Windows?
I know you're half serious but I'll bite. Because none of the other OS run as many applications (games are applications) as Windows does. Love it or hate it Windows is the first operating system to have an 3D sound API made specifically for games. It runs most hardware, especially high end stuff with little fuss. It's what people know and it has a large well documented API and development tools aplenty.
As I said before, I don't place much value in awards and popularity because I am able to form my own opinions without outside help.
Perhaps you've forgotten what its like to be young? Many people buy things their friends have to play with them. Online gaming has grown exponentially and so has the culture around it. These multiplayer games made it so that you didn't need a LAN party to have fun, but you could meet someone online and jump directly into the action, this was a relatively new thing for many people at the time and there was the whole modding thing empowering creativity in the community. These factors were also responsible for the popularity - not simply so
Perhaps one arguable reason for the lack of innovation compared to periods in the past is the expense. I don't mean to frame this exclusively as a monetary issue. Dealing with patents and the current litigious climate I imagine it to be extremely difficult for the smaller guys to get a foothold who have traditionally been the ones to drive innovation. I realize this isn't the entire picture or else we wouldn't have exciting things happening on KickStarter. None the less I'm pleased to hear Valve taking an interest in developing hardware.
I just don't see what was special about the game. The story was little more than what Doom had, the gameplay was boring, the weapons uninspired, the AI was stupid and the graphics were horrid. So you tell me, what made it good?
Level design, where things actually resembled places and you followed signs to those locations (boiler room etc). The signature crow bar, modding (hello Counter-Strike with over 25 million sales (franchise)), the introduction to the game where you travel through the Black Mesa facility was like a movie. The "dynamic" announcement system was cool too. It sounds like your complaints are aimed at FPS in general. What made it good? When you have a chance take a look at the awards to see what the industry and players thought at the time.
The same year Half-Life came out I was playing Unreal and Thief, which had everything that Half-Life didn't. Hell, even Shogo was more fun.
I have fond memories of Shogo but it's a different game entirely from HL and Thief isn't a FPS, it's first person stealth game. Shogo (using Lithtech, an engine I really like btw) didn't get a sequel because it didn't sell well. Which means it's a niche game, or to the detractors, not popular. Unreal would be the only valid comparison in this case because it's an FPS which also tells a story. Unreal was popular for its AI and multiplayer and spawned several sequels. Half-life is/was popular also for its deathmatch and mods. Just like Unreal there are servers to this day.
I am happy with the direction that they took HL2 but HL1, meh, I've played way better.
Fair enough. If these games were "way better" why do you think they didn't get nearly as many awards and sell as well?
Even back when it came out, it wasn't a very good game.
I realize taste is entirely subjective, however, it won 50 awards. There is no way you can say it wasn't a very good game (did you mean fun?) when many games released over the last decade haven't come close to that.
The computer game has a retail economy. Many people are making the argument that players should have known that the price was too good to be true and therefore should not have purchased the items.
Speaking of purchasing, how can you buy things which you do not own? Doesn't their ToS have something in there that items have no value and they're not your property and everything is owned by the company?
After looking at their terms of use they specifically state that you don't own the account.
By agreeing to the User Agreement you agree that you do not own either the Master Account or Game Account (collectively, the "Account") you use to access the service, the characters created on the Account and that NC Interactive stores on NC Interactive servers, the items stored on these servers, or any other data from which the servers and accounts are comprised.
and elsewhere:
Members can upload to and create content on our servers in various forms, such as in selections you make and characters and items you create for the Game(s), and in bulletin boards and similar user-to-user areas ("Member Content"). By submitting Member Content to or creating Member Content on any area of the Service, you acknowledge and agree that such Member Content is the sole property of NC Interactive. To the extent that NC Interactive cannot claim exclusive rights in Member Content by operation of law, you hereby grant (or you warrant that the owner of such Member Content has expressly granted) to NC Interactive and its related Game Content Providers a non-exclusive, universal, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sublicenseable right to exercise all rights of any kind or nature associated with such Member Content, and all ancillary and subsidiary rights thereto, in any languages and media now known or not currently known.
While this behavior is assholish, couldn't it be argued that nothing changed hands?
personally, as a continuing player, I would be more than happy if they gave the money back so long as those players left.. it makes it better for the rest of us..
I'm on the fence about this. Nobody likes exploiters but this is a pretty lame 'exploit' called management setting the price incorrectly. I liken it to calling it 'hacking' when all someone does is guess the security questions to someone's email.
if you bought it digitally, typically ncsoft bans credit cards that have had charge backs in the past so that works out as well..
I wonder how they do that exactly, since credit cards are like IP addresses in the sense they (usually) change after awhile.
an ATM with a programming error that gives you the wrong amount back (more than you asked for) doesn't mean you get to keep it and blame it on the company...assuming it did not come from your account. at least in most jurisdictions where ANet is operating..
This isn't accurate. Management set the price, it's authorized by them. With the ATM if you get more money out than you asked for it's coming out of your own account. Feel free to rip yourself off...
The Kune Kune's arrived with the whalers in the late 18th centuary, when even the stories about the Moa's had more-or-less already gone; not so the physical remains of the mass ovens and charred evidence of the enormous fires that would have been driving them into the kill sites.
This sentence is confusing to me, it's breaking my lexer.
Currently those who sell it don't care about how old those they sell to are as they have no business/cannabis retailer license to lose, if they get busted they're busted.
What a broad and sweeping statement that is provably false. While this is not an exhaustive list it does detail several states. Plenty of dispensaries don't deal with under 21 (more than half on this chart). I understand you're citing an opinion but it's disingenuous to represent it as fact. Nobody is forced to go to these places, just like eating junk food there are risks involved with nearly any activity you choose do.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, I consider those things my personal details, along with my street address, phone number, bank account number, etc. etc.
Something interesting about public information and personal information is it varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Email addresses are used by both individuals and businesses. In the case of politicians or when requesting public records, in many situations emails are public knowledge. Not to mention many email providers provide indexes listing their members which are opt in. Your address is public knowledge as well as personally identifiable and is even listed on the side of your house and often times painted on the curb out front, and probably listed in a phone book. Look out Google Streetview! Your phone number is public knowledge and personally identifiable. It's also spread around when/if you: sign up for any discount memberships through a supermarket, opened a new business, registered a domain name (without the 'privacy guard').
TL;DR:
Besides the financial information, it's a legal question and depends where you reside.
It contains information (an account name and a server IP address etc.). When paired with information only Blizzard has, they're able to identify the account.
This should read: It contains information (an account name and a server IP address etc.). When paired with information only Blizzard has, they're able to identify the account holder (the one who is responsible and agreed to certain things etc.)
So, like I said, it can't be used to identify THE PERSON who is breeching the ToS.
Well that's arguable. If you're doing something you're not supposed to be doing (say breaking an NDA) why would you take pictures and distribute them? Unless their machine was compromised (then there are bigger issues at stake) or someone else has access to the machine and the contents within.
If it isn't personally identifying, they can't tie the image to you.
It contains information (an account name and a server IP address etc.). When paired with information only Blizzard has, they're able to identify the account. None of the information included in the screenshots is personally identifiable information. It is not a name, date and place of birth, mother's maiden name, social security number, or biometric record. I learned a lot about what personal information and cardholder data is when implementing a payment system. There are very clear definitions of what is and isn't personal information. I don't profess to be an expert, all of what I've stated is available online.
So why is it there?
Seems like a great method to identify NDA breakers and identify pirate servers among other things. Perhaps instead of speculating we'll have an official response?
So when google spiders stuff on the internet with the "default allow" of the internet requirement, this is real bad to copyright content owners.
A web server responds to requests. The act of putting files in a shared directory on a web server is authorization. Barring any exploits if I ask for information and "you" provide it, how is than anything but stupidity and/or incompetence if you're upset that I have access to it? This doesn't address if the publisher (the entity who put the files online) is authorized to release the information, medical records or something for example.
TL;DR
Don't put files in a shared directory you don't want shared.
As every user has read the TOS which they agreed to (*snickers*)
What kind of person doesn't read what they're agreeing to in the first place? It explains why we have a mortgage crisis, "Oh a Mortgage document, TL;DR" /sarcasm
The data is part of the JPG image itself, it is not metadata. Metadata can easily be removed from a file, the data Blizzard has placed into a JPG would require removal with Gimp or Photoshop.
Or using a program like Fraps which apparently side steps this whole fiasco.
This is really sloppy on Blizzard's part and they deserve the firestorm headed their way.
Relating to what? This realistically (potentially) affects people who may sign NDAs or play on pirate servers. None of the information disclosed is private information. Any personally identifiable information they have was given to them by the player in the first place.
Information which can be used to distinguish or trace an individual's identity, such as their name, social security number, biometric records, etc. alone, or when combined with other personal or identifying information which is linked or linkable to a specific individual, such as date and place of birth, mother’s maiden name, etc.
An account name or server IP address does not meet these requirements. The only way for it to be linked up with an individual is with the help of Blizzard. From their privacy page:
For some activities, we may ask you to create a username and password and/or to provide other, non-personal information such as your age, date of birth, gender, and/or game and platform preferences; and, combine such information with your personal information.
And what, exactly, is it in the TOS that they might be breaking that warrants this anyway?
Since the account name feature hasn't been used since the launch of the Real ID service (enabling you to communicate with your friends across all* of the Battle.net games instead of having to add them per character per game). Older titles such as Diablo 3 wouldn't feature this for example. This would apply to Wrath (2008/9ish) NDAs and perhaps situations involving pirate servers.
Sounds like a job for a SLR camera with some good lighting and the GIMP. Here is an example of a camera used to do this in WW2
A megacorp acts like an asshat and reveals personal data online via photo watermarking
Personal information?
Information which can be used to distinguish or trace an individual's identity, such as their name, social security number, biometric records, etc. alone, or when combined with other personal or identifying information which is linked or linkable to a specific individual, such as date and place of birth, mother’s maiden name, etc.
The embedded IP address is the IP address of the server you're connected to. IP addresses are not personal information. The account name is not personal. If I follow this logic your email address is personal information, and so is your license plate? From their terms of service:
For some activities, we may ask you to create a username and password and/or to provide other, non-personal information such as your age, date of birth, gender, and/or game and platform preferences; and, combine such information with your personal information.
I've come to expect ALL megacorps act like asshats nowadays. It's a challenge to find one that doesn't.
What do you expect, they're made up of people. I can see this really impacting someone who signed an NDA not to disclose things which they willingly agreed to in the first place. I'm sure you've never played Wow for any period of time because if you had, you'd realize when updates happen to their Terms, they present them to you and require you scroll through them and agree to them before you'll be able to access the game. I don't have some hardon for Blizzard but none of what they're collecting is personal.
Ouch. That's gotta hurt. I think there's a case for even places like the EU commission there, if people are unknowingly distributing other's data.
I can imagine it now, having to get model releases signed for any screenshots which have other characters present. If you look closely at the terms Blizzard specifically tells you that everything is their property (this is apparent if you ever try to sell 'your' account) from the contents of your characters inventory, to the character itself.
That said, I don't really care because I've never touched WoW. But, yeah, I can see the problem. 4 years of IP -> client records, plus things like date-time stamps. If nothing else, that's a whole host of web-crawling to link people to IP's, accounts.
The embedded IP address is the IP address of the server the game client is connected to. I imagine this to be a concern if you're operating an unofficial server.
You kind of expect it in pre-release reviews or betas or something but in the full client and in every screenshot? Bit nasty.
Initial evidence shows that this only affects JPEG screenshots below quality 10 settings, if you use a 3rd party program such as Fraps to create screenshots you apparently avoid this issue entirely.
they may be aweful, but the hosted email has been damn decent for the 4+ years I've been with them. I've always sort of snickered at the shit anonymous did, but now their vendetta against a big company fucks us little guys too.
Please don't misconstrue this as support for Anonymous' actions. You seem to forget that SOPA would fuck the little guys, too. Perhaps you've forgotten who supported that legislation, and why Wikipedia and many others (including myself, a customer for over 10 years) have left GoDaddy.
Apple *makes* their stuff.
Foxconn makes most of their stuff which Apple charges a huge markup on. Microsoft makes lots of stuff too, they're a software company after all, perhaps you've heard of Windows, Office, Visual Studio, and more.
Microsoft is telling a third party what the third party can put on the machines they sell running windows.
Remind us how that works with iOS again? You want to run software, you download it through the App Store. Who gets to decide what goes onto the App Store? Apple and $100 developers license. Its not like they've retroactively removed apps, oh wait. How do you change the browser iOS uses? Apple is the one that made the Walled garden approach mainstream. Something in stark contrast to where they began (unless you made a clone). Sounds like you need to think differently.
lol I think they just weren't content with the mere few millions they got. I mean who can live on that?
Depending on where you live, for the sake of argument let's assume the first world, someone in the 3rd world could say the same thing about you. About half of the world lives off of $2.50 a day or less.
Buyers can pay zero or whatever they please up to £99.99 (about $212) for the album in MP3 form...
...The band and its managers are not releasing the download’s sales figures or average price, and may never do so. “It’s our linen,” Mr. Hufford said. “We don’t want to wash it in public.” A statement from the band rejected estimates by the online survey company ComScore that during October about three-fifths of worldwide downloaders took the album free, while the rest paid an average of $6.
Factoring in free downloads, ComScore said the average price per download was $2.26. But it did not specify a total number of downloads, saying only that a “significant percentage” of the 1.2 million people who visited the Radiohead Web site, inrainbows.com, in October downloaded the album. Under a typical recording contract, a band receives royalties of about 15 percent of an album’s wholesale price after expenses are recovered. Without middlemen, and with zero material costs for a download, $2.26 per album would work out to Radiohead’s advantage — not to mention the worldwide publicity.
From the New York Times. Obviously there is some merit to this model otherwise we wouldn't see more indy bundles. Unless the band releases figures we can merely speculate as to how successful it really was.
"It's been five years since Radiohead brought the pay what you want model to the public with their successful sale of their 'In Rainbows' album.
A curious thing about the (arguable) success is it hasn't been tried again. Subsequent albums have not used a similar model. Think about that.
You're forgetting that Glide was arguably the best API around at the time. That's why so many games supported it. I owned a lot of different 3D accelerators and the only ones that I can remember being worth anything back in 98 were the 3Dfx Voodoo cards and the Rendition Verite cards. Further, the software renderer in Unreal was actually quite good.
Glide was only supported by a single manufacturer. For an interesting read on Unreal 1 tech and various bugs and issues with various cards take a look here. It details things like lines of code required to support DirectX, Glide, OpenGL etc. I have fond memories of my Voodoo 3 2000. I also owned a 5500 (didn't buy it new) and the glorious Sound Blaster AWE64. And I'll agree with you that the Unreal Software renderer was very good and supported (nearly?) everything the hardware one did. It's a tough sell to say hardware will be slower than software (on identical setups).
Sales numbers don't usually reflect upon quality.
Very true! But, awards and peoples' (professional and amateur) reviews do which is why I mentioned them. Failing that there are always screenshots, which may not tell the entire story but help validate claims.
As far as Quake engines, Unreal surpassed id Tech 2 in every way. id Tech 3 surpassed Unreal in many ways, but was not as much of a technological leap as Unreal was from Q2. The comparison shots you've linked aren't equal because they show Q3 at maximum detail, while the UT shot is clearly someone playing with settings turned way down.
Surpassed them in every way? Perhaps you're not aware that when Unreal was released it featured poorly performing netcode and no OpenGL support (Directly from Tim Sweeny's own mouth and low hanging wiki fruit). Quake II came out before Unreal and ID Tech 2 beat them to the punch with multicolored lighting. Unreal's strengths were Unreal Script and their texture technology (which only worked with Glide, even then it was problematic thread lamenting the fact circa 2000). As far as the screenshots I didn't cherry pick them, you're welcome to find some better vintage shots along with hardware specs.
Games had been using redbook audio for years by then (ie. Mechwarrior 2, Super Street Fighter II, Little Big Adventure, FX Fighter, etc.), but it wasn't always the best choice because you couldn't have seamless transitions for dynamic music as you could with MIDI and MOD like formats.
Red book audio is not the same as an API provided by the Operating System. A specification enables you to write an implementation whereas an API is already implemented. Needless to say it isn't 3D nor is it specific to games, it's the specification for audio CDs developed by Phillips and Sony describing the CD's physical specifications, such as the tracks, sector and block layout, coding, and sampling etc.
"One of the best ever made" is not the same thing as "the best ever made". And I disagree with you about Mario. Star Control II is my personal choice for best ever.
I'll raise you a Robotron 2084.
But how did Windows get to that point? It didn't always have that huge library of applications and it wasn't always familiar to people. It gained popularity despite being a worse product than competitors (ie. GEOS and OS/2) in much the same way as Half-Life.
I provided some examples, which I'll refine and add to: it ran on a wide variety of hardware, it was easy to develop for, it ran DOS games which many people had and were quite familiar with (didn't require you to buy new everything). Dire
If you register a game at Steam, you shouldn't have to create yet another account with $publisher and register there too. One place and one user name / password should be enough.
In an ideal world this would be true. Unfortunately Steam (nor Origin) run multiplayer servers, this is handled by the publishers or studios, or less and less the community. Servers use proprietary and/or undocumented protocols. To cite some examples: Rockstar games have a user account which you need to create to make use of some features such as online play. Some games use GFWL (Games For Windows Live) (Fallout 3).
Having to remember twenty user name / passwords and keep all the accounts updated for twenty different games becomes a chore.
You could always make them the same ;). I have user accounts and passwords galore so you're not alone. There have been attempts to create single sign-ons in the past. See Microsoft Passport, Facebook, Open Auth etc. The issue is it becomes a single point of failure. Imagine having everything tied to this account and having your credentials compromised. GG Bank account, web email... what are your thoughts on a single sign-on?
They did? Duke Nukem 3D had levels that looked like real places. Half-Life looked like some hodge-podge of hastily thrown together empty box rooms and random stuff with signs tacked on afterwards.
It's called early 3D. Things were blocky due to hardware limitations of the day, at least Half Life was fully 3D and not using sprites like Duke 3D and HL supported TCPIP out of the box (Quake came out around the same time ('96) and supported TCPIP). Duke was dated when it came out (see Quake).
You keep mentioning sales figures and accolades, which have absolutely nothing to do with how good a game is.
Yes, to back up the fact that it sold well because people liked it. Because it was (arguably) better than the other games (Why would you buy something that sucked compared to what was out there at the time?).More so than any of the offerings you've mentioned. You also switch between using good and fun like they're synonyms, they're not. Don't discount that people may buy multiplayer games because of their friends.
Unreal set the benchmark for game visuals for years to come and featured an absolutely awesome, dynamic soundtrack composed by ex-demoscene musicians. The game was overall one of the best ever made.
The same Unreal which used a software renderer, advanced visuals that only performed well in Glide? Unreal was overshadowed by Unreal Tournement which came out in 1999, which is still played to this day. Quake II beat them to the punch as far as engine tech in many regards. Also in 1999 Quake 3 was released which was the big engine of its day and also supported curves (1999 thread about it). A comparison of vintage screenshots: UT screenshot circa Sept 1999 Quake 3 circa Feb 2000. I'm a fan of the demoscene btw and happen to like 'chiptunes' so while I think this is awesome, in 1996 Quake had CD audio made by none other than Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails fame. Perhaps you know of GL Quake (or the Quakeworld client) which is responsible for many mods, such as Team Fortress. The Quake engines featured many impressive things from lighting to OpenGL support. Unreal featured some really cool texture technology but it only worked well in Glide (remember that?). As for the "The game was overall one of the best ever made" claim I think Mario takes that cake.
I don't know, hype probably.Why don't other desktop operating systems sell as well as Windows?
I know you're half serious but I'll bite. Because none of the other OS run as many applications (games are applications) as Windows does. Love it or hate it Windows is the first operating system to have an 3D sound API made specifically for games. It runs most hardware, especially high end stuff with little fuss. It's what people know and it has a large well documented API and development tools aplenty.
As I said before, I don't place much value in awards and popularity because I am able to form my own opinions without outside help.
Perhaps you've forgotten what its like to be young? Many people buy things their friends have to play with them. Online gaming has grown exponentially and so has the culture around it. These multiplayer games made it so that you didn't need a LAN party to have fun, but you could meet someone online and jump directly into the action, this was a relatively new thing for many people at the time and there was the whole modding thing empowering creativity in the community. These factors were also responsible for the popularity - not simply so
Perhaps one arguable reason for the lack of innovation compared to periods in the past is the expense. I don't mean to frame this exclusively as a monetary issue. Dealing with patents and the current litigious climate I imagine it to be extremely difficult for the smaller guys to get a foothold who have traditionally been the ones to drive innovation. I realize this isn't the entire picture or else we wouldn't have exciting things happening on KickStarter. None the less I'm pleased to hear Valve taking an interest in developing hardware.
I just don't see what was special about the game. The story was little more than what Doom had, the gameplay was boring, the weapons uninspired, the AI was stupid and the graphics were horrid. So you tell me, what made it good?
Level design, where things actually resembled places and you followed signs to those locations (boiler room etc). The signature crow bar, modding (hello Counter-Strike with over 25 million sales (franchise)), the introduction to the game where you travel through the Black Mesa facility was like a movie. The "dynamic" announcement system was cool too. It sounds like your complaints are aimed at FPS in general. What made it good? When you have a chance take a look at the awards to see what the industry and players thought at the time.
The same year Half-Life came out I was playing Unreal and Thief, which had everything that Half-Life didn't. Hell, even Shogo was more fun.
I have fond memories of Shogo but it's a different game entirely from HL and Thief isn't a FPS, it's first person stealth game. Shogo (using Lithtech, an engine I really like btw) didn't get a sequel because it didn't sell well. Which means it's a niche game, or to the detractors, not popular. Unreal would be the only valid comparison in this case because it's an FPS which also tells a story. Unreal was popular for its AI and multiplayer and spawned several sequels. Half-life is/was popular also for its deathmatch and mods. Just like Unreal there are servers to this day.
I am happy with the direction that they took HL2 but HL1, meh, I've played way better.
Fair enough. If these games were "way better" why do you think they didn't get nearly as many awards and sell as well?
Even back when it came out, it wasn't a very good game.
I realize taste is entirely subjective, however, it won 50 awards. There is no way you can say it wasn't a very good game (did you mean fun?) when many games released over the last decade haven't come close to that.
Perhaps they can use the slogan: Remember, only you can prevent Hantavirus outbreaks!
The computer game has a retail economy. Many people are making the argument that players should have known that the price was too good to be true and therefore should not have purchased the items.
Speaking of purchasing, how can you buy things which you do not own? Doesn't their ToS have something in there that items have no value and they're not your property and everything is owned by the company?
After looking at their terms of use they specifically state that you don't own the account.
By agreeing to the User Agreement you agree that you do not own either the Master Account or Game Account (collectively, the "Account") you use to access the service, the characters created on the Account and that NC Interactive stores on NC Interactive servers, the items stored on these servers, or any other data from which the servers and accounts are comprised.
and elsewhere:
Members can upload to and create content on our servers in various forms, such as in selections you make and characters and items you create for the Game(s), and in bulletin boards and similar user-to-user areas ("Member Content"). By submitting Member Content to or creating Member Content on any area of the Service, you acknowledge and agree that such Member Content is the sole property of NC Interactive. To the extent that NC Interactive cannot claim exclusive rights in Member Content by operation of law, you hereby grant (or you warrant that the owner of such Member Content has expressly granted) to NC Interactive and its related Game Content Providers a non-exclusive, universal, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sublicenseable right to exercise all rights of any kind or nature associated with such Member Content, and all ancillary and subsidiary rights thereto, in any languages and media now known or not currently known.
While this behavior is assholish, couldn't it be argued that nothing changed hands?
personally, as a continuing player, I would be more than happy if they gave the money back so long as those players left.. it makes it better for the rest of us..
I'm on the fence about this. Nobody likes exploiters but this is a pretty lame 'exploit' called management setting the price incorrectly. I liken it to calling it 'hacking' when all someone does is guess the security questions to someone's email.
if you bought it digitally, typically ncsoft bans credit cards that have had charge backs in the past so that works out as well..
I wonder how they do that exactly, since credit cards are like IP addresses in the sense they (usually) change after awhile.
an ATM with a programming error that gives you the wrong amount back (more than you asked for) doesn't mean you get to keep it and blame it on the company...assuming it did not come from your account. at least in most jurisdictions where ANet is operating..
This isn't accurate. Management set the price, it's authorized by them. With the ATM if you get more money out than you asked for it's coming out of your own account. Feel free to rip yourself off...
The Kune Kune's arrived with the whalers in the late 18th centuary, when even the stories about the Moa's had more-or-less already gone; not so the physical remains of the mass ovens and charred evidence of the enormous fires that would have been driving them into the kill sites.
This sentence is confusing to me, it's breaking my lexer.
Currently those who sell it don't care about how old those they sell to are as they have no business/cannabis retailer license to lose, if they get busted they're busted.
What a broad and sweeping statement that is provably false. While this is not an exhaustive list it does detail several states. Plenty of dispensaries don't deal with under 21 (more than half on this chart). I understand you're citing an opinion but it's disingenuous to represent it as fact. Nobody is forced to go to these places, just like eating junk food there are risks involved with nearly any activity you choose do.