Everyone has principles and values. For example, I like to buy games from game companies that make kick ass games. To each their own.
Starcraft was popular because it had an amazing single player campaign, had great multi-player balance, was polished like hell, and had an active modding community. To claim LAN made the game is a wild wild exaggeration.
Also, to claim that Blizzard doesn't care about its roots is just your opinion. I mean, if they didn't care about their roots, why would they still be supporting Starcraft? So, your opinion is just wrong.
And on top of that, you have no idea how it will be implemented. It probably will just need to authenticate and then will play over the LAN since the server is on a computer and not at their site. So it probably won't even be a big deal...particularly now that we are in the future and most people have a connection.
But yes, ultimately Blizzard won't notice your little boycott. You can just sit behind your keyboard knowing your principles and values are so much better than all of us poor sheep enjoying the hell out of Starcraft 2. Feel free to pat yourself on the back now.
Pure stupidity. Well written stupidity, but stupidity nonetheless.
You are just playing the oil company's game here. Hell, you are probably employed by them. "Oh, the climate is so hard to understand, things warm and cool in history, that's just what is happening now. We need to study more." Just because you say the words, doesn't mean they are true. You cite nothing backing up your claims. Climatologists, on the other hand, actually collect data and show proof of what is occurring.
Where do you get your stupid bankruptcy arguments? It doesn't even make sense in the context of this discussion. If weather goes crazy and people everywhere are dying we do what we can to help. If we can't afford to help, we don't.
Your whole post is just a disgusting load if intellectual dishonesty. I find it sad that people can't easily see through it.
The statement is dumb, though. Slashdot might be wrong in their reasons for calling him stupid based on this article. But after reading the article, he is still stupid.
It would be like saying that a conservative sent Obama a threatening letter and then saying that conservatives are more dangerous than liberals. One bad person does not make the whole group bad. Gamers aren't pro-violence to officials. Some kid got pissed and did something dumb. I'd expect an elected official to be more mature about it. haha, what am I saying, the older I get the more I see how even the people in the highest positions are morally and intellectually inferior.
I understand your frustration but your expectations are way way too high at that level of support. Talking about color channels will just confuse them. You have to talk "dumb" to them and they have to follow their script. This is how you would have to say it:
"Hi, my picture looks funny." They then read from their script and do the things you have already done. You can't do it out of order, or they get lost. Then finally. "Ok, it looks like it is a problem on our end, I'll send someone out."
I know that sucks for us people who are technical...but it makes sense. No one with real technical experience is going to work that job. We would all get better paying ones elsewhere. Just have to know how to talk to them to minimize how long you are on the phone with them.
How can this be modded insightful? There have been plenty of reviews. But do you even need to...it can't multitask. I mean, come on. This is Slashdot, if people are bashing Apple it is because they really screwed up. You act if Apple is abused on here.
Just because something sells well doesn't mean it is good. People are so nuts about Apple they will buy anything without any intelligence being put in to their decisions.
You are a moron. Try getting your news from more than one place. The Internet is socialism. So you may not want to post here. Public schools are socialism. Don't let your kids go to school there. Police and fireman...do you hate them? Socialist bastards all of them. Your points don't even make sense. What more wars are you talking about? We are ramping down in Iraq and trying to finish Afghanistan. Obama is trying to get health care through, but people that are stupid like you won't let everyone save money because you are afraid of socialist health insurance. He made in to law that women get equal pay. He is trying to get rid of don't ask don't tell. Our relationship with foreign countries is a million times better. He stopped us from going in to a depression. I am worried about run away inflation, but the reason we are at this point is because of conservative policy of removing regulation. Go read and listen to other things. You seriously have no idea what you are talking about. You just spout off Tea Party talking points. You sound like Sarah Palin to me.
I don't understand your post. You go on giving excellent examples how no one charges $60 for expansions and then you complain about it. My point was the OP was flipping out about it costing $180 when there was nothing to justify that opinion. Your post further validates mine. Yet you seem to disagree with me.
I am currently playing Fallout 3. I am almost done with the main story and have yet to touch the DLC. I waited for the GOTY edition (what smart gamers do with their money). That game is worth $60 easily without touching the DLC. So I disagree that any of the DLC obviously should have been incorporated. There is a whole game there without the DLC.
Everyone is within their rights to feel however they want. That doesn't prove anything. If you don't like what a company does, don't buy the game. If you want the game, but think there will be DLC, wait a year and get it when all the DLC is included. Simple.
You don't need to get started on DRM. In every game article there will be about 1-6 posts (depending on popularity of the game) talking about how people hate DRM. There will be 1-4 talking about how piracy is the superior version (ignoring the fact that it is probably full of trojans). There will be a couple funny posts. And maybe one moderated post actually talking about the game and what they like about it.
Just try it out, before you click on the comments, predict all the stuff people are going to whine about instead of actually talk about the article. You'll get pretty tired of hearing the same groupthink spat out constantly.
No, I am using logic. Blizzard has never released games at that price and then released expansions at that price. The OP was stating it as if it was fact and then over-reacting to it. It would be considered a straw man if this were a debate.
You can call me whatever names you want. If you can't effectively counter the points I am making, then it is you who looks foolish.
Saying someone is acting like an emo doesn't mean I am labeling them. That would be saying "You are an emo".
The game + expansions won't cost that much. The person has no idea how much they will cost, but we know they won't be that much. So they are getting angry over something non-existent.
I honestly don't care about being taken seriously anymore on here. I know my view point isn't the same as the vocal majority and I will be modded down for that. I should be more respectful, but quite frankly, I have lost pretty much all respect for the majority of people who post here. Obviously, there are still some awesome people way more smart than I am here, but they sure aren't the majority.
That's fine. But here is my point. You have no clue how it will be implemented. It may just require you to authenticate and then all traffic will be routed locally. My Internet is out maybe 1 or 2 times a year and usually is just a router restart. If this is a big deal, then you can't buy any multi-player game.
But instead of ANYONE here waiting to see how anything is done, they complain and already get their excuses in line to pirate the game.
No one here is talking about how it is cool you can just enter in a key to the new battle.net for your games and can download them - Mac or PC. No one is talking about how excited they are to finally get the next part of the story. You guys all are crying about LAN play and being online.
There has to be others out there that are just excited to play the game. I already know all your ideologies. It is hammered in almost every single post in every single article. You hate DRM. I got it. Don't buy any game because they will all have DRM. This is reality. All consoles are a form of DRM. This is a reality. These games will all sell despite your ideologies.
No one on here can just be excited for a game release? Nope, too much to ask. You all have the childish mentality that it is cool to bash everything.
Honestly, I don't care about your heart-breaking story of being unable to play with people you love. You know why? Because it is all made up. The game isn't out, you have no idea if what you are saying is true, but instead of just de-clenching you have already gone in to outrage mode.
I have been in this community for so many years. I loved Slashdot. But I think I have just outgrown it. You guys can't talk about an article. You can only karma whore by repeating the same ideology over and over again. I honestly challenge everyone here to just look at the comments modded up in every article. Pretty much every post modded up should be redundant. It has nothing to do with the article, and everything to do with "OMG DRM. OMG LAN. OMG BNETD." Yes, we all know all those things already. You will get modded up but you have contributed nothing.
And really, this isn't you...I am sure you are a nice person. I am just tired of the ideology, it doesn't have to be this way. Everything is spun Libertarian here and exaggerated so that it becomes worthless.
The frustrating thing is I know there are a lot of Slashdotters out there just like me. It is just we are the vocal minority. I feel like Slashdot has been stolen away by people who care more about shoving views down my throat than by technology.
You obviously didn't read the other Blizzard article. That's all you are about. Complaining about stuff. Slashdot is the Tea Party movement of the Internet. A bunch of old people complaining about how things used to be with complete disregard to reality.
*rolls eyes* Come on. You know what he meant. We obviously don't know the prices of next gen games. we both know, he is referring to the 360 and the PS3. There's no reason to be such a pedant all the time.
So, you all get together at the same house. Get online, authenticate to the server, then play the game over the local network. It isn't like battle.net is hosting the game.
Do I know it will be implemented like this. No. But no one else knows how it will be implemented either. So I am holding off on calling the death of LANs over this.
They could, but not much you can do if someone buys the content and then makes their own free version of it from scratch. Might be really hard to control. I'd rather they do it for mods that require much more effort and keep maps free.
Your first point makes no sense at all. I was simply pointing out that your first statement was a strawman and I explained why. If you can't figure that out, I can't really expect you to follow anything else I say.
The rest of your points are just arguing to try to seem less wrong. The fact that you can play through TCP/IP has nothing to do with my point. It had to do with tearing apart your horrible analogy. You couldn't address that so you countered with something irrelevant and not even accurate.
Yes, legality is different than morality. But just saying a cliche statement is meaningless. Stealing people's art assets and copying gameplay is morally wrong. So I agree that it was both moral and legal to shut them down.
Like I said, if any of the insane things happen, I'll admit I am wrong. But they won't so I'm not worried.
I'll just go to reddit where logic is modded up, not an ideology.
I agree. But both pro-piracy and anti-DRM messages are modded up these days. You will see plenty of people say they pirate games (for other reasons than DRM) and they will be modded up just the same.
And you have absolutely no idea how Blizzard will implement it and you are already bitching. I am sure I have been gaming just as long, if not longer, than you. Games are freaking amazing now. Yeah, bad DRM is bad. If the DRM is too onerous, I won't buy. But every game I have purchased, I have not had any issues from DRM. None. And I play a lot. You guys exaggerate and belly-ache over the stupidest crap. Somewhere from when you were a kid and grew up, the fun part of you died.
What is happening to this community? I come here to read about interesting tech articles. I come here to see what is going on with games. I like to see what other people think about these articles and games. Instead, all I get is a constant barrage of politics and group think.
What do we have modded up for this article? Anti-Blizzard bnetd, anti-social networking, anti-online connected, anti-WoW. And just one...one! person actually commenting on how it will be great way for him to release his maps.
Slashdot has just become a circle jerk to promote a single view point. If it was just Linux advocacy, I would be fine. But no, you have to love Apple and Nintendo, hate Microsoft/Blizzard/Sony, hate DRM, be cool with people justifying piracy because someone might have once said something that isn't true, and be a Libertarian. That and almost every upmodded post is a negative comment that has already been said 1000 times before.
Every now and then there is a gem of a comment that makes it worth coming here. But that is becoming less and less. People here have all become overly cynical and hateful. I'm really glad I am not like the majority of people who get modded up here. It just seems like you hate living. Every game sucks. You think that Blizzard having you online means big brother is watching you (that insane notion is modded up just above me). This community seems to be sick. I just can't stand the negativity and paranoia anymore.
*sigh* Ok, let's get in to it again. It's always an uphill battle since being pro-piracy/anti-DRM is just part of the Slashdot groupthink these days.
So that's all it takes for you to deem a company 'non-evil'? Windows still supports 10-years-old OSes and ignores release pressures to release software before it's done, are they a good company too?
No, it isn't. I responded to all the points the parent poster listed as making them evil and why I didn't think it was evil. But nothing like starting out your argument with a strawman, right?
BitTorrent is where 'people go to get pirated copies of MPAA movies', yet is that sufficient reason to shut them down? no, because BitTorrent is not, by itself, illegal. And neither was bnetd, regardless of what your RIAA-like red herrings may suggest.
BitTorrent is a horrible analogy. BitTorrent simply is a fast way to transfer files among peers. The tool is inherently neutral even if many uses are illegal. bnetd was designed to bypass protection on proprietary code so that people could play online without paying for the game. Even if you want to say that it was designed only to give people better online performance (weak at best considered how it was used), the fact that it was doing it for proprietary code is the difference between bnetd and BitTorrent. If BitTorrent only transferred files based off of someone else's code, then maybe you would have a point. But it doesn't, so you don't.
Yeah, except the part where they also had to remove compatibility with Warcraft II's files to avoid getting sued. That's how the whole freaking project *started*, btw, as a way to play an improved version of Warcraft II. Somebody does that to ID's games and they give it their kudos. Somebody does that to Valve's games and they freaking advertise it on their website. Somebody does that to *Blizzard*, however, and here comes the lawyers.
That's great for Valve (another company that is awesome). But if Blizzard doesn't want other people using their assets, IT IS THEIR RIGHT TO DO SO. Why can't people write their own code and make their own art? Slashdot props up originality but then defends people who want to steal the ideas, art, and code from other games to make a game exactly like the original (except that it is usually worse) instead of coming up with their own ideas. In any case, you may not like it. But companies have the right to defend their property. It doesn't make them evil.
Did it deserve to be shut down? perhaps. Did it deserve to be shut down by the bullshit copyright and EULA claims Blizzard used? hardly. Did we, people who had nothing to do with the whole thing, deserve to gain such an incredibly dangerous legal precedent over it? hell fucking no. Yet that's what happened.
Tin foil hattery. Call me when this is used in all the BS ways Slashdotter say it COULD be used. They will be shot down. Also, this is a problem with the legal system. If there was a simple way for Blizzard to say "Hey, Glider needs to be shut down because it is doing this..." and it was reasonable (which it was) then it could have just been shut down. Our legal system is so screwed up that they had to jump through hoops to get Glider to shut down. Also, no one blames Glider. If it wasn't created in the first place, then this wouldn't have happened. I understand why you don't like Blizzard because of it, but it doesn't make them evil.
ell, nothing Microsoft has ever done has been illogical from a strictly business perspective, specially given their current size and power, yet we're perfectly fine with calling them a bunch of evil motherfuckers.
Uh, no. MS does break monopolistic laws all the time. That is why they are evil. Their actions are not reasonable.
This game is going to sell in the millions. Talking about this stuff is not going to stop anyone from buying it. I'd like to get on games.slashdot.org and talk about games. But you guys politicize everything.
Slashdot Mirror
Everyone has principles and values. For example, I like to buy games from game companies that make kick ass games. To each their own.
Starcraft was popular because it had an amazing single player campaign, had great multi-player balance, was polished like hell, and had an active modding community. To claim LAN made the game is a wild wild exaggeration.
Also, to claim that Blizzard doesn't care about its roots is just your opinion. I mean, if they didn't care about their roots, why would they still be supporting Starcraft? So, your opinion is just wrong.
And on top of that, you have no idea how it will be implemented. It probably will just need to authenticate and then will play over the LAN since the server is on a computer and not at their site. So it probably won't even be a big deal...particularly now that we are in the future and most people have a connection.
But yes, ultimately Blizzard won't notice your little boycott. You can just sit behind your keyboard knowing your principles and values are so much better than all of us poor sheep enjoying the hell out of Starcraft 2. Feel free to pat yourself on the back now.
Pure stupidity. Well written stupidity, but stupidity nonetheless.
You are just playing the oil company's game here. Hell, you are probably employed by them. "Oh, the climate is so hard to understand, things warm and cool in history, that's just what is happening now. We need to study more." Just because you say the words, doesn't mean they are true. You cite nothing backing up your claims. Climatologists, on the other hand, actually collect data and show proof of what is occurring.
Where do you get your stupid bankruptcy arguments? It doesn't even make sense in the context of this discussion. If weather goes crazy and people everywhere are dying we do what we can to help. If we can't afford to help, we don't.
Your whole post is just a disgusting load if intellectual dishonesty. I find it sad that people can't easily see through it.
And how would you do it different...my brilliant coward friend?
The statement is dumb, though. Slashdot might be wrong in their reasons for calling him stupid based on this article. But after reading the article, he is still stupid.
It would be like saying that a conservative sent Obama a threatening letter and then saying that conservatives are more dangerous than liberals. One bad person does not make the whole group bad. Gamers aren't pro-violence to officials. Some kid got pissed and did something dumb. I'd expect an elected official to be more mature about it. haha, what am I saying, the older I get the more I see how even the people in the highest positions are morally and intellectually inferior.
Yeah. Though maybe they can pull a Dominoes. Our product sucks and we knew it! Now we made it not suck so try it again!
I haven't tried it yet. Did they actually remove the suck?
I understand your frustration but your expectations are way way too high at that level of support. Talking about color channels will just confuse them. You have to talk "dumb" to them and they have to follow their script. This is how you would have to say it:
"Hi, my picture looks funny." They then read from their script and do the things you have already done. You can't do it out of order, or they get lost. Then finally. "Ok, it looks like it is a problem on our end, I'll send someone out."
I know that sucks for us people who are technical...but it makes sense. No one with real technical experience is going to work that job. We would all get better paying ones elsewhere. Just have to know how to talk to them to minimize how long you are on the phone with them.
How can this be modded insightful? There have been plenty of reviews. But do you even need to...it can't multitask. I mean, come on. This is Slashdot, if people are bashing Apple it is because they really screwed up. You act if Apple is abused on here.
Just because something sells well doesn't mean it is good. People are so nuts about Apple they will buy anything without any intelligence being put in to their decisions.
You are a moron. Try getting your news from more than one place. The Internet is socialism. So you may not want to post here. Public schools are socialism. Don't let your kids go to school there. Police and fireman...do you hate them? Socialist bastards all of them. Your points don't even make sense. What more wars are you talking about? We are ramping down in Iraq and trying to finish Afghanistan. Obama is trying to get health care through, but people that are stupid like you won't let everyone save money because you are afraid of socialist health insurance. He made in to law that women get equal pay. He is trying to get rid of don't ask don't tell. Our relationship with foreign countries is a million times better. He stopped us from going in to a depression. I am worried about run away inflation, but the reason we are at this point is because of conservative policy of removing regulation. Go read and listen to other things. You seriously have no idea what you are talking about. You just spout off Tea Party talking points. You sound like Sarah Palin to me.
I don't understand your post. You go on giving excellent examples how no one charges $60 for expansions and then you complain about it. My point was the OP was flipping out about it costing $180 when there was nothing to justify that opinion. Your post further validates mine. Yet you seem to disagree with me.
I am currently playing Fallout 3. I am almost done with the main story and have yet to touch the DLC. I waited for the GOTY edition (what smart gamers do with their money). That game is worth $60 easily without touching the DLC. So I disagree that any of the DLC obviously should have been incorporated. There is a whole game there without the DLC.
Everyone is within their rights to feel however they want. That doesn't prove anything. If you don't like what a company does, don't buy the game. If you want the game, but think there will be DLC, wait a year and get it when all the DLC is included. Simple.
You don't need to get started on DRM. In every game article there will be about 1-6 posts (depending on popularity of the game) talking about how people hate DRM. There will be 1-4 talking about how piracy is the superior version (ignoring the fact that it is probably full of trojans). There will be a couple funny posts. And maybe one moderated post actually talking about the game and what they like about it.
Just try it out, before you click on the comments, predict all the stuff people are going to whine about instead of actually talk about the article. You'll get pretty tired of hearing the same groupthink spat out constantly.
No, I am using logic. Blizzard has never released games at that price and then released expansions at that price. The OP was stating it as if it was fact and then over-reacting to it. It would be considered a straw man if this were a debate.
You can call me whatever names you want. If you can't effectively counter the points I am making, then it is you who looks foolish.
Why in the heck do you think you would be modded down? That same thing is said in every single game article and it is modded up.
Saying someone is acting like an emo doesn't mean I am labeling them. That would be saying "You are an emo".
The game + expansions won't cost that much. The person has no idea how much they will cost, but we know they won't be that much. So they are getting angry over something non-existent.
I honestly don't care about being taken seriously anymore on here. I know my view point isn't the same as the vocal majority and I will be modded down for that. I should be more respectful, but quite frankly, I have lost pretty much all respect for the majority of people who post here. Obviously, there are still some awesome people way more smart than I am here, but they sure aren't the majority.
I didn't know Bush was cool, hip, and progressive. Congratulations, most ignorant post I have read in weeks.
That's fine. But here is my point. You have no clue how it will be implemented. It may just require you to authenticate and then all traffic will be routed locally. My Internet is out maybe 1 or 2 times a year and usually is just a router restart. If this is a big deal, then you can't buy any multi-player game.
But instead of ANYONE here waiting to see how anything is done, they complain and already get their excuses in line to pirate the game.
No one here is talking about how it is cool you can just enter in a key to the new battle.net for your games and can download them - Mac or PC. No one is talking about how excited they are to finally get the next part of the story. You guys all are crying about LAN play and being online.
There has to be others out there that are just excited to play the game. I already know all your ideologies. It is hammered in almost every single post in every single article. You hate DRM. I got it. Don't buy any game because they will all have DRM. This is reality. All consoles are a form of DRM. This is a reality. These games will all sell despite your ideologies.
No one on here can just be excited for a game release? Nope, too much to ask. You all have the childish mentality that it is cool to bash everything.
Honestly, I don't care about your heart-breaking story of being unable to play with people you love. You know why? Because it is all made up. The game isn't out, you have no idea if what you are saying is true, but instead of just de-clenching you have already gone in to outrage mode.
I have been in this community for so many years. I loved Slashdot. But I think I have just outgrown it. You guys can't talk about an article. You can only karma whore by repeating the same ideology over and over again. I honestly challenge everyone here to just look at the comments modded up in every article. Pretty much every post modded up should be redundant. It has nothing to do with the article, and everything to do with "OMG DRM. OMG LAN. OMG BNETD." Yes, we all know all those things already. You will get modded up but you have contributed nothing.
And really, this isn't you...I am sure you are a nice person. I am just tired of the ideology, it doesn't have to be this way. Everything is spun Libertarian here and exaggerated so that it becomes worthless.
The frustrating thing is I know there are a lot of Slashdotters out there just like me. It is just we are the vocal minority. I feel like Slashdot has been stolen away by people who care more about shoving views down my throat than by technology.
You obviously didn't read the other Blizzard article. That's all you are about. Complaining about stuff. Slashdot is the Tea Party movement of the Internet. A bunch of old people complaining about how things used to be with complete disregard to reality.
*rolls eyes* Come on. You know what he meant. We obviously don't know the prices of next gen games. we both know, he is referring to the 360 and the PS3. There's no reason to be such a pedant all the time.
If you want to be taken seriously, stop exaggerating like an emo.
So, you all get together at the same house. Get online, authenticate to the server, then play the game over the local network. It isn't like battle.net is hosting the game.
Do I know it will be implemented like this. No. But no one else knows how it will be implemented either. So I am holding off on calling the death of LANs over this.
They could, but not much you can do if someone buys the content and then makes their own free version of it from scratch. Might be really hard to control. I'd rather they do it for mods that require much more effort and keep maps free.
Your first point makes no sense at all. I was simply pointing out that your first statement was a strawman and I explained why. If you can't figure that out, I can't really expect you to follow anything else I say.
The rest of your points are just arguing to try to seem less wrong. The fact that you can play through TCP/IP has nothing to do with my point. It had to do with tearing apart your horrible analogy. You couldn't address that so you countered with something irrelevant and not even accurate.
Yes, legality is different than morality. But just saying a cliche statement is meaningless. Stealing people's art assets and copying gameplay is morally wrong. So I agree that it was both moral and legal to shut them down.
Like I said, if any of the insane things happen, I'll admit I am wrong. But they won't so I'm not worried.
I'll just go to reddit where logic is modded up, not an ideology.
I agree. But both pro-piracy and anti-DRM messages are modded up these days. You will see plenty of people say they pirate games (for other reasons than DRM) and they will be modded up just the same.
And you have absolutely no idea how Blizzard will implement it and you are already bitching. I am sure I have been gaming just as long, if not longer, than you. Games are freaking amazing now. Yeah, bad DRM is bad. If the DRM is too onerous, I won't buy. But every game I have purchased, I have not had any issues from DRM. None. And I play a lot. You guys exaggerate and belly-ache over the stupidest crap. Somewhere from when you were a kid and grew up, the fun part of you died.
What is happening to this community? I come here to read about interesting tech articles. I come here to see what is going on with games. I like to see what other people think about these articles and games. Instead, all I get is a constant barrage of politics and group think.
What do we have modded up for this article? Anti-Blizzard bnetd, anti-social networking, anti-online connected, anti-WoW. And just one...one! person actually commenting on how it will be great way for him to release his maps.
Slashdot has just become a circle jerk to promote a single view point. If it was just Linux advocacy, I would be fine. But no, you have to love Apple and Nintendo, hate Microsoft/Blizzard/Sony, hate DRM, be cool with people justifying piracy because someone might have once said something that isn't true, and be a Libertarian. That and almost every upmodded post is a negative comment that has already been said 1000 times before.
Every now and then there is a gem of a comment that makes it worth coming here. But that is becoming less and less. People here have all become overly cynical and hateful. I'm really glad I am not like the majority of people who get modded up here. It just seems like you hate living. Every game sucks. You think that Blizzard having you online means big brother is watching you (that insane notion is modded up just above me). This community seems to be sick. I just can't stand the negativity and paranoia anymore.
Maybe you should go back to anticipating it since all the things you've heard are not true. Garbage in, garbage out.
*sigh* Ok, let's get in to it again. It's always an uphill battle since being pro-piracy/anti-DRM is just part of the Slashdot groupthink these days.
So that's all it takes for you to deem a company 'non-evil'? Windows still supports 10-years-old OSes and ignores release pressures to release software before it's done, are they a good company too?
No, it isn't. I responded to all the points the parent poster listed as making them evil and why I didn't think it was evil. But nothing like starting out your argument with a strawman, right?
BitTorrent is where 'people go to get pirated copies of MPAA movies', yet is that sufficient reason to shut them down? no, because BitTorrent is not, by itself, illegal. And neither was bnetd, regardless of what your RIAA-like red herrings may suggest.
BitTorrent is a horrible analogy. BitTorrent simply is a fast way to transfer files among peers. The tool is inherently neutral even if many uses are illegal. bnetd was designed to bypass protection on proprietary code so that people could play online without paying for the game. Even if you want to say that it was designed only to give people better online performance (weak at best considered how it was used), the fact that it was doing it for proprietary code is the difference between bnetd and BitTorrent. If BitTorrent only transferred files based off of someone else's code, then maybe you would have a point. But it doesn't, so you don't.
Yeah, except the part where they also had to remove compatibility with Warcraft II's files to avoid getting sued. That's how the whole freaking project *started*, btw, as a way to play an improved version of Warcraft II. Somebody does that to ID's games and they give it their kudos. Somebody does that to Valve's games and they freaking advertise it on their website. Somebody does that to *Blizzard*, however, and here comes the lawyers.
That's great for Valve (another company that is awesome). But if Blizzard doesn't want other people using their assets, IT IS THEIR RIGHT TO DO SO. Why can't people write their own code and make their own art? Slashdot props up originality but then defends people who want to steal the ideas, art, and code from other games to make a game exactly like the original (except that it is usually worse) instead of coming up with their own ideas. In any case, you may not like it. But companies have the right to defend their property. It doesn't make them evil.
Did it deserve to be shut down? perhaps. Did it deserve to be shut down by the bullshit copyright and EULA claims Blizzard used? hardly. Did we, people who had nothing to do with the whole thing, deserve to gain such an incredibly dangerous legal precedent over it? hell fucking no. Yet that's what happened.
Tin foil hattery. Call me when this is used in all the BS ways Slashdotter say it COULD be used. They will be shot down. Also, this is a problem with the legal system. If there was a simple way for Blizzard to say "Hey, Glider needs to be shut down because it is doing this..." and it was reasonable (which it was) then it could have just been shut down. Our legal system is so screwed up that they had to jump through hoops to get Glider to shut down. Also, no one blames Glider. If it wasn't created in the first place, then this wouldn't have happened. I understand why you don't like Blizzard because of it, but it doesn't make them evil.
ell, nothing Microsoft has ever done has been illogical from a strictly business perspective, specially given their current size and power, yet we're perfectly fine with calling them a bunch of evil motherfuckers.
Uh, no. MS does break monopolistic laws all the time. That is why they are evil. Their actions are not reasonable.
This game is going to sell in the millions. Talking about this stuff is not going to stop anyone from buying it. I'd like to get on games.slashdot.org and talk about games. But you guys politicize everything.