"2) In LOTR, they made sure that there was no overlap in the special features between the theatrical cut and the extended cut."
Actually, as a customer, this one really pisses me off. I just wanted the extended edition because of the extra footage. But I also like the extra features, and in order to get them all now......I would have to purchase both the theatrical and extended cuts. Why can't they just have the same extras on the theatrical and extended cuts? Oh wait.....more money this way.
Personally, I can't wait to be able to watch my divx versions of Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Sealab 2021 on my phone. Might make roadtrips more fun, and its convenient if you just want to show a friend something really funny they haven't seen before. Trust me, people will find uses for it.
I can imagine why. That's a fairly personal question, even if he is the CEO of the company. It doesn't matter what the relation of the person is to the investment being asked about, it is considered poor taste in general to ask someone about their personal investments, moreso in front of a large group of people.
And this is what people at Slashdot don't get. While it may not have had a point to you, to anybody who wasn't in the know, he seemed very informed, and very good at what he does. The purpose of the meeting was really not to inform you of anything, but to rally the troops behind him.
People here think that just because they don't like management, or at lot of their tactics, that they are dumb. Management is not dumb, management is just really really good at looking out for themselves. So, while I am glad that many of you make the ethical decision not to think solely of yourself, realize that the reason they keep getting promoted, and have a stable job, and keep getting raises is because just like you, they've realized how the system works.
They just chose to adapt, as opposed to those of you who just choose to bitch. Sorry if this comes off as flamebait, but I really can't stand everybody who refuses to adapt to the system and then bitches about it (i'm fine with the people who hold their ground and don't bitch). Slashdotters preach how the recording industry needed to adapt to prevent their death.....well....perhaps you need to adapt to prevent being outsourced. If you don't want to, fine, but don't complain about it because you knew the consequences. Nobody ever said the world was fair and just.
I guess you could call me a Devil's Advocate then. I'm incredibly good at ripping apart any idea I'm confronted with. I could write you an endless list of why a plan will fail, why nobody would buy a certain product, what could go wrong with a situation.
I really wish there was a job for someone like me, but alas, people seem to like "constructive criticism" which isn't really my specialty. So what I've tried to do is always think of at least one solution to every problem I find. I don't always find em, but it makes me look a helluva lot less negative. And negative people never get promoted.
"unfortunately nintendo has opted has opted for bringing a clone of the 8 bit pokemon each year and name it after every color and/or element/gem they can get in the office thesaurus, what a shame. "
What's an even bigger shame, and pisses me off to no end, is that my 12 year old brother will buy both copies for his GBA SP (keep in mind he already has a regular GBA) simply because there will be a couple extra bits of data on there for a few different pokemon. Biggest waste of $30 EVER. At least when he bought the GBA SP it had the benefit of being more portable.
The reason they stick to this formula is because apparently it works.
BF1942 is good for beginners. You can play with only bots for a while, and now, when you play online with the 1.6 patch, it can search for Punkbuster only servers, which blocks cheats (most at least). Plus, if you get on well populated server, odds are there will be someone suckier than you.
Also, why not learn it like the rest of us did? Keep playing against the guys who keep getting head shots on you, and if you practice long enough, suddenly you start getting head shots on them.
Nobody ever got better at a game by playing against a bunch of people who are worse than them.
" 3. If there's no demo, and you don't trust the developer enough to buy the game, sight-unseen, don't buy it. The developer doesn't deserve your money, but neither do you deserve to own a copy of their game."
I agree with some of your other stuff, but this is the age of try-before-you-buy. People want to test things out. And if its digital, they better DAMN WELL be able to. You don't see online music stores selling song downloads without you being able to preview it do you?
Now, obviously some stores setup demo stations, this is great. But a lot of people don't have access to that. I'm sorry, but the market has spoken, they want to try out your game, and they don't want to have to get off their asses to do it. If you're smart, you'll make a demo, otherwise you will suffer the wrath of the market.
I'm not arguing ethics here, I'm simply saying that is what the current market is like, adapt or die.
Actually, a funny article I read on penis enlargement spam a while ago bought a bunch of them to review them. A very common practice apparently is for the spammers to sell a text file or a link to a website with a description on a technique called "Jelqing".
So I know this may make some chuckle, but apparently there is a free technique (not masturbation surprisingly enough, but close) which they claim works. And hey, its free, as in beer.
There is a great anime called Planet ES and in one episode one of the characters meets a girl on the moon who was a 'Lunarian', a person who was born and raised on the moon. She looks like an early 20's girl, but in reality she's 12. Apparently the low gravity let her grow larger faster, although I didn't get the reason why she appeared to age quicker aside from size. But she could never leave the moon because her bones were too frail. The environment on Earth would crush her.
Now this is all based on the anime, but it is still very interesting, and I wonder if it has any scientific merit.
You know, I came home from the grocery store, got on the internet, checked Slashdot like a good little Slashdotter, and of all the possible stories we could have had (and thats a lot counting possible dupes), this was no where NEAR the top of the list of what I expected. Wow.
Sometimes I lose faith in Slashdot, and then a little gem like this story comes along to keep me going through the night.
They're so helpful to offer up a couple examples of Marvel characters, but neglect to mention any of the EA characters they are going to be up against. What characters does EA even have? Is it gonna be spiderman vs. some bf1942 grunt?
Can someone give a little background for us Americans on what the MIPI is, and what kind of power they have? I mean.....this sounds kinda like the RIAA hit squads only raiding Kazaa......and if this weren't out of the states, I'd be crying bloody murder because I know that no industry group has that kind of search and seizure power, only law enforcement.
This is why I love Slashdot so much. All the smart people post really clever ways of screwing large numbers of people out of lots of money. Now it doesn't matter if my job gets outsourced. I can see it now:
"Just think of it as value adding. You're adding so much value to the coffers of manufacturers and advertisers!"
To think, it could have been value adding......if all the advertisers didn't constantly bombard us with tasteless ads. Advertising in general has gotten to the point where there is a general backlash against it. Any progress made in that field is seen as a negative thing. So while, in an alternate reality we might have welcomed this because we would get ads more relevant to us, in today's world, it will almost certainly be used to annoy us.
As a big bf1942 fan and a DC addict (specially the new.6 release) I have to say that while I'm glad these guys are gaining industry recognition and financial rewards for all their efforts, I will refuse to purchase the mod if they decide to charge for it. I think they should follow the successful CS model of download for free, or buy the retail and pay for the convenience of not having to download it all.
But many good things could come of this. First, they can get much more optimization done on their mod because they'll have DICE helpin em out. Also, because they're actually getting money for this, they can work on it full time and hopefully we'll see new developments much faster than they currently are (and they're already pretty fucking fast compared to other mods, especially considering the quality of each patch so far).
You might want to consider having a chuckle. Parent was making a joke about how the term "Mind Athlete" sounds so ridiculous next to "gamer". But....thanks for being a party pooper anyway.
"And you can't just buy the cards you want. You have to keep buying packs until you happen to be lucky enough to get them. It got very expensive very fast as your pile of worthless cards kept growing and every once in a while you added something good. "
Wow, that sounds really like the variable reward theory that Skinner came up with. Read up on Skinner Boxes to find out about it. It's the science behind psychological addiction. Everquest does this too which you can read a paper on here.
That's why I stopped playing Magic, when I realized that. And trust me, psychological addictions can be just as bad.....sometimes harder to fully conquer than physical/chemical addictions.
The game is hard to find, cuz the sites done in flash. Go to 'complexity science' then 'tools' then click where it says 'click here' go to 'ant algorithms' in the pulldown menu, then click where it says 'click here'. Its an awesome tool, and really fun to play with. Try some signal strength tests.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, as a customer, this one really pisses me off. I just wanted the extended edition because of the extra footage. But I also like the extra features, and in order to get them all now......I would have to purchase both the theatrical and extended cuts. Why can't they just have the same extras on the theatrical and extended cuts? Oh wait.....more money this way.
People here think that just because they don't like management, or at lot of their tactics, that they are dumb. Management is not dumb, management is just really really good at looking out for themselves. So, while I am glad that many of you make the ethical decision not to think solely of yourself, realize that the reason they keep getting promoted, and have a stable job, and keep getting raises is because just like you, they've realized how the system works.
They just chose to adapt, as opposed to those of you who just choose to bitch. Sorry if this comes off as flamebait, but I really can't stand everybody who refuses to adapt to the system and then bitches about it (i'm fine with the people who hold their ground and don't bitch). Slashdotters preach how the recording industry needed to adapt to prevent their death.....well....perhaps you need to adapt to prevent being outsourced. If you don't want to, fine, but don't complain about it because you knew the consequences. Nobody ever said the world was fair and just.
I really wish there was a job for someone like me, but alas, people seem to like "constructive criticism" which isn't really my specialty. So what I've tried to do is always think of at least one solution to every problem I find. I don't always find em, but it makes me look a helluva lot less negative. And negative people never get promoted.
What's an even bigger shame, and pisses me off to no end, is that my 12 year old brother will buy both copies for his GBA SP (keep in mind he already has a regular GBA) simply because there will be a couple extra bits of data on there for a few different pokemon. Biggest waste of $30 EVER. At least when he bought the GBA SP it had the benefit of being more portable.
The reason they stick to this formula is because apparently it works.
Also, why not learn it like the rest of us did? Keep playing against the guys who keep getting head shots on you, and if you practice long enough, suddenly you start getting head shots on them.
Nobody ever got better at a game by playing against a bunch of people who are worse than them.
I agree with some of your other stuff, but this is the age of try-before-you-buy. People want to test things out. And if its digital, they better DAMN WELL be able to. You don't see online music stores selling song downloads without you being able to preview it do you?
Now, obviously some stores setup demo stations, this is great. But a lot of people don't have access to that. I'm sorry, but the market has spoken, they want to try out your game, and they don't want to have to get off their asses to do it. If you're smart, you'll make a demo, otherwise you will suffer the wrath of the market.
I'm not arguing ethics here, I'm simply saying that is what the current market is like, adapt or die.
So I know this may make some chuckle, but apparently there is a free technique (not masturbation surprisingly enough, but close) which they claim works. And hey, its free, as in beer.
Now this is all based on the anime, but it is still very interesting, and I wonder if it has any scientific merit.
Sometimes I lose faith in Slashdot, and then a little gem like this story comes along to keep me going through the night.
Then I supposed you'd accept my argument of "I don't care if you don't give a shit, don't ruin it for those of us who ENJOY our privacy"?
MAKE MONEY THE SLASHDOT WAY!!!akfl;jdso;ifklj;vc
To think, it could have been value adding......if all the advertisers didn't constantly bombard us with tasteless ads. Advertising in general has gotten to the point where there is a general backlash against it. Any progress made in that field is seen as a negative thing. So while, in an alternate reality we might have welcomed this because we would get ads more relevant to us, in today's world, it will almost certainly be used to annoy us.
But many good things could come of this. First, they can get much more optimization done on their mod because they'll have DICE helpin em out. Also, because they're actually getting money for this, they can work on it full time and hopefully we'll see new developments much faster than they currently are (and they're already pretty fucking fast compared to other mods, especially considering the quality of each patch so far).
Wow, that sounds really like the variable reward theory that Skinner came up with. Read up on Skinner Boxes to find out about it. It's the science behind psychological addiction. Everquest does this too which you can read a paper on here.
That's why I stopped playing Magic, when I realized that. And trust me, psychological addictions can be just as bad.....sometimes harder to fully conquer than physical/chemical addictions.
I think you mispelled Open Source. *ducks*