I know I speak for many here when I say that while I'm glad that the creators of my favorite games are making money, I'm dying inside when I think of what this ultimately means for the future of the games industry.
While I think there's some of what you mentioned in regards to the uploading, I think the real reason it has been as successful as it has is because for the average user, there is no way out of capping upload without hurting download. I know you're trying to look on the positive side of things, but I think this is a slightly more realistic reason.
"One interesting side effect of all this, plus the fact that equipment wears out and needs to be repaired, is that everyone is obsessed with money. Poke around on the 'net and you'll find detailed analyses of how much a weapon costs to use: per hit, per unit damage, per swing, etc."
And this is PRECISELY why I no longer play such once cool games as Kingdom of Loathing, and any other MMORPG that gets whittled down to a pure numbers game by players.
I know my opinion may not be shared, but I want a game that doesn't come down to numbers because then its a factor of time, and efficiency, and the stress from that is something I get enough of working during the day.
Honestly, thats why I fell in love with that aged Simutronics game Dragonrealms. It took the gameplay of Gemstone III, but hid all the numbers in it so instead of seeing damage, you'd see a verbal description of the combat and how much damage caused etc. Same thing for appraising your gear, etc.
The end result of this was that players cared more about players and less about stats. Fluff (non functional equipment that looks pretty) was a big economy driver as people wanted to make their character "look" as cool as possible, even though it was only a MUD. But I have to say, it is the only MUD out there that I'll consider going back and paying $12 a month for, or whatever they charge now. I still have my characters on hold.
But this is an interesting story (to keep this ontopic) because back in the day when Gemstone III started, which is the ancestor of todays MMORPGs, AOL was pay-per-hour. Yet people still racked up HUGE bills. Fact is, if the game is addictive in a Skinner Box way, which most MMORPGs are at some base level, people will get hooked.
I prefer the Toys for Ta-tas being held at a caberet joint in Minneapolis. Bring a toy and get free cover for a night, and an entry into a lottery for a free lapdance. Now THATs Christmas Spirit!
Hey, greenmars. I don't mean to rub salt in a wound, but there will always be companies out there that hire american japanese speakers. You're right that they'll probably give preference to native speakers, but nobody said your PRIMARY function would be speaking japanese. That could just be a nice secondary thing that might encourage the company to pay you a lot of money to be overseas for them.
Unfortunately, its not just to impress those folks. When they make unenforceable laws like this you need to realize that there will be times and places where it will indeed be enforceable, and then they'll be able to grab the people by the balls by threatening to enforce it.
This might be used in the short term by some litigious people (read bad parents) to sue big businesses that fall short on this.
"but they've put little advertizing dollars into it for it to be a PR move."
Anybody in the advertising/PR industry is going "well duh!" right now. Allow me to explain. PR consists of non-advertising communications. Typically free things, like press releases etc. You don't "spend money" on it like you would for advertising, although you still pay for the services of a PR firm you might use.
Which is why PR is so valuable, its free word of mouth.
But you make good points about their ultimate plans with the robots. They would NOT be undertaking such an endeavor if they didn't think it would payoff majorly for the company in the long run. I see no reason why Honda won't be one of, if not the main provider of robots in the future.
Simple. Because you and I have different views of what getting along is. Now multiply the number of people who have different views by the worlds population.
Wouldn't be surprised if they added some noise barriers between cabins, and charged people more to sit in the cellphone cabin, or worse....charge people more to NOT be in the cellphone cabin.....*shudders*.
Why can't we turn them into navigational buoys as well for the jetliners? Eventually as we move to populate the galaxy and our orbit (maybe with a space elevator platform) we're going to need waypoints to launch repair, and other operations from. I see no reason why these buoys can't help fill that role.
While most people have done an excellent job of showing why this is exactly the kind of thing that drives our type of gamer away, many have been wrong with one assumption.
That their target market is us.
Got news for you, but I'm willing to bet their in depth market research showed them who the biggest demographic for them is, and they are pandering to them. Thats fine if you think they are inferior to you (well, no its not, but thats your call not mine), but to fault SpikeTV for not providing you with the show you want is like getting mad at MTV for pushing what is hot and current. They're not in it for your dollars, and they never were. They are in it for the dollars of their most profitable market, which in this case apparently likes the things they offered.
Its exactly the same thing retail stores do. They lure you in with a too good to be true deal, and then get their money's worth pushing other products on you. Its a tactic Walmart has been using for a long time.
Personally, I think this is good for people who want to see whats out there, but are able to not get sucked in to buying expansions. On the other hand, I can't even see why this is news. If the headline was more accurate, maybe something like "AO to offer discounted price" would anybody even be looking twice at this? Because thats what it is in essence.
So I know that you can encode entire programs on barcodes. Well, could someone have a tattoo with this barcode on it for the program and carry it with them wherever they go? Even a temporary tattoo would be cool. Wearable computing takes on a whole new meaning, plus, you'd never be without access to free media.
Ok, I'm pretty neutral on this whole thing, but from an audience perspective, here's what iPod owners who used Reals Service are going to be hearing and saying:
Apple: We're locking them out. iPodowners: You're ruining music we paid for from someone else. Take it out on them, not us.
Real: Please buy our music, we can't guarantee it will work on the most popular music player out there, but buy anyway. Realserviceusers: Either make it work on our iPods this instant or give us back our fucking money.
Either way, given the litigious way we live here in the States, I predict at least one class-action lawsuit against either Apple or Real or BOTH! Fun for the whole family.
On a serious note though, it really sucks that those customers who bought the music to put on their iPods (and therefore gave money to BOTH companies) are the ones that are getting screwed and having to suffer until this is resolved. I know the companies are doing it for profit reasons, which is their obligation as a publicly held company, so I have no qualms in wishing that someone with more skill than I create a workaround to this problem and give the control back to the customer (not consumer).
Oh, and P.S. Hey Apple, I thought you always said the iTunes music store was just a way to boost iPod sales. Why are you letting something that is beneficial for iPod sales be hampered by the need to make money on the music store?
This is the type of question I would be asking them right now were I a shareholder.
No kidding. People bitch about the trailers, but I actually enjoy that part of a movie. Now, the other ads I don't like, but I don't really see what is wrong with showing you what movies are up and coming. I mean, since I've started consuming most if not all of my media on my computer, I haven't really seen any trailers on TV since I watch so little of it. And I can't be bothered to always go to Apple's website to see whats new. I wonder if there's a notification feature.
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And this is PRECISELY why I no longer play such once cool games as Kingdom of Loathing, and any other MMORPG that gets whittled down to a pure numbers game by players.
I know my opinion may not be shared, but I want a game that doesn't come down to numbers because then its a factor of time, and efficiency, and the stress from that is something I get enough of working during the day.
Honestly, thats why I fell in love with that aged Simutronics game Dragonrealms. It took the gameplay of Gemstone III, but hid all the numbers in it so instead of seeing damage, you'd see a verbal description of the combat and how much damage caused etc. Same thing for appraising your gear, etc.
The end result of this was that players cared more about players and less about stats. Fluff (non functional equipment that looks pretty) was a big economy driver as people wanted to make their character "look" as cool as possible, even though it was only a MUD. But I have to say, it is the only MUD out there that I'll consider going back and paying $12 a month for, or whatever they charge now. I still have my characters on hold.
But this is an interesting story (to keep this ontopic) because back in the day when Gemstone III started, which is the ancestor of todays MMORPGs, AOL was pay-per-hour. Yet people still racked up HUGE bills. Fact is, if the game is addictive in a Skinner Box way, which most MMORPGs are at some base level, people will get hooked.
HO HO HO HO HO!!! (no pun intended)
This might be used in the short term by some litigious people (read bad parents) to sue big businesses that fall short on this.
Anybody in the advertising/PR industry is going "well duh!" right now. Allow me to explain. PR consists of non-advertising communications. Typically free things, like press releases etc. You don't "spend money" on it like you would for advertising, although you still pay for the services of a PR firm you might use.
Which is why PR is so valuable, its free word of mouth.
But you make good points about their ultimate plans with the robots. They would NOT be undertaking such an endeavor if they didn't think it would payoff majorly for the company in the long run. I see no reason why Honda won't be one of, if not the main provider of robots in the future.
Simple. Because you and I have different views of what getting along is. Now multiply the number of people who have different views by the worlds population.
If crosstalking is anything like sidetalking, no thanks!
That their target market is us.
Got news for you, but I'm willing to bet their in depth market research showed them who the biggest demographic for them is, and they are pandering to them. Thats fine if you think they are inferior to you (well, no its not, but thats your call not mine), but to fault SpikeTV for not providing you with the show you want is like getting mad at MTV for pushing what is hot and current. They're not in it for your dollars, and they never were. They are in it for the dollars of their most profitable market, which in this case apparently likes the things they offered.
I say a real man is someone who figures out for himself what a real man is, and then follows that.
Personally, I think this is good for people who want to see whats out there, but are able to not get sucked in to buying expansions. On the other hand, I can't even see why this is news. If the headline was more accurate, maybe something like "AO to offer discounted price" would anybody even be looking twice at this? Because thats what it is in essence.
Apple: We're locking them out.
iPodowners: You're ruining music we paid for from someone else. Take it out on them, not us.
Real: Please buy our music, we can't guarantee it will work on the most popular music player out there, but buy anyway.
Realserviceusers: Either make it work on our iPods this instant or give us back our fucking money.
Either way, given the litigious way we live here in the States, I predict at least one class-action lawsuit against either Apple or Real or BOTH! Fun for the whole family.
On a serious note though, it really sucks that those customers who bought the music to put on their iPods (and therefore gave money to BOTH companies) are the ones that are getting screwed and having to suffer until this is resolved. I know the companies are doing it for profit reasons, which is their obligation as a publicly held company, so I have no qualms in wishing that someone with more skill than I create a workaround to this problem and give the control back to the customer (not consumer).
Oh, and P.S.
Hey Apple, I thought you always said the iTunes music store was just a way to boost iPod sales. Why are you letting something that is beneficial for iPod sales be hampered by the need to make money on the music store?
This is the type of question I would be asking them right now were I a shareholder.