I agree with you completely, but would also add that in some games, like Everquest, where resources like rare and raid mobs were artificially restricted (the "boss" mobs spawned basically once a week, give or take a few hours for randomization, and once anyone on the server killed it, it was dead for everyone, instead of being instanced like WoW), travel time would be one of the key factors in deciding who got to kill the mob... it wasn't just about having enough players online, it was having enough players online with the best transport logistics (a team of mages summoning other players).
Also, in PvP games travel time helps add an element of strategy to the games... taking out an enemy's outlier's and sneaking away is viable, but if everyone could instantly teleport nearby, the army with the most forces would pretty much always win, leading to one dominant army and everyone else figuring the game is pointless.
First of all, Blizzard's rules DO say you cannot be insulting such as calling people fags or saying something is gay, and if you do it in a channel where people COMPLAIN, you will get in trouble.
In other words, if you create a guild full of potty mouths and everyone is fine with it, swear away. But do it in the public channels and have someone report you and you're in trouble. Heck, even have someone in your guild complain and you're in trouble!
They are not saying she cannot form a GBLT (or whatever that acronym was) guild, they are telling her not to SPAM THE PUBLIC CHAT CHANNELS with advertising that it is a GBLT guild. I don't honestly know what GBLT people talk about, but whatever it is would be allowed in/gu chat, just keep it off the public channels. They also warn the "religious" guilds about the same thing... say what you want in/gu, keep it off the public channels. When you're in a large, multicultured environment that's just common sense, but this crusader isn't happy about it and wants to make a big deal.... lame.
Your right in that mistakes will happen with big companies, or small companies, or even with individuals.
What seperates good from evil is how you rectify those mistakes. Since the discovery of the "mistake" Sony has:
* Had a senior executive say that people should not be concerned because most of the sheep don't even know what a root kit is.
* Denied that it was a real problem, but said they were bowing to public pressure by "unhiding" the files (which still left the always present driver that sucks resources and breaks legitimate software)
* Refused to publicly release an uninstall tool and made customers have to ask for permission to uninstall it.
* Did not take care with the uninstall utility, and thus, made it another point of attack on the customer's system.
And that's just since the "mistake" (which involved using root kits to DRM as well as violating (in a minor way) other people's copyrights in the act of protecting their own).
Yeah, I think a lot more negativity needs to be piled on. Sony needs to be HURT financially to teach them never to try this crap again, much like you have to swat the nose of a dog with a newspaper to keep them from pooping in the house.
Now, I didn't buy that CD (or any others in the last five or six years) but if I had, I'd like to see where the terms and conditions of the contract that I SIGNED AND AGREED to are. If they are available for viewing BEFORE I make the purchase AND they explicitly indicate everything that Sony is allowed to do to my computer if I choose to put it in my computer, then you have a point.
If not, then it is nothing more than a con, equivalent to me mailing you a letter that you open to see "the act of opening this letter means you agree to give me all your worldly assets, and none of your debts". If you feel Sony isn't WRONG, then you'd better fork over everything you own when you get that letter, because it's the same thing.
Now, if I posted "the act of opening this letter means you agree to give me all your worldly assets, and none of your debts" and you open it, well, that's fair game because you had the option, and if you weren't a dumbass, you wouldn't open it. That's the difference. Sony is not providing OUTSIDE of the purchase the terms and conditions that you are claiming binds the purchasor, and Sony is NOT refunding your money if you disagree with what you find inside.
"The beauty of software is that we are always making breakthroughs. We will have more in the next 10 years than we have had on the last 30," he said in an exclusive BBC interview.
He then added "Unless, of course, we happen to knock google out, in that case we'll just leave things as they are."
But all of those things that they are putting out are way down the road, and as we've seen, the entire feature list and the complete look are subject to change during the development period, so non-PC oriented media isn't interested in reporting on it. With the video Ipod it was "here's this new device we're making, Itunes supports it now, and they will be on store shelves within a short time period".
When Windows XP had an official release date, there was a LOT of coverage from every news source out there.
It's just that Apple is doing a better job with churning out things that are of interest... even when Microsoft does release Vista, the new IE and Media Player coverage will be lumped in with them. If they did it like Apple, they'd release the new IE now and get coverage, then when that dies down, release the new Media Player, and so on...
And why is Firaxis just re-releasing or updating games that Sid made previously? (Civ 4, Pirates, Civ 3, Civil War Collection)?
Re:Originality
on
Ask Sid Meier
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Exactly, even Firaxis is doing the same thing, look at their game list from the time they became a company: (Each of them prefaced with Sid Meier's....)
Pirates - remake of his old Pirates game.
Civilization III - remake of Civ II/Civ.
Sim Golf - a Tycoon game for Golf, but at least a new thing for their lineup.
Alpha Centauri - Civ II.5, Civ In Space
Civil War Collection - Re-release of two older games
And now, working on Civilization IV.
Yes, they are great games, and yes, I love Civ and will be snapping up Civ 4, but I'd also pay for Sid Meier's... something else, because I know they are quality games (if not, at present, original games).
"and I informed everyone I cared about who had used that address about my "real" address (firstname_lastname@mydomain.com). I have been a heavy email user since the 80s; and have many gigabytes of email archived - but never once had a major problem with emails that I didn't submit to a spammer."
The problem is when, for business and sales purposes, there are thousands of people who email you once or twice a year. You don't want to constantly be sending them email address changes and you don't want to stop watching the address they have, because that's business you'll be losing. So you have to wade through the spam on the "public" address because... you deal with the public!
So yes, they're online and counting that way, but if you've ever played Everquest, you know that the downtime and the waiting around are so bad you NEED a TV to watch between kills:)
I agree with a lot of your points, but it will definately be a short term thing, not a long term thing. Carry your example onwards.
Every single CD is now doing this, which means a lot of people (such as myself) that listen to their music collections on mp3-walkmen or from their hard drive will refuse to buy ANY music.
One thing that will happen is that society will slowly reshape itself. Remember what a big deal to society major league baseball was? And now, after all the strikes, greed, etc... how many people do you know that still buy tickets?
And there will now be a lot of mobile music devices such as ipods with no new music to put into it. Some people will be quite happy just recycling the music they already own. I recently ripped my entire collection and put the cds into boxes in the basement. 5576 songs. Plenty to keep me going with new playlists regularly between that and the radio. I don't NEED to buy more music.
In short, that laziness is what is prompting the shift from CD's. People are too lazy to get up and change the CD after every song, and so they like the convenience of the new media. Having tasted the new media, they WON'T go back, they will do without.
Which means that a smaller label will see an opportunity for a brand new market by providing digital music that is UNprotected and advertising it specifically as "music for your ipod". It will sell ridiculously well because it is the ONLY legitimate music available and people want some new music for their ipod. Which will encourage others to do the same to get into that market.... and the pendulum will once again slide back to where it is now.
I'm old, I admit it, but being this old means you've seen a lot of these cycles come and go, and I have no doubt at all that this is one of them.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree with you completely, but would also add that in some games, like Everquest, where resources like rare and raid mobs were artificially restricted (the "boss" mobs spawned basically once a week, give or take a few hours for randomization, and once anyone on the server killed it, it was dead for everyone, instead of being instanced like WoW), travel time would be one of the key factors in deciding who got to kill the mob... it wasn't just about having enough players online, it was having enough players online with the best transport logistics (a team of mages summoning other players). Also, in PvP games travel time helps add an element of strategy to the games... taking out an enemy's outlier's and sneaking away is viable, but if everyone could instantly teleport nearby, the army with the most forces would pretty much always win, leading to one dominant army and everyone else figuring the game is pointless.
First of all, Blizzard's rules DO say you cannot be insulting such as calling people fags or saying something is gay, and if you do it in a channel where people COMPLAIN, you will get in trouble. In other words, if you create a guild full of potty mouths and everyone is fine with it, swear away. But do it in the public channels and have someone report you and you're in trouble. Heck, even have someone in your guild complain and you're in trouble! They are not saying she cannot form a GBLT (or whatever that acronym was) guild, they are telling her not to SPAM THE PUBLIC CHAT CHANNELS with advertising that it is a GBLT guild. I don't honestly know what GBLT people talk about, but whatever it is would be allowed in /gu chat, just keep it off the public channels. They also warn the "religious" guilds about the same thing... say what you want in /gu, keep it off the public channels. When you're in a large, multicultured environment that's just common sense, but this crusader isn't happy about it and wants to make a big deal.... lame.
Pretty sure it's an acronym for I Am Not A Lawyer, but don't quote me on that :)
Your right in that mistakes will happen with big companies, or small companies, or even with individuals. What seperates good from evil is how you rectify those mistakes. Since the discovery of the "mistake" Sony has: * Had a senior executive say that people should not be concerned because most of the sheep don't even know what a root kit is. * Denied that it was a real problem, but said they were bowing to public pressure by "unhiding" the files (which still left the always present driver that sucks resources and breaks legitimate software) * Refused to publicly release an uninstall tool and made customers have to ask for permission to uninstall it. * Did not take care with the uninstall utility, and thus, made it another point of attack on the customer's system. And that's just since the "mistake" (which involved using root kits to DRM as well as violating (in a minor way) other people's copyrights in the act of protecting their own). Yeah, I think a lot more negativity needs to be piled on. Sony needs to be HURT financially to teach them never to try this crap again, much like you have to swat the nose of a dog with a newspaper to keep them from pooping in the house.
Now, I didn't buy that CD (or any others in the last five or six years) but if I had, I'd like to see where the terms and conditions of the contract that I SIGNED AND AGREED to are. If they are available for viewing BEFORE I make the purchase AND they explicitly indicate everything that Sony is allowed to do to my computer if I choose to put it in my computer, then you have a point. If not, then it is nothing more than a con, equivalent to me mailing you a letter that you open to see "the act of opening this letter means you agree to give me all your worldly assets, and none of your debts". If you feel Sony isn't WRONG, then you'd better fork over everything you own when you get that letter, because it's the same thing. Now, if I posted "the act of opening this letter means you agree to give me all your worldly assets, and none of your debts" and you open it, well, that's fair game because you had the option, and if you weren't a dumbass, you wouldn't open it. That's the difference. Sony is not providing OUTSIDE of the purchase the terms and conditions that you are claiming binds the purchasor, and Sony is NOT refunding your money if you disagree with what you find inside.
"The beauty of software is that we are always making breakthroughs. We will have more in the next 10 years than we have had on the last 30," he said in an exclusive BBC interview. He then added "Unless, of course, we happen to knock google out, in that case we'll just leave things as they are."
But all of those things that they are putting out are way down the road, and as we've seen, the entire feature list and the complete look are subject to change during the development period, so non-PC oriented media isn't interested in reporting on it. With the video Ipod it was "here's this new device we're making, Itunes supports it now, and they will be on store shelves within a short time period". When Windows XP had an official release date, there was a LOT of coverage from every news source out there. It's just that Apple is doing a better job with churning out things that are of interest... even when Microsoft does release Vista, the new IE and Media Player coverage will be lumped in with them. If they did it like Apple, they'd release the new IE now and get coverage, then when that dies down, release the new Media Player, and so on...
And why is Firaxis just re-releasing or updating games that Sid made previously? (Civ 4, Pirates, Civ 3, Civil War Collection)?
Exactly, even Firaxis is doing the same thing, look at their game list from the time they became a company: (Each of them prefaced with Sid Meier's....) Pirates - remake of his old Pirates game. Civilization III - remake of Civ II/Civ. Sim Golf - a Tycoon game for Golf, but at least a new thing for their lineup. Alpha Centauri - Civ II.5, Civ In Space Civil War Collection - Re-release of two older games And now, working on Civilization IV. Yes, they are great games, and yes, I love Civ and will be snapping up Civ 4, but I'd also pay for Sid Meier's ... something else, because I know they are quality games (if not, at present, original games).
"and I informed everyone I cared about who had used that address about my "real" address (firstname_lastname@mydomain.com). I have been a heavy email user since the 80s; and have many gigabytes of email archived - but never once had a major problem with emails that I didn't submit to a spammer." The problem is when, for business and sales purposes, there are thousands of people who email you once or twice a year. You don't want to constantly be sending them email address changes and you don't want to stop watching the address they have, because that's business you'll be losing. So you have to wade through the spam on the "public" address because... you deal with the public!
So yes, they're online and counting that way, but if you've ever played Everquest, you know that the downtime and the waiting around are so bad you NEED a TV to watch between kills :)
I agree with a lot of your points, but it will definately be a short term thing, not a long term thing. Carry your example onwards. Every single CD is now doing this, which means a lot of people (such as myself) that listen to their music collections on mp3-walkmen or from their hard drive will refuse to buy ANY music. One thing that will happen is that society will slowly reshape itself. Remember what a big deal to society major league baseball was? And now, after all the strikes, greed, etc... how many people do you know that still buy tickets? And there will now be a lot of mobile music devices such as ipods with no new music to put into it. Some people will be quite happy just recycling the music they already own. I recently ripped my entire collection and put the cds into boxes in the basement. 5576 songs. Plenty to keep me going with new playlists regularly between that and the radio. I don't NEED to buy more music. In short, that laziness is what is prompting the shift from CD's. People are too lazy to get up and change the CD after every song, and so they like the convenience of the new media. Having tasted the new media, they WON'T go back, they will do without. Which means that a smaller label will see an opportunity for a brand new market by providing digital music that is UNprotected and advertising it specifically as "music for your ipod". It will sell ridiculously well because it is the ONLY legitimate music available and people want some new music for their ipod. Which will encourage others to do the same to get into that market.... and the pendulum will once again slide back to where it is now. I'm old, I admit it, but being this old means you've seen a lot of these cycles come and go, and I have no doubt at all that this is one of them.