If you're so confident, then fine, name *2* titles released BEFORE 1990 that were sold as "shareware" where you got your mythical 1/3rd free.
Eight-inch disks or punchcards? Shareware is a freely copyable portion free, the rest for registration. Giving away the whole game free and asking for registration is donation-ware.
Look up the word "mythical" again.
The emergence of P2P file sharing means that all games are essentially 'free',
Nah. Developers buy bandwidth by the cargo ship-load. P2P on some pissant DSL connection? Come on.
Seeing as these are the only people going to pay, you may as well go with the flow, and give out your games free and ask people to be honest, cause thats whats going to happen anyway.
Nice troll. Horseshit, but a nice troll anyway.
Everyone has a VCR. How large is/was the "pirated VHS movie" industry? (Hint: movie rentals are a $20 billion industry.)
knowing full well most people won't nicely send them money for their hard work once they've installed the software.
Sure they do. By the thousands and the millions. Game developers can afford a fuckload more bandwidth than warezzzzzzzzzzzzz d0000000000dz.
Most people aren't honest.
Yeah they are.
So, the real question is : are current times so desperate for gaming software shops that developers revert to releasing shareware instead of selling their work as regular products ?
No. The real question is, is this the best troll you can come up with?
The term "shareware" has been bastardised over the last decade. Back when the concept first arose, SHAREWARE was software you could share with your friends and, if you felt it warranted it, you sent the author a donation. There was nothing crippled, there was nothing missing. You could freely copy it, and the developer might make a few bucks.
That's a pantload. Shareware was/is 1/3 free, 2/3 for registration (for example). It's not donation-ware.
Traditionally a college degree or senior-executive experience protected people from the threat of years of unemployment. Not in this economy, says Jeffrey Wenger, a labor economist with the liberal Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
Ah, the ollllllllll' bait and switch. Remember the high school guidance office? "Go to college, get a good job." Sure thing.
"I think they're surprised at how the economy can mistreat you."
It's not the economy. It's the lying fucks who ought to be keeping their word instead of screwing people out of their careers so they can pump the numbers for next quarter.
Business school students aren't just studying in Starbucks; they're worried they'll end up working there.
Such wit.
While the situation for budding execs or out-of-work ones like Jim Klinck is tough, keep in mind that the overall unemployment rate for white-collar workers is just 3%, about half the overall unemployment rate of 6.1%.
A few paragraphs back:
The numbers of those who are searching are staggering
See, now this is where the bullshit starts. "Keep in mind that you really aren't being fucked over by the millions. It's not as bad as I just spent an entire page describing." Anyone who doesn't see through this happy talk crap is an idiot.
"Workers should ask, 'Where in the value chain can I position myself?'"
You can't. A "value chain" implies that there are values. There aren't. Management doesn't give a shit. As long as the numbers are coming in, everything's fine. When the eventually company files for Chapter 11, they just pick up their potato salad and their drink and wander off to the next company.
The worst possible business proposition in the world is W-4 employment. Labor laws are such that all of the advantages are on the employer's side. Employees have no power, no upside and no recourse.
No businessperson worth 12 cents would obligate themselves to a mortgage on the one hand (a 30 year agreement with no escape clause) and a handshake at-will employment agreement (which is no agreement) on the other.
But dumbass managers will continue to believe they can beat the laws of business, while everyone else has to follow them. They tell us "you get what you pay for" at the cash register, but don't listen to themselves during the hiring process.
Fine. If they want to believe they can compete with underpaid people, that's their problem. You pay five bucks an hour, you're going to get a five-buck-an-hour job.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah. Boy, those eBooks are really expensive too. Wow, if we didn't have P2P, we might never have anything to read.
Here's a thought: PAY FOR THE ****ING BOOK.
If you're so confident, then fine, name *2* titles released BEFORE 1990 that were sold as "shareware" where you got your mythical 1/3rd free. Eight-inch disks or punchcards? Shareware is a freely copyable portion free, the rest for registration. Giving away the whole game free and asking for registration is donation-ware. Look up the word "mythical" again.
Shareware left? When?
The emergence of P2P file sharing means that all games are essentially 'free',
Nah. Developers buy bandwidth by the cargo ship-load. P2P on some pissant DSL connection? Come on.
Seeing as these are the only people going to pay, you may as well go with the flow, and give out your games free and ask people to be honest, cause thats whats going to happen anyway.
Nice troll. Horseshit, but a nice troll anyway.
Everyone has a VCR. How large is/was the "pirated VHS movie" industry? (Hint: movie rentals are a $20 billion industry.)
Read a book.
knowing full well most people won't nicely send them money for their hard work once they've installed the software.
Sure they do. By the thousands and the millions. Game developers can afford a fuckload more bandwidth than warezzzzzzzzzzzzz d0000000000dz.
Most people aren't honest.
Yeah they are.
So, the real question is : are current times so desperate for gaming software shops that developers revert to releasing shareware instead of selling their work as regular products ?
No. The real question is, is this the best troll you can come up with?
The reason is that the backers want a high certainty of return on their investment rather than taking a risk.
I hear bonds are a good investment. Anyone investing in video games and wanting "a high certainty of return on their investment" is a fucking moron.
It's called "risk capital."
The term "shareware" has been bastardised over the last decade. Back when the concept first arose, SHAREWARE was software you could share with your friends and, if you felt it warranted it, you sent the author a donation. There was nothing crippled, there was nothing missing. You could freely copy it, and the developer might make a few bucks. That's a pantload. Shareware was/is 1/3 free, 2/3 for registration (for example). It's not donation-ware.
You forgot "companies just want to make money"
the job market now is the harshest it's been in decades
No shit. They just figured this out?
So what's keeping people like Hill and Thompson from finding jobs?
Lying, cheating, thieving, treacherous management.
Traditionally a college degree or senior-executive experience protected people from the threat of years of unemployment. Not in this economy, says Jeffrey Wenger, a labor economist with the liberal Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
Ah, the ollllllllll' bait and switch. Remember the high school guidance office? "Go to college, get a good job." Sure thing.
"I think they're surprised at how the economy can mistreat you."
It's not the economy. It's the lying fucks who ought to be keeping their word instead of screwing people out of their careers so they can pump the numbers for next quarter.
Business school students aren't just studying in Starbucks; they're worried they'll end up working there.
Such wit.
While the situation for budding execs or out-of-work ones like Jim Klinck is tough, keep in mind that the overall unemployment rate for white-collar workers is just 3%, about half the overall unemployment rate of 6.1%.
A few paragraphs back:
The numbers of those who are searching are staggering
See, now this is where the bullshit starts. "Keep in mind that you really aren't being fucked over by the millions. It's not as bad as I just spent an entire page describing." Anyone who doesn't see through this happy talk crap is an idiot.
"Workers should ask, 'Where in the value chain can I position myself?'"
You can't. A "value chain" implies that there are values. There aren't. Management doesn't give a shit. As long as the numbers are coming in, everything's fine. When the eventually company files for Chapter 11, they just pick up their potato salad and their drink and wander off to the next company.
The worst possible business proposition in the world is W-4 employment. Labor laws are such that all of the advantages are on the employer's side. Employees have no power, no upside and no recourse.
No businessperson worth 12 cents would obligate themselves to a mortgage on the one hand (a 30 year agreement with no escape clause) and a handshake at-will employment agreement (which is no agreement) on the other.
But dumbass managers will continue to believe they can beat the laws of business, while everyone else has to follow them. They tell us "you get what you pay for" at the cash register, but don't listen to themselves during the hiring process.
Fine. If they want to believe they can compete with underpaid people, that's their problem. You pay five bucks an hour, you're going to get a five-buck-an-hour job.