You don't have to exonerate yourself in a countersuit. You'd be suing them to prove that their methods are inadequate to incriminate anyone, and would therefore require intimate knowlege of their methodologies.
Getting paid by the hour by the person nagging you is surprisingly soothing. I've had to sit around getting rich while a couple argued about where to move a desk. Boo hoo. If I'm on the clock my client can start singing falsetto renditions of Paris Hilton songs for all I care.
I don't think you can trademark that. It's already known as "setting predent". We need John Everyman to win in such a way that proves that the RIAA's evidence cannot be substantiated.
I have to agree with this. I was really looking forward to these answers and was quite annoyed to see so many partially or not answered. These chaps may be on the light side of the force, but next time let's get people who are willing to put some work into the interview, please.
Conversely, couldn't a defendent countersue the RIAA, challenging them to surrender all their hardware for investigation of their analysis techniques? Or is that right reserved for the party with the most money?
"... since the customer service infrastructure for a MMORPG eats the most revenue and generates less than favorable results, it may be entirely possible to cut customer service offerings down entirely to a set of automated tools and save the money spent designing for satisfied customers."
This sucks! When it comes to customer support for online games I am very enthusiastic about the human touch.
The first MMOG I played, There, sported truly revolutionary customer support - players could summon a support technician to "physically" appear before them and help guide them through their issue. People could volunteer to be virtual caregivers to help those with more common and non-pressing issues. Talking to one of these individuals really made me feel like my business was appreciated.
Guild Wars, with no monthly fees, has the best customer support of any software product I've ever owned. A human always gets back to me within 24 hours and their reply always contains personal assistance from a named and individually accountable person, accompanied by 5 automatically chosen "best fit" FAQ links that are suggested by some kind of algorithm (hit and miss). On more than one occasion they have thanked ME for bringing my issues to their attention, and thus, on several occasions I have taken the time to write back to express my great satisfaction with their business model.
Conversely, I required technical support from Blizzard for an issue in WoW. I couldn't find a customer support link anywhere on their site. All I could find was a user forum. I went to the forum and attempted to ask a question but I was prompted to create an account first. I looked and looked for a link to create an account when I finally glanced in the corner to see that the logon server was completely offline! My issue was eventually resolved by a friend that I conversed with over my cell phone at my additional expense. That's what you get for $15/m from Blizzard. That and slow-as-molasses Bittorrent P2P distribution of mandatory patches.
I will not resubscribe to WoW due to Blizzard's atrocious service. However, I will very gladly and readily subscribe to ArenaNet and NCSoft games now that I see how dearly they appreciate my business and how important it is to them that I get the most out of my gaming experience at all times.
No sugar coating = respect from me
on
The Wii Takes NYC
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Q: How many games will support Widescreen aspect ratio and how would you compare the visuals to other next-gen systems?
A: Most titles will support widescreen. Nintendo has a different paradigm for what turns on the consumer. "If you want power, you're going to go somewhere else."
How many other companies would be as forthright as this? Nintendo friggin rocks. As I was playing Monkey Island 2 with SCUMMVM last night I realized how little cutting-edge graphics matter in the construction of an outstanding game. I haven't been this excited about a console since the SNES. I'm getting in on the ground floor with an extra wiimote and Warioware.
No one here seems to be addressing your real proposal. You say you want an evening and weekend job to supplement your regular career. That's what I've been doing for over 6 years and I have to say it's a real pleasure.
My entire "empire" started with one man who found my resume on a job hunting website. He cold called me and asked if I'd be interested in fixing his computer. He lived right nearby so I happily accepted his invitation. He was so pleased with me that he recommended me to several friends. Those friends recommended me to their friends. Now I get between 0 and 5 repair jobs per month.
I started off charging $20 for the first hour and $10 for subsequent hours. This was my rate while I was in college. Before post-grad I bumped my rates up to $30 for the first and $20 for subsequent hours. Now I charge $40 for the first hour and $20 for subsequent half hours. I give my original clients a discount at $30/h, and sometimes they give me an unsolicited bonus for doing such a good job. One client mailed me a card with $20 inside, saying that I'd helped improve his life!
Most of my clients are elderly and this is the demographic I recommend you shoot for. The elderly tend to have a lot of free time and, while they may be apprehensive about computers at first, are rather sharp and have actually taught this 20+ year computing veteran a thing or two. They are also very pleasant to work with since they are talkative and apt to listen to your sensible advice. They sit with me while I do repairs and are genuinely interested in what I'm doing, how I learned it, and how they can avoid the same troubles in the future.
Find some retirement communities and apply to advertise in their newsletters. Offer a discount for the first consultation and reward them for referrals. Be observative and insightful while you work and recommend software you think they'd enjoy (Picasa always gets oohs and aahs, and Skype's free North American calling is irresistable - bring a cheap headset with you in case they want to buy it!). Remember, the more interested they are in their comptuers, the more often they'll break them!
Despite what many people seem to be telling you, scheduling is a breeze when you repair computers on the side. Your clients will usually ask you when you can come. Feel like sleeping until noon on Saturday? Tell them you're available at 2:00. Got a tiring work week at work ahead of you? Tell them you're booked solid until next week but you'll cancel one of your engagements just for them. You are in control so make appointments whenever you feel like it, but keep the appointment! Everyone has been inconvenienced and jaded by the cable or phone company and Dell so people are VERY appreciative when you give a definite time and show up on schedule!
Finally, be nice! Strive to be the kind of person your clients enjoy welcoming into their homes. Make smalltalk, ask them how they are, complement their homes, take off your shoes, pet their kitties, and accept their generous offers for drinks or snacks. It's a challenging and fun job so have a good time!
... I lied, actually. The FINAL final point is that you have to be VERY good with computers to do this job. You have to have a long history of breaking your own computers, experiencing heartbreak from lost data, understanding the gravity of failing, and keeping a level head while trying to fix this stuff. People do unsurmountably stupid things to their computers and important data. You have to do a lot of sleuthing and very careful forensic work, ensuring that you can diagnose problems without doing anything too risky. You have to be patient enough to know that a Pentium 90 is a DAMN slow computer and you shouldn't reboot the thing while waiting for IE to load. You have to accept that not everyone will be willing to run sensible software when they are happily using a virus-magnet like Outlook Express. And finally, you have to be able to FIX these ridiculous setups or be ready to walk away empty-pocketed. My best advice is to have a second computer available in case you need to search for info. Google is a PC repair tech's best friend.
People want you to fix their Windows ME P.O.S that they bought from Home Shopping Network and don't understand why when you tell them to upgrade.
If you're telling residential clients to throw money at their problems then you don't belong in the support industry. People are comfortable with their computers and all they want is for it to work the way they remember it working before something screwed up. Home support is not like enterprise support. You can't just format the hard drive, reinstall the OS, and call it a day. You have to actually be familiar, insightful, and smart.
I've encountered families who are rather frustrated with their slow PCs but are skeptical that a new PC will help them out. I tell them to think about what they want to do with their computer and whether their needs are already being met. I then advise them to visit a friend who has a nicer computer and ask to try it out for 5 minutes. If they fall in love then they call me shortly after to set it all up. If not then they'll call me later for another spyware removal.
I can't believe I never thought to look up the designer of the Hero's Quest series. Shadows of Darkness is a ridiculously awesome game. Good for Sierra for nurturing so much great talent!
I can't believe I didn't mention her name as well! I absolutely adore her games and I enjoyed the first Gabriel Knight novel as well. She's a real fireball and a cutie to boot! I'm really looking forward to her upcoming series for The Adventure Company!
The omission of Roberta Williams is ridiculous. She is one of the most influential people in the history of games, never mind video games, never mind women.
If you're a true PC gamer you'll get frustrated and bored with console games pretty quickly. The load times are intolerable, buying memory cards is insulting, running around levels looking for save points is infuriating, the textures are low res, the controls are way oversimplified, the cameras are crap, the controller is way less precise than a mouse... I could go on and on.
Buying a PS2 was actually what clued me in that it was time to upgrade my computer. Some PS2 games are incredible and totally irreplacable (Katamari Damacy!) but all the other best-of-the-best "classics" I tried really fell flat. Kingdom Hearts is simplistic, God of War is Final Fight with a makeover, Final Fantasy is a bunch of random battles with cut scenes... I could go on...
I recently bought an Athlon 64 AM2 with 2 gigs of RAM and a BFG 7900GT. Holy crap do I ADORE my new setup!! I'm replaying all the games I've already finished, Doom 3, Half Life 2 Episode One, Civilization 4, F.E.A.R., Tiger Woods, and I'm enjoying every one of them at 100% detail with 4xAA at a perfect frame rate. The PC experience is just so much more beautiful and immersive. I haven't touched my PS2 - even my beloved Katamari - in weeks and weeks because I love my new PC so much.
Save your pennies and get all the PC goodies you can. Consoles simply don't offer the same degree of immersion and atmosphere that a powerful PC can. Check out a 360 version of Oblivion side-by-side with a very slightly modded PC version and you'll realize all the advantages of the PC platform that we all take for granted.
939 has been out for well over a year now, and it's on the way out. The best time to buy a new socket is when it's brand spaking new because you can potentially get the most use out of your motherboard that way. Having bought an early 754 Athlon 64 I skipped out on 939 altogether and now have an AM2 setup.
Then again, I sympathize with you - especially since socket AM2 has 939 pins!
For those who love Call of Duty 2, don't be too apprehensive about stepping up to multicore CPUs. The game didn't work in Tom's benchmark roundup, and it gave me trouble as well with my Athlon 64 X2. The problems were odd too - the game looks and sounds just fine, and everything works great on the surface. However, the grenade tutorial in the first mission cannot be completed, and you don't heal at all throughout a level! The latest patch fixes these problems and the game plays beautifully.
If only you could do all that stuff out of the box without breaking the DMCA and voiding your warranty. I'd be on the Xbox bandwagon in a second if that were the case. That's admittedly an impressive lineup of features. For some reason MAME games look better on low-res TV than on high-res monitors.
Depreciation is an advantage of PCs. Halo 2 will look the same in 2 years as it did when you bought it for your 360, but you can buy yesterday's superstar video card for peanuts and breathe new life into your whole game library.
Plus, I played Phantasmagoria on the Vista RC1 beta this weekend. I also played Jones int he Fast Lane with 3xAdvMAME filters to make it appear smooth an rounded at 1280x1024. How many 10-year old games can you play on a modern console? Without buying them yet again, I mean. How much better do they look?
Console is a one trick pony. PC is an engine that can be applied to millions of tasks, and can be augmented and improved in millions of ways.
Go play with your toy. I'll have saved, quit, checked my email and ordered a pizza in the time it took you to run around looking for a save point.
Thanks for finally bringing up the television issue. New consoles demand (but don't require) large screen HD televisions, many of which have no speakers. That primary prerequisite alone is more expensive than a decent gaming PC. Then there's issues like a stereo reciever, speakers, a bracket or wooden stand for everything, extra cables (for the console and for the TV), not to mention an entire room of your house to dedicate to all this stuff.
Your arguments are the same as mine for why I prefer PC games. Sure, it's nice to pop in a CD and that's all there is to it. However, I much prefer taking the time to install the game once for 10 minutes and enjoy lightning fast load times for the next 10-100 hours that I'll be playing it.
You can drive to the laundromat every week or you can buy your own washer and dryer. Both take the same amount of time, but it takes 15 extra minutes to drive to and from the laundromat.
You're overgeneralizing. The issue is whether designers write their games with the system's control scheme in mind. RTS was hugely popular on the Gameboy Advance, and thanks to the touch screen on the DS the genre is even more of a hit on consoles. Any game can work on any platform as long as it considers the strengths of the user interface.
FYI Linden Labs requires users to input their credit card information (or billable cell phone number) in order to play Second Life, even if they spend no money. I'm rather pissed about this. Some details about what personal information resided in this database would be much appreciated.
FTA on Game of Life by Hasbro: (#38 on the list) As far as introducing new players to the basics of video game using mechanics they already know it's respectable, but otherwise it's just another example of unintimidating banality equaling huge gains.
I have to disagree with this comment. My girlfriend and I happened across this game somehow and we play it all the time. You can play with the same rules as the board game or you can play an "enhanced" version with minigames instead of Life tiles. Every square shows either a still comic with one of many corny but funny captions, or an amusing simplistic 3D animation. Aside from the frills it's well programmed and bug free so there's nothing to intimidate computer noobs.
If you can find this rare gem it will cost no more than $5. Even if this game doesn't interest you, consider it an investment. It really is fun for all ages.
And for the record, this advice is coming from a FPS and Civilization gamer.
Slashdot Mirror
You don't have to exonerate yourself in a countersuit. You'd be suing them to prove that their methods are inadequate to incriminate anyone, and would therefore require intimate knowlege of their methodologies.
Getting paid by the hour by the person nagging you is surprisingly soothing. I've had to sit around getting rich while a couple argued about where to move a desk. Boo hoo. If I'm on the clock my client can start singing falsetto renditions of Paris Hilton songs for all I care.
"victory of principle"(tm)
I don't think you can trademark that. It's already known as "setting predent". We need John Everyman to win in such a way that proves that the RIAA's evidence cannot be substantiated.
I have to agree with this. I was really looking forward to these answers and was quite annoyed to see so many partially or not answered. These chaps may be on the light side of the force, but next time let's get people who are willing to put some work into the interview, please.
Conversely, couldn't a defendent countersue the RIAA, challenging them to surrender all their hardware for investigation of their analysis techniques? Or is that right reserved for the party with the most money?
"... since the customer service infrastructure for a MMORPG eats the most revenue and generates less than favorable results, it may be entirely possible to cut customer service offerings down entirely to a set of automated tools and save the money spent designing for satisfied customers."
This sucks! When it comes to customer support for online games I am very enthusiastic about the human touch.
The first MMOG I played, There, sported truly revolutionary customer support - players could summon a support technician to "physically" appear before them and help guide them through their issue. People could volunteer to be virtual caregivers to help those with more common and non-pressing issues. Talking to one of these individuals really made me feel like my business was appreciated.
Guild Wars, with no monthly fees, has the best customer support of any software product I've ever owned. A human always gets back to me within 24 hours and their reply always contains personal assistance from a named and individually accountable person, accompanied by 5 automatically chosen "best fit" FAQ links that are suggested by some kind of algorithm (hit and miss). On more than one occasion they have thanked ME for bringing my issues to their attention, and thus, on several occasions I have taken the time to write back to express my great satisfaction with their business model.
Conversely, I required technical support from Blizzard for an issue in WoW. I couldn't find a customer support link anywhere on their site. All I could find was a user forum. I went to the forum and attempted to ask a question but I was prompted to create an account first. I looked and looked for a link to create an account when I finally glanced in the corner to see that the logon server was completely offline! My issue was eventually resolved by a friend that I conversed with over my cell phone at my additional expense. That's what you get for $15/m from Blizzard. That and slow-as-molasses Bittorrent P2P distribution of mandatory patches.
I will not resubscribe to WoW due to Blizzard's atrocious service. However, I will very gladly and readily subscribe to ArenaNet and NCSoft games now that I see how dearly they appreciate my business and how important it is to them that I get the most out of my gaming experience at all times.
Q: How many games will support Widescreen aspect ratio and how would you compare the visuals to other next-gen systems?
A: Most titles will support widescreen. Nintendo has a different paradigm for what turns on the consumer. "If you want power, you're going to go somewhere else."
How many other companies would be as forthright as this? Nintendo friggin rocks. As I was playing Monkey Island 2 with SCUMMVM last night I realized how little cutting-edge graphics matter in the construction of an outstanding game. I haven't been this excited about a console since the SNES. I'm getting in on the ground floor with an extra wiimote and Warioware.
No one here seems to be addressing your real proposal. You say you want an evening and weekend job to supplement your regular career. That's what I've been doing for over 6 years and I have to say it's a real pleasure.
... I lied, actually. The FINAL final point is that you have to be VERY good with computers to do this job. You have to have a long history of breaking your own computers, experiencing heartbreak from lost data, understanding the gravity of failing, and keeping a level head while trying to fix this stuff. People do unsurmountably stupid things to their computers and important data. You have to do a lot of sleuthing and very careful forensic work, ensuring that you can diagnose problems without doing anything too risky. You have to be patient enough to know that a Pentium 90 is a DAMN slow computer and you shouldn't reboot the thing while waiting for IE to load. You have to accept that not everyone will be willing to run sensible software when they are happily using a virus-magnet like Outlook Express. And finally, you have to be able to FIX these ridiculous setups or be ready to walk away empty-pocketed. My best advice is to have a second computer available in case you need to search for info. Google is a PC repair tech's best friend.
My entire "empire" started with one man who found my resume on a job hunting website. He cold called me and asked if I'd be interested in fixing his computer. He lived right nearby so I happily accepted his invitation. He was so pleased with me that he recommended me to several friends. Those friends recommended me to their friends. Now I get between 0 and 5 repair jobs per month.
I started off charging $20 for the first hour and $10 for subsequent hours. This was my rate while I was in college. Before post-grad I bumped my rates up to $30 for the first and $20 for subsequent hours. Now I charge $40 for the first hour and $20 for subsequent half hours. I give my original clients a discount at $30/h, and sometimes they give me an unsolicited bonus for doing such a good job. One client mailed me a card with $20 inside, saying that I'd helped improve his life!
Most of my clients are elderly and this is the demographic I recommend you shoot for. The elderly tend to have a lot of free time and, while they may be apprehensive about computers at first, are rather sharp and have actually taught this 20+ year computing veteran a thing or two. They are also very pleasant to work with since they are talkative and apt to listen to your sensible advice. They sit with me while I do repairs and are genuinely interested in what I'm doing, how I learned it, and how they can avoid the same troubles in the future.
Find some retirement communities and apply to advertise in their newsletters. Offer a discount for the first consultation and reward them for referrals. Be observative and insightful while you work and recommend software you think they'd enjoy (Picasa always gets oohs and aahs, and Skype's free North American calling is irresistable - bring a cheap headset with you in case they want to buy it!). Remember, the more interested they are in their comptuers, the more often they'll break them!
Despite what many people seem to be telling you, scheduling is a breeze when you repair computers on the side. Your clients will usually ask you when you can come. Feel like sleeping until noon on Saturday? Tell them you're available at 2:00. Got a tiring work week at work ahead of you? Tell them you're booked solid until next week but you'll cancel one of your engagements just for them. You are in control so make appointments whenever you feel like it, but keep the appointment! Everyone has been inconvenienced and jaded by the cable or phone company and Dell so people are VERY appreciative when you give a definite time and show up on schedule!
Finally, be nice! Strive to be the kind of person your clients enjoy welcoming into their homes. Make smalltalk, ask them how they are, complement their homes, take off your shoes, pet their kitties, and accept their generous offers for drinks or snacks. It's a challenging and fun job so have a good time!
People want you to fix their Windows ME P.O.S that they bought from Home Shopping Network and don't understand why when you tell them to upgrade.
If you're telling residential clients to throw money at their problems then you don't belong in the support industry. People are comfortable with their computers and all they want is for it to work the way they remember it working before something screwed up. Home support is not like enterprise support. You can't just format the hard drive, reinstall the OS, and call it a day. You have to actually be familiar, insightful, and smart.
I've encountered families who are rather frustrated with their slow PCs but are skeptical that a new PC will help them out. I tell them to think about what they want to do with their computer and whether their needs are already being met. I then advise them to visit a friend who has a nicer computer and ask to try it out for 5 minutes. If they fall in love then they call me shortly after to set it all up. If not then they'll call me later for another spyware removal.
I can't believe I never thought to look up the designer of the Hero's Quest series. Shadows of Darkness is a ridiculously awesome game. Good for Sierra for nurturing so much great talent!
I can't believe I didn't mention her name as well! I absolutely adore her games and I enjoyed the first Gabriel Knight novel as well. She's a real fireball and a cutie to boot! I'm really looking forward to her upcoming series for The Adventure Company!
The omission of Roberta Williams is ridiculous. She is one of the most influential people in the history of games, never mind video games, never mind women.
If you're a true PC gamer you'll get frustrated and bored with console games pretty quickly. The load times are intolerable, buying memory cards is insulting, running around levels looking for save points is infuriating, the textures are low res, the controls are way oversimplified, the cameras are crap, the controller is way less precise than a mouse... I could go on and on.
Buying a PS2 was actually what clued me in that it was time to upgrade my computer. Some PS2 games are incredible and totally irreplacable (Katamari Damacy!) but all the other best-of-the-best "classics" I tried really fell flat. Kingdom Hearts is simplistic, God of War is Final Fight with a makeover, Final Fantasy is a bunch of random battles with cut scenes... I could go on...
I recently bought an Athlon 64 AM2 with 2 gigs of RAM and a BFG 7900GT. Holy crap do I ADORE my new setup!! I'm replaying all the games I've already finished, Doom 3, Half Life 2 Episode One, Civilization 4, F.E.A.R., Tiger Woods, and I'm enjoying every one of them at 100% detail with 4xAA at a perfect frame rate. The PC experience is just so much more beautiful and immersive. I haven't touched my PS2 - even my beloved Katamari - in weeks and weeks because I love my new PC so much.
Save your pennies and get all the PC goodies you can. Consoles simply don't offer the same degree of immersion and atmosphere that a powerful PC can. Check out a 360 version of Oblivion side-by-side with a very slightly modded PC version and you'll realize all the advantages of the PC platform that we all take for granted.
939 has been out for well over a year now, and it's on the way out. The best time to buy a new socket is when it's brand spaking new because you can potentially get the most use out of your motherboard that way. Having bought an early 754 Athlon 64 I skipped out on 939 altogether and now have an AM2 setup.
Then again, I sympathize with you - especially since socket AM2 has 939 pins!
For those who love Call of Duty 2, don't be too apprehensive about stepping up to multicore CPUs. The game didn't work in Tom's benchmark roundup, and it gave me trouble as well with my Athlon 64 X2. The problems were odd too - the game looks and sounds just fine, and everything works great on the surface. However, the grenade tutorial in the first mission cannot be completed, and you don't heal at all throughout a level! The latest patch fixes these problems and the game plays beautifully.
If only you could do all that stuff out of the box without breaking the DMCA and voiding your warranty. I'd be on the Xbox bandwagon in a second if that were the case. That's admittedly an impressive lineup of features. For some reason MAME games look better on low-res TV than on high-res monitors.
4. Profit!
Don't forget to set files=30 and load mscdex in devicehigh!
Depreciation is an advantage of PCs. Halo 2 will look the same in 2 years as it did when you bought it for your 360, but you can buy yesterday's superstar video card for peanuts and breathe new life into your whole game library.
Plus, I played Phantasmagoria on the Vista RC1 beta this weekend. I also played Jones int he Fast Lane with 3xAdvMAME filters to make it appear smooth an rounded at 1280x1024. How many 10-year old games can you play on a modern console? Without buying them yet again, I mean. How much better do they look?
Console is a one trick pony. PC is an engine that can be applied to millions of tasks, and can be augmented and improved in millions of ways.
Go play with your toy. I'll have saved, quit, checked my email and ordered a pizza in the time it took you to run around looking for a save point.
Thanks for finally bringing up the television issue. New consoles demand (but don't require) large screen HD televisions, many of which have no speakers. That primary prerequisite alone is more expensive than a decent gaming PC. Then there's issues like a stereo reciever, speakers, a bracket or wooden stand for everything, extra cables (for the console and for the TV), not to mention an entire room of your house to dedicate to all this stuff.
Your arguments are the same as mine for why I prefer PC games. Sure, it's nice to pop in a CD and that's all there is to it. However, I much prefer taking the time to install the game once for 10 minutes and enjoy lightning fast load times for the next 10-100 hours that I'll be playing it.
You can drive to the laundromat every week or you can buy your own washer and dryer. Both take the same amount of time, but it takes 15 extra minutes to drive to and from the laundromat.
You're overgeneralizing. The issue is whether designers write their games with the system's control scheme in mind. RTS was hugely popular on the Gameboy Advance, and thanks to the touch screen on the DS the genre is even more of a hit on consoles. Any game can work on any platform as long as it considers the strengths of the user interface.
FYI Linden Labs requires users to input their credit card information (or billable cell phone number) in order to play Second Life, even if they spend no money. I'm rather pissed about this. Some details about what personal information resided in this database would be much appreciated.
FTA on Game of Life by Hasbro: (#38 on the list)
As far as introducing new players to the basics of video game using mechanics they already know it's respectable, but otherwise it's just another example of unintimidating banality equaling huge gains.
I have to disagree with this comment. My girlfriend and I happened across this game somehow and we play it all the time. You can play with the same rules as the board game or you can play an "enhanced" version with minigames instead of Life tiles. Every square shows either a still comic with one of many corny but funny captions, or an amusing simplistic 3D animation. Aside from the frills it's well programmed and bug free so there's nothing to intimidate computer noobs.
If you can find this rare gem it will cost no more than $5. Even if this game doesn't interest you, consider it an investment. It really is fun for all ages.
And for the record, this advice is coming from a FPS and Civilization gamer.
Toronto DSL ISPs ride on the Bell Canada infrastructure, but somehow they are $5 to $15 per month cheaper than Bell's Sympatico ISP.