Even if it's a subscription game, it's still just a game. I don't think it's realistic to assume the game will be fresh and new and just as exciting as the day you bought it several years down the track.
4 level 60 characters? That's a lot of quests and a lot of grind! And you probably got your money's worth out of it. Time to move on perhaps?
Of course, despite the widespread use of DeCSS (and I know this isn't purely about DeCSS) for copyright infringement, Jon developed it so he could play DVD's that he owned on Linux. The DVD's he owned didn't have a "EULA" that stated he wasn't allowed to play them on a Linux computer.
All he knew was that the Windows player he had worked but he couldn't play them on Linux. So, a little reverse engineering of the Windows player (Perfectly legal in the country he was in) reveals the little lock and key that the manufacturer put on the disk he owned. Since it was his disk and there was no law preventing it, he opened it up, et voila, he can extract the data and watch his movie on Linux.
Much like the invention of peer to peer internet file distribution (very handy stuff, just ask Blizzard and NCSoft, who rely on it to produce upgrades for their wildly successful and profitable MMORPG's), this technology can be used for evil as well as good.
Since you can't really kill an idea, you can't stop P2P software from being written, just like you can't stop guns from being made and sold. So you just have to police the people who use these technologies to break the law. DRM doesn't work and is continually proven not to (rootkits aside I am sure someone determined enough could make a nice rip of "Getting It Right With The Man" from Sony BMI). The logical conclusion is that the ongoing gamut of court cases against the general "disobedient" public will continue because it's the only realistic right the copyright holders have against infringers.
As if Sony doesn't need any more bad news - I think they have at least as much riding on the success of the PS3 as MS has on the Xbox2.
The performance of the PS3 absolutely relies on the apps being multithreaded (Xbox2 also needs it but it will survive if they aren't, a lot of first gen Xbox2 games aren't multithreaded apparently) - this is going to require a higher level of complexity for software which will drive up costs a lot. Xbox2 games use DirectX!
Now it doesn't take a mathematician to work out that there are a *lot* of programmers experienced with DirectX out there compared to experienced Cell coders. That means development for Xbox2 will be easier and cheaper, which means there will be a lot more games of a lot higher quality - thus giving MS and the Xbox2 are larger market share and a better crack at the 80 games that will be profitable.
Having said that, 80 games is a lot of games, and they're discounting the indy studios who have much lower costs and only need to sell a couple hundred games to make a significant profit.
I've worked in large scale corporate environments (400+ workstations) configured for RIS and there's no equivalent. You can dynamically add/change/update images. You can roll in patches for the heck of it in a matter of moments. You never need to worry about where your install media is, you just press F12 and you have a new SOE image on the workstation. You never have to burn off new copies of your install media because it's all live. The admin who set up RIS also set up a diagnostic boot using the RIS network boot that loaded disk recovery tools and so on from the RIS server. The cost of RIS is included with the Windows server license (so yes, beer free) and the ongoing costs will be lower as your updates will cost you less in terms of build media and so on.
Funny how money makes the world go around! Perhaps instead they should tax the net cafe's! Although, those cafes really scrape by on a tight margin as it is, unlike a bar where you sell $5 shots of bourbon from a $20 bottle.
Not to mention how much cash the casinos rake in.
We'd better close those net cafe's down, we can't make money out of them and they're keeping people away from the casinos and the bars.
Read the parent carefully, he's talking about image. Image is the issue. He's not saying that it's just his "problem". It is the overall image that counts!
I'd agree. I'm Aussie (married to a Texan, mind you) and everywhere the same anti-US sentiment is prevalent. It's not about the american people, much the same way that WW2 wasn't about the German people, it's about the government and the actions of the government.
So, America is a "democracy", the people are, to some extent, responsible for the actions of its government. You should accept that America's negative international image is a result of the voting of its people. When you have done so, what will be your next step?
HP are one of the worst when it comes to printer ink predatory pricing! (enterprise printing MFD's are ok though). Ink that costs more per gram than solid gold? HP desktops I could take them or leave them, they're all the same to me. HP wintel (and winamd!) severs are brilliant, probably best of the breed!
Curiously enough, the printing division with their super-ink is most profitable, whereas the server division is almost always losing money.
Next step, intel will take AMD to court for illegally bundling the PCIe slot with the chip, forcing consumers to use AMD's PCIe instead of competing in the marketplace. We've all seen this before, embrace and extend.
I don't get it - Slashdot (part of the OSDN) heavily advocates software that's free as in speech, and is generally more supportive of the free as in beer software too.
Now, Microsoft releases software that's free as in beer and that's a bad thing too!
Internet exploder is free as in beer, but that sure as heck never stopped me from using Firefox!
The whole culture of open source, and one that we must support and encourage everywhere, is that software should be as free as possible.
Spyware isn't like a virus that exploits an O/S vulnerability, it's more like a trojan that relies on social engineering.
Want to use Kazaa? Enter your root password so you can install Kazaa (and all the bundled spyware along with it). User-privelege levels won't save you there!
People who know the root password will probably just give it to any application that pops up during install and says "Hey! I need your root password to help you download free MP3's! (and send all your credit card numbers to claria)! Please enter at the prompt!"
You need an active mechanism to detect and remove this kind of junk outside of the (easily) circumventable password system. Why have a padlock when you can have a padlock *and* a guard dog?
Most spyware is bundled with applications like Kazaa (hence the development of Kazaa Lite et al).
When you install an application with bundled spyware, let's say, WoW for example (that lovely Warden software that gathers details about system processes and sends it on to Blizzard), the software is installed and generally either hidden or made to look like part of the application.
When you install software, even on a Windows box secured and using Run-As to install software (much like a Linux or Mac install process will allow you to elevate your access temporarily), you trust the install to do the right thing because you want Kazaa/WoW, right? So you enter your admin password and let the spyware move right on in.
How is OS X protecting you from this spyware? Does it come bundled with an antispyware product like Windows will? Can you download third party ones? OS X will not magically save you from bundled spyware. The only recourse you have is the same as the Windows users - Don't play WoW, don't run Kazaa. Has anyone even bothered to check what backdoor processes WoW is running on the Mac version?
With Apple entering back into the PC market, and gaining quite a bit of share lately, it's entirely possible, if not likely that Mac spyware will become prevalent. Best take a note or two from the Windows users who've had to deal with the negative side effects of running the defacto-standard OS around the world.
For people who've been watching the Civ IV release with interest (anyone who paid money for it probably is), this is clearly another bad thing.
For people who don't know, Civ IV, while mechanically a great game, was rushed out of the door unfinished. I would suggest that the *majority* of people who bought it had technical difficulties with the game, from rendering, XML, ATI initialisation, crash to desktop, restarts, bluescreens and all manner of other problems (just take a look at the forums at Civfanatics to see).
The reason for this is, presumably, that Take 2 forced Firaxis to release the game in an unfinished state.
Take 2 aren't offering any support for the product apart from rumours that a support person once said there may be a patch released. They're not answering emails and the telephone support is quite bad as the call center staff don't have much information.
Take 2 directly owning Firaxis now means that this kind of shoddiness is now something we should expect in future.
This is representative of the whole MS philosophy.
Maps and mods and better textures used to be things people in the community would do for the love of it and share with the community for nothing but the hope of kudos and respect if they did a good job.
Now MS has found a way to make you charge and pay for things that would otherwise be free. Everything has to have a pricetag on it in Microsoftland, especially free things because they're, uhh, viral.
It's a bad idea and it's completely unavoidable. Roll on, corporate machine, roll on.
Isn't that what the linux CLI people have been saying for years about their fave distro? All a bit alarming when comments usually directed at the linux crowd suddenly become applicable to Windows users...
1) I don't see why this won't go over well with gamers. Serious gamers will be running as admin like they always do.
2) I don't see why this won't go over well with gamers. Contemporary gamers dig eye candy (although they stay for the gameplay/useability).
3) I don't see why this won't go over well with gamers. Gamers tend to buy things that are percieved to be cutting edge for the sake of it. Also, the vast majority of gamers prefer AMD and therefore will own 64bit on their next upgrade (if they don't have it already). This will only be bad for intel 64 bit gamers... and they already own intel so they're screwed.
4) I can see why this may be an issue for some gamers, but what many people don't understand is that you don't need hardware that supports all functions of the API to install it and run games with it. The vast majority of games and apps for Vista will no doubt be compatible with DX9 level hardware. Upgrades are inevitable, you can't reasonably expect to sit around with 4 year old hardware and run the latest and greatest.
I think it's a good idea, on the proviso that it doesn't replace the capability to do a full and proper install. This will enable AOL'ers and IGN readers the capability of playing PC games that were previously far too complicated to handle. Install? What does that mean?
Anyone who's really concerned about framerates will use a no-CD crack to bypass the feeble "copy protection" anyway, so shuffling disk images or whatever else needs to be done will also happen.
Slashdot Mirror
Harry Potter flew out of your computer on a broomstick hey?
It's not GAIM you need, my friend, it's much less of the cheap cough syrup.
Even if it's a subscription game, it's still just a game. I don't think it's realistic to assume the game will be fresh and new and just as exciting as the day you bought it several years down the track.
4 level 60 characters? That's a lot of quests and a lot of grind! And you probably got your money's worth out of it. Time to move on perhaps?
When's the dupe for this article? Tomorrow right? Don't forget to repost all that stuff in the dupe.
An unholy alliance of Microsoft and Apple eh? Nice to see this kind of thing on Slashdot. Soon we will see MS Linux and SCO Windows.
Of course, despite the widespread use of DeCSS (and I know this isn't purely about DeCSS) for copyright infringement, Jon developed it so he could play DVD's that he owned on Linux. The DVD's he owned didn't have a "EULA" that stated he wasn't allowed to play them on a Linux computer.
All he knew was that the Windows player he had worked but he couldn't play them on Linux. So, a little reverse engineering of the Windows player (Perfectly legal in the country he was in) reveals the little lock and key that the manufacturer put on the disk he owned. Since it was his disk and there was no law preventing it, he opened it up, et voila, he can extract the data and watch his movie on Linux.
Much like the invention of peer to peer internet file distribution (very handy stuff, just ask Blizzard and NCSoft, who rely on it to produce upgrades for their wildly successful and profitable MMORPG's), this technology can be used for evil as well as good.
Since you can't really kill an idea, you can't stop P2P software from being written, just like you can't stop guns from being made and sold. So you just have to police the people who use these technologies to break the law. DRM doesn't work and is continually proven not to (rootkits aside I am sure someone determined enough could make a nice rip of "Getting It Right With The Man" from Sony BMI). The logical conclusion is that the ongoing gamut of court cases against the general "disobedient" public will continue because it's the only realistic right the copyright holders have against infringers.
I use Trillian Pro, and I got them. They were there for all of the time it took me to think, "WTF? Corporate rootkit DRM spyware bastards!"
As if Sony doesn't need any more bad news - I think they have at least as much riding on the success of the PS3 as MS has on the Xbox2.
The performance of the PS3 absolutely relies on the apps being multithreaded (Xbox2 also needs it but it will survive if they aren't, a lot of first gen Xbox2 games aren't multithreaded apparently) - this is going to require a higher level of complexity for software which will drive up costs a lot. Xbox2 games use DirectX!
Now it doesn't take a mathematician to work out that there are a *lot* of programmers experienced with DirectX out there compared to experienced Cell coders. That means development for Xbox2 will be easier and cheaper, which means there will be a lot more games of a lot higher quality - thus giving MS and the Xbox2 are larger market share and a better crack at the 80 games that will be profitable.
Having said that, 80 games is a lot of games, and they're discounting the indy studios who have much lower costs and only need to sell a couple hundred games to make a significant profit.
I've worked in large scale corporate environments (400+ workstations) configured for RIS and there's no equivalent. You can dynamically add/change/update images. You can roll in patches for the heck of it in a matter of moments. You never need to worry about where your install media is, you just press F12 and you have a new SOE image on the workstation. You never have to burn off new copies of your install media because it's all live. The admin who set up RIS also set up a diagnostic boot using the RIS network boot that loaded disk recovery tools and so on from the RIS server. The cost of RIS is included with the Windows server license (so yes, beer free) and the ongoing costs will be lower as your updates will cost you less in terms of build media and so on.
Funny how money makes the world go around! Perhaps instead they should tax the net cafe's! Although, those cafes really scrape by on a tight margin as it is, unlike a bar where you sell $5 shots of bourbon from a $20 bottle.
Not to mention how much cash the casinos rake in.
We'd better close those net cafe's down, we can't make money out of them and they're keeping people away from the casinos and the bars.
Read the parent carefully, he's talking about image. Image is the issue. He's not saying that it's just his "problem". It is the overall image that counts!
I'd agree. I'm Aussie (married to a Texan, mind you) and everywhere the same anti-US sentiment is prevalent. It's not about the american people, much the same way that WW2 wasn't about the German people, it's about the government and the actions of the government.
So, America is a "democracy", the people are, to some extent, responsible for the actions of its government. You should accept that America's negative international image is a result of the voting of its people. When you have done so, what will be your next step?
Ehh?
HP are one of the worst when it comes to printer ink predatory pricing! (enterprise printing MFD's are ok though). Ink that costs more per gram than solid gold?
HP desktops I could take them or leave them, they're all the same to me.
HP wintel (and winamd!) severs are brilliant, probably best of the breed!
Curiously enough, the printing division with their super-ink is most profitable, whereas the server division is almost always losing money.
So, net cafe's are being closed at midnight to curb gaming addiction.
Why aren't casinos closed at midnight to curb gambling addiction (something far more damaging to individuals and to families)?
Why aren't public bars, nightclubs and bottleshops closed at midnight to curb alcohol addiction?
Next step, intel will take AMD to court for illegally bundling the PCIe slot with the chip, forcing consumers to use AMD's PCIe instead of competing in the marketplace. We've all seen this before, embrace and extend.
I don't get it - Slashdot (part of the OSDN) heavily advocates software that's free as in speech, and is generally more supportive of the free as in beer software too.
Now, Microsoft releases software that's free as in beer and that's a bad thing too!
Internet exploder is free as in beer, but that sure as heck never stopped me from using Firefox!
The whole culture of open source, and one that we must support and encourage everywhere, is that software should be as free as possible.
Spyware isn't like a virus that exploits an O/S vulnerability, it's more like a trojan that relies on social engineering.
Want to use Kazaa? Enter your root password so you can install Kazaa (and all the bundled spyware along with it). User-privelege levels won't save you there!
People who know the root password will probably just give it to any application that pops up during install and says "Hey! I need your root password to help you download free MP3's! (and send all your credit card numbers to claria)! Please enter at the prompt!"
You need an active mechanism to detect and remove this kind of junk outside of the (easily) circumventable password system. Why have a padlock when you can have a padlock *and* a guard dog?
Most spyware is bundled with applications like Kazaa (hence the development of Kazaa Lite et al).
When you install an application with bundled spyware, let's say, WoW for example (that lovely Warden software that gathers details about system processes and sends it on to Blizzard), the software is installed and generally either hidden or made to look like part of the application.
When you install software, even on a Windows box secured and using Run-As to install software (much like a Linux or Mac install process will allow you to elevate your access temporarily), you trust the install to do the right thing because you want Kazaa/WoW, right? So you enter your admin password and let the spyware move right on in.
How is OS X protecting you from this spyware? Does it come bundled with an antispyware product like Windows will? Can you download third party ones? OS X will not magically save you from bundled spyware. The only recourse you have is the same as the Windows users - Don't play WoW, don't run Kazaa. Has anyone even bothered to check what backdoor processes WoW is running on the Mac version?
With Apple entering back into the PC market, and gaining quite a bit of share lately, it's entirely possible, if not likely that Mac spyware will become prevalent. Best take a note or two from the Windows users who've had to deal with the negative side effects of running the defacto-standard OS around the world.
For people who've been watching the Civ IV release with interest (anyone who paid money for it probably is), this is clearly another bad thing.
For people who don't know, Civ IV, while mechanically a great game, was rushed out of the door unfinished. I would suggest that the *majority* of people who bought it had technical difficulties with the game, from rendering, XML, ATI initialisation, crash to desktop, restarts, bluescreens and all manner of other problems (just take a look at the forums at Civfanatics to see).
The reason for this is, presumably, that Take 2 forced Firaxis to release the game in an unfinished state.
Take 2 aren't offering any support for the product apart from rumours that a support person once said there may be a patch released. They're not answering emails and the telephone support is quite bad as the call center staff don't have much information.
Take 2 directly owning Firaxis now means that this kind of shoddiness is now something we should expect in future.
*cough*
It's Patrick Fitzgerald and Gerald Fitzpatrick. And they're Irish.
This is representative of the whole MS philosophy.
Maps and mods and better textures used to be things people in the community would do for the love of it and share with the community for nothing but the hope of kudos and respect if they did a good job.
Now MS has found a way to make you charge and pay for things that would otherwise be free. Everything has to have a pricetag on it in Microsoftland, especially free things because they're, uhh, viral.
It's a bad idea and it's completely unavoidable. Roll on, corporate machine, roll on.
Let's look at ATI's business process
1) Launch Product
2) Benchmark Onslaught
3) Release better drivers
4) Benchmark Onslaught that beats nVidia
5) Marketing and sales blitz
6) Design product
7) Produce product
8) Announce product availability schedules
9) Look for factory to start making cards
10) ??
11) Profit!
Not that I'm suggesting ATI has severe production issues - if nVidia can kill paper launches, surely ATI could at least try to keep up.
Isn't that what the linux CLI people have been saying for years about their fave distro? All a bit alarming when comments usually directed at the linux crowd suddenly become applicable to Windows users...
In Soviet Russia, it leaves if you don't like it here!
1) I don't see why this won't go over well with gamers. Serious gamers will be running as admin like they always do.
2) I don't see why this won't go over well with gamers. Contemporary gamers dig eye candy (although they stay for the gameplay/useability).
3) I don't see why this won't go over well with gamers. Gamers tend to buy things that are percieved to be cutting edge for the sake of it. Also, the vast majority of gamers prefer AMD and therefore will own 64bit on their next upgrade (if they don't have it already). This will only be bad for intel 64 bit gamers... and they already own intel so they're screwed.
4) I can see why this may be an issue for some gamers, but what many people don't understand is that you don't need hardware that supports all functions of the API to install it and run games with it. The vast majority of games and apps for Vista will no doubt be compatible with DX9 level hardware. Upgrades are inevitable, you can't reasonably expect to sit around with 4 year old hardware and run the latest and greatest.
I think it's a good idea, on the proviso that it doesn't replace the capability to do a full and proper install. This will enable AOL'ers and IGN readers the capability of playing PC games that were previously far too complicated to handle. Install? What does that mean?
Anyone who's really concerned about framerates will use a no-CD crack to bypass the feeble "copy protection" anyway, so shuffling disk images or whatever else needs to be done will also happen.
If you look at the way these kinds of statistics are generally broken down, the remaining 38% would be lots of very small niche uses, like
0.9% Photoshop
0.5% News
0.8% Seti at home
And so on and so forth.