GameStop, EB, etc will always have a niche in the marketplace. There really do need to be exclusive video gaming stores in order to attract audiences that Wal-Mart, BB, etc do not wish to cater to. However, these niche stores will never be able to compete with Wal-Mart or Best Buy. The ones that have tried to compete on a customer-service-based approach have either gone under or changed their ways. Anybody remember when Software ETC let you return opened games for a refund within 30 days?
Niche Stores also can't compete with the raw buying power of the chain stores. Things like returning a PSP is no problm at Wal-Mart. Just tell them you want your money back and they'll gladly give it to you. I've even returned open games to Wal-Mart after some arguing. GameStop and EB have to go along with things like dead pixel policies because they don't have the power to bully Sony like Wal-Mart does.
"The scary thing is with the exclusive rights, why should a company like EA really attempt to improve the technology and gameplay of their Madden franchise now?"
I don't care for EA having the exclusive rights to NFL and College football since I happen to prefer Sega/ESPN football. However, EA didn't get these exclusive contracts cheaply. They're going to have to pay for those licenses. In order to do that they must sell a lot of games. If people grow tired of EA's attempts at football, people will find other things to spend money on. This world has been around for a long time before licensed football games came about and most people could still find things to do in the absence of them. It's just a shame that all EA needs to shoot for now is "good enough" instead of "better than anyone else."
I'm a 25 year old male and I feel that the recording industry has mostly ignored my musical tastes for about six or seven years now. Last year I bought 1 album (Bowling for Soup). I bought 2 albums 2 years ago, but they were both older music (Talking Heads and Human League).
There are very few newer bands that I like. The older bands I like are not producing new music that I enjoy. Also, when new music comes out that I do enjoy, it gets VERY little radio play in my city. I end up finding songs I like in movies nowadays far more often than I find them on the radio.
If the recording industry wants my money, they're actually going to have to do their job. They need to release music I like and find a way to get me some exposure to the music so that I know it exists. That is what they're there for.
That's the biggest fear I have as a USian. I was pretty unimpressed with the US version of Coupling and the US version of The Office has its moments but they are too few and far between. I'm just picturing NBC making a Doctor Who series. They'd probably make the Police Box into a phone booth and cast two high schoolers in place of the Doctor. They would be from San Dimas, CA instead of Gallifrey. Mabe they'd hire George Carlin on as a minor character...
The problem is that sales tax rates can vary not only from state to state but also from county to county. Best Buy would have to print a separate circular for each tax rate instead of their current regional circular.
But then even if they did this, they also run into a problem determining whih customer should get which circular. It's entirely possible that you live between two Best Buys with two different sales tax rates. Which circular should they send you? What if they put the circular in an Atlanta, GA paper that you subscribe to but you live closer to the Best Buy in Monroe, GA? That's a different tax rate last I checked (6% vs. 7%). Is Best Buy then liable for paying any difference in advertised price? I do understand your point but it is really not feasible with the current US sales tax system.
It's seems to me like it's more of a nod to Harve Bennett, who according to my Bathroom Reader (the purple one titled "Ultra Absorbent") pitched this exact same idea about 15 years ago. Apparently, Rodenberry was not fond of the idea and killed it off by spreading rumors that Bennett planned to make a movie along the lines of the Police Academy series.
I think it's to go along with SUSE numbering, which is currently in version 9.x. However, I am hoping that enough folks will hack NLD 10 that Novell will release "Super Novell Linux Desktop 10 EX Turbo Alpha Hyper Fighting" in response.
"The DoJ antitrust division is toothless, unable to win even the most obvious cases, let alone something subtle like this."
You seem to be backing down a bit on your position. You apparently believed in your first post that these companies have done something to merit the involvement of the DOJ antitrust division. I can only assume that you believed that these companies were doing something to violate antitrust laws.
Now you merely claim that there is some sort of "conspiracy of convenience that doesn't need much, if any, high level cooperation". Where on earth did you find a definition of conspiracy that doesn't involve collusion between more than one party? From what I can tell your "conspiracy of convenience" is nothing more than multiple companies having the same formula for determining the best way to spend money on labor in a giver labor market. This is a much weaker stance than you originally took since it does not violate any antitrust laws and is hardly a matter for the DOJ. If there's a strawman out there, it's one you created.
I will agree that companies often don't compete for the best worker, but I have seen too many cases where a company has offered a job to a potential employee who shows more promise than other applicants asking for less money to believe that the best employees aren't finding jobs at decent wages.
"So we should just allow large corporations to manipulate the job market in collusion?"
I hate to be the one to tell you this, but these "large corporations" of which you speak are competitors. They're not in collusion with each other (for the most part), because the ones competeing over the same workers usually provide the same services and/or products and would like to see each other fail for that reason.
There's not some grand conspiracy on the part of corporate America to keep traditional W2 jobs from existing. There are simply many valid reason from a financial standpoint to contract employment when possible. If you want to start pointing fingers over companies contracting instead of hiring, point them at the US tax code and employment laws. The US gov't set the rules of the game. These large corporations are just playing the game to their maximum advantage.
How can non-HD users not know what they're missing? Everywhere from electronics stores to Sams Clubs have spent massive amounts of floorspace on HDTV demos. Just about any store that sells TVs has one of these displays running as loud and bright as possible all throughout the day. Everyone has seen what HDTV has to offer, and they've seen it on the most impressive setups the store can muster.
I know it is strage to people who are concerned with superior image/sound quality, but many people simply do not care.
When Wal-Mart decided to shell out millions and millions to build their super-centers, they lost their competitive edge in price (except arguably in the grocery department). Don't fall into the trap of thinking that Wal-Mart has the lowest price. That's simply no longer true in many cases. Their mission now is to be slightly lower than the stores immediately surrounding them. Since there usually aren't many bargain video games stores near Wal-Marts, Wal-Mart does not feel the need to price video games competitively.
My father-in-law always complains about Wal-Mart pricing. He owns a camper business and he carries accessories for the campers. People never buy them from him at first because they assume they could get things cheaper from Wal-Mart. Return customers alway buy their accessories from him because they found out pretty quickly that his prices were lower than Wal-Mart for most things.
Re:NGage needs more but it's still not bad...
on
N-Gage Here To Stay?
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· Score: 1
Just so you know, the Atari Lynx had several games that were played using a "tall screen." You had to turn the unit sideways to play. It was quite annoying IMHO, but that was more due to button placement than the actual screen orientation.
There was that obscure "The Legend of Zelda" game on the Nintendo Entertainment System where Link spent a good portion of the game either blue or red depending on his ring color.
Don't count on it. Phone services are expensive because they are heavily regulated and heavily taxed. When the gov't starts losing tons of tax revenue because people are switching off of regular phones, they'll just heavily tax and regulate whatever comes along to replace those phones.
People will act like consumers as long as they are consumers. If EA is doing something illegally, then I would fully expect the US gov't (and any other gov't involved) to enforce the law. If the EA environment is really as bad as many people claim (and I believe that it is), this will come back to bite EA. You can't treat employess terribly and expect them to stay as long as there are other options. EA might not lose any market share right now over their practices, but they will lose market share when they can't make decent games anymore because current and prospective talented employees take other job offers.
"However, financial losses due to counterfeit chips are usually minor, and few perpetrators get away with it, Copher [NGC's Chief of Enforcement] said."
I really don't think counterfitting is their primary concern. Why don't they just come out and say that they want to track card-counters and people to give comps to?
Slashdot Mirror
Getting the top score in Stroker was definately the high point of all my gaming experiences.
GameStop, EB, etc will always have a niche in the marketplace. There really do need to be exclusive video gaming stores in order to attract audiences that Wal-Mart, BB, etc do not wish to cater to. However, these niche stores will never be able to compete with Wal-Mart or Best Buy. The ones that have tried to compete on a customer-service-based approach have either gone under or changed their ways. Anybody remember when Software ETC let you return opened games for a refund within 30 days?
Niche Stores also can't compete with the raw buying power of the chain stores. Things like returning a PSP is no problm at Wal-Mart. Just tell them you want your money back and they'll gladly give it to you. I've even returned open games to Wal-Mart after some arguing. GameStop and EB have to go along with things like dead pixel policies because they don't have the power to bully Sony like Wal-Mart does.
"The scary thing is with the exclusive rights, why should a company like EA really attempt to improve the technology and gameplay of their Madden franchise now?"
I don't care for EA having the exclusive rights to NFL and College football since I happen to prefer Sega/ESPN football. However, EA didn't get these exclusive contracts cheaply. They're going to have to pay for those licenses. In order to do that they must sell a lot of games. If people grow tired of EA's attempts at football, people will find other things to spend money on. This world has been around for a long time before licensed football games came about and most people could still find things to do in the absence of them. It's just a shame that all EA needs to shoot for now is "good enough" instead of "better than anyone else."
You can get Madden 2005 for the PS1.
I'm a 25 year old male and I feel that the recording industry has mostly ignored my musical tastes for about six or seven years now. Last year I bought 1 album (Bowling for Soup). I bought 2 albums 2 years ago, but they were both older music (Talking Heads and Human League).
There are very few newer bands that I like. The older bands I like are not producing new music that I enjoy. Also, when new music comes out that I do enjoy, it gets VERY little radio play in my city. I end up finding songs I like in movies nowadays far more often than I find them on the radio.
If the recording industry wants my money, they're actually going to have to do their job. They need to release music I like and find a way to get me some exposure to the music so that I know it exists. That is what they're there for.
That's the biggest fear I have as a USian. I was pretty unimpressed with the US version of Coupling and the US version of The Office has its moments but they are too few and far between. I'm just picturing NBC making a Doctor Who series. They'd probably make the Police Box into a phone booth and cast two high schoolers in place of the Doctor. They would be from San Dimas, CA instead of Gallifrey. Mabe they'd hire George Carlin on as a minor character...
The problem is that sales tax rates can vary not only from state to state but also from county to county. Best Buy would have to print a separate circular for each tax rate instead of their current regional circular.
But then even if they did this, they also run into a problem determining whih customer should get which circular. It's entirely possible that you live between two Best Buys with two different sales tax rates. Which circular should they send you? What if they put the circular in an Atlanta, GA paper that you subscribe to but you live closer to the Best Buy in Monroe, GA? That's a different tax rate last I checked (6% vs. 7%). Is Best Buy then liable for paying any difference in advertised price? I do understand your point but it is really not feasible with the current US sales tax system.
It's seems to me like it's more of a nod to Harve Bennett, who according to my Bathroom Reader (the purple one titled "Ultra Absorbent") pitched this exact same idea about 15 years ago. Apparently, Rodenberry was not fond of the idea and killed it off by spreading rumors that Bennett planned to make a movie along the lines of the Police Academy series.
Can't do it. My phone booth always runs on San Dimas time.
I think it's to go along with SUSE numbering, which is currently in version 9.x. However, I am hoping that enough folks will hack NLD 10 that Novell will release "Super Novell Linux Desktop 10 EX Turbo Alpha Hyper Fighting" in response.
"The DoJ antitrust division is toothless, unable to win even the most obvious cases, let alone something subtle like this."
You seem to be backing down a bit on your position. You apparently believed in your first post that these companies have done something to merit the involvement of the DOJ antitrust division. I can only assume that you believed that these companies were doing something to violate antitrust laws.
Now you merely claim that there is some sort of "conspiracy of convenience that doesn't need much, if any, high level cooperation". Where on earth did you find a definition of conspiracy that doesn't involve collusion between more than one party? From what I can tell your "conspiracy of convenience" is nothing more than multiple companies having the same formula for determining the best way to spend money on labor in a giver labor market. This is a much weaker stance than you originally took since it does not violate any antitrust laws and is hardly a matter for the DOJ. If there's a strawman out there, it's one you created.
I will agree that companies often don't compete for the best worker, but I have seen too many cases where a company has offered a job to a potential employee who shows more promise than other applicants asking for less money to believe that the best employees aren't finding jobs at decent wages.
"So we should just allow large corporations to manipulate the job market in collusion?"
I hate to be the one to tell you this, but these "large corporations" of which you speak are competitors. They're not in collusion with each other (for the most part), because the ones competeing over the same workers usually provide the same services and/or products and would like to see each other fail for that reason.
There's not some grand conspiracy on the part of corporate America to keep traditional W2 jobs from existing. There are simply many valid reason from a financial standpoint to contract employment when possible. If you want to start pointing fingers over companies contracting instead of hiring, point them at the US tax code and employment laws. The US gov't set the rules of the game. These large corporations are just playing the game to their maximum advantage.
How can non-HD users not know what they're missing? Everywhere from electronics stores to Sams Clubs have spent massive amounts of floorspace on HDTV demos. Just about any store that sells TVs has one of these displays running as loud and bright as possible all throughout the day. Everyone has seen what HDTV has to offer, and they've seen it on the most impressive setups the store can muster.
I know it is strage to people who are concerned with superior image/sound quality, but many people simply do not care.
"Then again, I can't really see why they don't do both..."
That's my thought. It's like them saying, "Well, we really need to focus on walking so chewing gum will just have to wait."
"watch for the Guest Star appearence from PHisher!"
So is that Abe Vigoda's rebel grandson or something?
I think the word you're looking for is oligopoly.
When Wal-Mart decided to shell out millions and millions to build their super-centers, they lost their competitive edge in price (except arguably in the grocery department). Don't fall into the trap of thinking that Wal-Mart has the lowest price. That's simply no longer true in many cases. Their mission now is to be slightly lower than the stores immediately surrounding them. Since there usually aren't many bargain video games stores near Wal-Marts, Wal-Mart does not feel the need to price video games competitively.
My father-in-law always complains about Wal-Mart pricing. He owns a camper business and he carries accessories for the campers. People never buy them from him at first because they assume they could get things cheaper from Wal-Mart. Return customers alway buy their accessories from him because they found out pretty quickly that his prices were lower than Wal-Mart for most things.
Just so you know, the Atari Lynx had several games that were played using a "tall screen." You had to turn the unit sideways to play. It was quite annoying IMHO, but that was more due to button placement than the actual screen orientation.
"Have you ever seen Link in anything but green?"
There was that obscure "The Legend of Zelda" game on the Nintendo Entertainment System where Link spent a good portion of the game either blue or red depending on his ring color.
You will die alone.
voip just hasn't taken enough regular telco business away yet. When it does, it will become a feeding ground for politicians.
Don't count on it. Phone services are expensive because they are heavily regulated and heavily taxed. When the gov't starts losing tons of tax revenue because people are switching off of regular phones, they'll just heavily tax and regulate whatever comes along to replace those phones.
That's not gonna help. The prism tanks have longer range. But if you want to have fun with some Jehovah's Witnesses...
People will act like consumers as long as they are consumers. If EA is doing something illegally, then I would fully expect the US gov't (and any other gov't involved) to enforce the law. If the EA environment is really as bad as many people claim (and I believe that it is), this will come back to bite EA. You can't treat employess terribly and expect them to stay as long as there are other options. EA might not lose any market share right now over their practices, but they will lose market share when they can't make decent games anymore because current and prospective talented employees take other job offers.
"However, financial losses due to counterfeit chips are usually minor, and few perpetrators get away with it, Copher [NGC's Chief of Enforcement] said." I really don't think counterfitting is their primary concern. Why don't they just come out and say that they want to track card-counters and people to give comps to?