PS WTF's with the 0.98 attach rate for PS3 in Japan?! That's amazing to me. I know lots of people are flipping these on ebay, but even in the land of the rising sun, people aren't buying it to play games. That's bad news. Japan's a huge Sony supporter. If they lose Japan, they're in trouble.
(Relatively) cheap Blu-Ray player? The Japanese are traditionally a nation of early adopters, so it's not outside the realm of possibility.
There have been a lot of good substitutes for media twit Paris Hilton's replacement. I'd like to throw Laura Lemay's name into the ring: http://www.lauralemay.com/
AOL sent him an apology and said the customer service rep was no longer with the company.
Does anyone believe for a second that "John" wasn't strictly adhering to AOL policy? Maybe not the official on-the-books policy, but the one he was actually trained to follow?
I hope that if "John" did get fired (unlikely) that he brings a successful wrongful termination suit against AOL. Maybe that would bring about real change there.
OR, is it the fact that Dell has alienated their customer base with shoddy products and outsourced call centers (sales, service and support) staffed by people that don't have the tools or skill to do the job?
Ding, we have a winner!
I made the decision to stop using Dell workstations in my office about six months ago. All the factors you cite, plus the wretched new "Dell Account" we were forced to start using for purchase order transactions has left me completely disgusted by them.
BTW, whomever said their hardware wasn't too bad obviously hasn't bought a small form factor Optiplex (GX270 or GX280) in the last couple of years. We've had -- no joke -- over a 40% motherboard failure rate on those models.
On the plus side, I've been very happy with the new HP boxes I've been buying.
When I was reading previews for Oblivion, I distinctly remember reading that barding (or "horse armor") was included and thinking, "oh, that's a nice touch." While someone somewhere may have reported that it was content not included with the retail game, I certainly have no recollection of it in the coverage I read. Finding out after I bought the game at retail that not all features were included was a disappointment, but one I took philosophically, since I figured BethSoft would make good, right?
Wrong. Based on the time frame, it looks like barding was a feature removed by the developer prior to release just so they could charge for it later. And $2.50 is way too much to ask for such a trivial feature. ($2.50 that I will not be spending, personally.) A micropayment of $0.50 would have been much more appropriate, if they have to charge at all.
What really bothers me is what might happen if this ploy proves successful. What's to stop the creation of whole classes of über weapons and armor only available on a pay-per basis? What's to stop the developer from making those items absolutely necessary to finish the game?
This sets an unfortunate precedent. Hopefully, enough gamers will say "no" to this type of gouging that it makes Bethesda and other developers think twice before trying it again in the future.
Slashdot Mirror
(Relatively) cheap Blu-Ray player? The Japanese are traditionally a nation of early adopters, so it's not outside the realm of possibility.
There have been a lot of good substitutes for media twit Paris Hilton's replacement. I'd like to throw Laura Lemay's name into the ring: http://www.lauralemay.com/
OR, is it the fact that Dell has alienated their customer base with shoddy products and outsourced call centers (sales, service and support) staffed by people that don't have the tools or skill to do the job?
Ding, we have a winner!
I made the decision to stop using Dell workstations in my office about six months ago. All the factors you cite, plus the wretched new "Dell Account" we were forced to start using for purchase order transactions has left me completely disgusted by them.
BTW, whomever said their hardware wasn't too bad obviously hasn't bought a small form factor Optiplex (GX270 or GX280) in the last couple of years. We've had -- no joke -- over a 40% motherboard failure rate on those models.
On the plus side, I've been very happy with the new HP boxes I've been buying.
When I was reading previews for Oblivion, I distinctly remember reading that barding (or "horse armor") was included and thinking, "oh, that's a nice touch." While someone somewhere may have reported that it was content not included with the retail game, I certainly have no recollection of it in the coverage I read. Finding out after I bought the game at retail that not all features were included was a disappointment, but one I took philosophically, since I figured BethSoft would make good, right? Wrong. Based on the time frame, it looks like barding was a feature removed by the developer prior to release just so they could charge for it later. And $2.50 is way too much to ask for such a trivial feature. ($2.50 that I will not be spending, personally.) A micropayment of $0.50 would have been much more appropriate, if they have to charge at all. What really bothers me is what might happen if this ploy proves successful. What's to stop the creation of whole classes of über weapons and armor only available on a pay-per basis? What's to stop the developer from making those items absolutely necessary to finish the game? This sets an unfortunate precedent. Hopefully, enough gamers will say "no" to this type of gouging that it makes Bethesda and other developers think twice before trying it again in the future.