I agree, the main purpose of withholding supply is to increase price, and that's true for any product including diamonds. But as I've said several times in this thread, that's a function of the supply curve, not the demand curve.
In the case of diamonds, the effect that lowering supply has on the demand curve is a special function of diamonds, not a universal rule. IOW, yes, the high price of diamonds is a big reason why people want them, but this doesn't apply to the PS3. It very obviously doesn't apply to the PS3, in fact, considering all of the people who complain about the high price of the PS3.
Lowered supply (whether through deliberate withholding of goods or through production problems) shifts the supply curve to the left and does absolutely nothing to the demand curve. Look at your textbook again.
1. The precise reason why people demand diamonds so much is because they're scarce; the scarcity enhances their beauty, and the purpose of a diamond is to look pretty. This doesn't apply to the PS3; very few people would buy one simply because not many of them exist. Especially since there's a near-guarantee that there will be more made available soon.
2. People would still demand diamonds, they just wouldn't demand them at current prices.
Now, I will admit that demand has been boosted somewhat, but not to any great extent, and not by the scarcity of the PS3. Instead, demand has been boosted by the media hyping up the scarcity of the PS3. And unless Sony is paying news networks to hype up the PS3 in their reports, there's nothing fraudulent about it.
It's pretty silly to think that Sony would be deliberately holding their supply to 80K units in Japan, though. A couple hundred thousand units would be almost believable, but 80K?
Lowered supply in itself has no effect on demand. This is basic economics, which, unlike psychology, is actually relevant to the argument at hand. Certainly a lowered supply combined with a fixed price will increase sales, but this is because the fixed price is well below the ideal price point, not because of an increased demand.
IOW, it drives up the market price. Which is what I said. Those grandmas already knew that the kids wanted a PS3 (or at the very least would've heard about it regardless of what the media was saying), it's just that they weren't willing to pay $600 until they heard about the low supply. (And I would argue that a lot of those grandmas would've been willing to pay $600 even if there were millions of units available. The going price on eBay currently appears to be about $1500 or more, nearly three times retail price.)
IOW, you're full of shit. If people didn't genuinely want the PS3, then they wouldn't have bought it. The only thing that lowered supply does is increase the market price for the console, and looking on eBay makes it quite clear that that price is quite a bit higher than $600.
That's because there are more pro-Nintendo articles than pro-Microsoft articles, and the/. audience is more receptive to them. Zonk's going by the idea that people who support the Wii are more likely to support the XBox 360 than the PS3.
MMORPGs are only addictive to people who already have mental and/or emotional problems. The thing is, though, that MMORPGs are designed in such a way as to entice only those types of people to play them (as opposed to use them as chatrooms) for any appreciable length of time. That's why their communities suck so bad.
The best part about how pathetic these guys are is how incongruous it is with how they view themselves. For example, look at the barely hidden disgust that "The Triforce" exhibits not only for video games, but for their fans. See, because their writing is so much better than anyone else's, and they only write about video games because that just happens to be what they feel like writing about, not because they'd be complete failures at any other form of criticism.
Just a bunch of New Games Journalists whining about how someone else had the gall to suggest that people want to read game reviews that talk about the game, as opposed to ones that talk about what the author had for lunch. (Which makes all of the whining about how "self-important" the author of the original article is all the funnier.) The article that started all of this isn't very good, to be sure, but neither is this depressing response.
Rob
The MSX was undoubtedly a computer
on
Consoles M.I.A.
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· Score: 1
The MSX wasn't precisely a console, either...it was more like a computer that could play cartridge-based games
So it wasn't a console, then. There's nothing about ROM-based media that keeps them from being used in computers. I'm pretty sure there were other computers that accepted cartridges, but my knowledge of obsolete non-x86 computers is a bit rusty so I can't name any.
BTW, the most notable game for the MSX was definitely Metal Gear 2. The real Metal Gear 2.
Now he doesn't have to make his favorite gaming company look bad anymore, at least on this subject. Note how he accepts Microsoft's shifting the blame for this rip-off without question. I dare anyone to imagine, without laughing, Zonk doing the same thing regarding a game on Sony's online service.
Even ignoring the fact that the Wii's controller and the PS3's price are completely irrelevant to the issue at hand: Just because it's unsurprising that fanboys like to exaggerate Sony's flaws and minimize its advantages while doing the opposite for its competitors doesn't mean that it's right.
When Nintendo is secretive about its product: "It makes perfect sense for Nintendo not to give everything about the Wii away all at once. Secrecy keeps the rumor mill churning, thus making sure that the Wii doesn't lose its presence in the news media. And every time Nintendo releases new information, it causes a feeding frenzy among the fans. Secrecy also keeps Nintendo's competitors guessing and sometimes catches them off-guard."
When Sony is secretive about its product: "Christ, what the hell is taking them so long to give us information about the PS3? Obviously the only reason they aren't talking is because they have no clue what they're doing."
I'd like to remind Zonk and the other anti-Sony fanboys that most of the important details for the Wii's Virtual Console were only revealed a month ago.
There's actually a very simple logic behind it; you go from the smallest numbers to the largest. There are 12 months, between 28 and 31 days each month, and as many years as you can count. It also goes along with saying (for example) "January 1, 1980" which is easier than saying "The 1st of January, 1980."
I wonder if happy people are offended by people calling homosexuals "gay."
Seriously, language evolves, and a word that used to be used to refer to a group of people negatively may over time no longer have anything to do with that group. I personally use the word "gay" to mean "lame" sometimes, especially when I want to annoy the professionally offended, but I'm honestly not thinking about homosexuals at all when I do it. The problem here isn't that using "gay" to mean "lame" is automatically a slur against homosexuals, but that most of the people who use it that way on Counterstrike really are homophobic.
He might not be saying that poverty causes happiness, but he is saying that the impoverished are happier than the wealthy. It's a very fine (and ultimately irrelevant) difference.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree, the main purpose of withholding supply is to increase price, and that's true for any product including diamonds. But as I've said several times in this thread, that's a function of the supply curve, not the demand curve.
In the case of diamonds, the effect that lowering supply has on the demand curve is a special function of diamonds, not a universal rule. IOW, yes, the high price of diamonds is a big reason why people want them, but this doesn't apply to the PS3. It very obviously doesn't apply to the PS3, in fact, considering all of the people who complain about the high price of the PS3.
Rob
Lowered supply (whether through deliberate withholding of goods or through production problems) shifts the supply curve to the left and does absolutely nothing to the demand curve. Look at your textbook again.
Rob
1. The precise reason why people demand diamonds so much is because they're scarce; the scarcity enhances their beauty, and the purpose of a diamond is to look pretty. This doesn't apply to the PS3; very few people would buy one simply because not many of them exist. Especially since there's a near-guarantee that there will be more made available soon.
2. People would still demand diamonds, they just wouldn't demand them at current prices.
Now, I will admit that demand has been boosted somewhat, but not to any great extent, and not by the scarcity of the PS3. Instead, demand has been boosted by the media hyping up the scarcity of the PS3. And unless Sony is paying news networks to hype up the PS3 in their reports, there's nothing fraudulent about it.
Rob
It's pretty silly to think that Sony would be deliberately holding their supply to 80K units in Japan, though. A couple hundred thousand units would be almost believable, but 80K?
Rob
Lowered supply in itself has no effect on demand. This is basic economics, which, unlike psychology, is actually relevant to the argument at hand. Certainly a lowered supply combined with a fixed price will increase sales, but this is because the fixed price is well below the ideal price point, not because of an increased demand.
Rob
IOW, it drives up the market price. Which is what I said. Those grandmas already knew that the kids wanted a PS3 (or at the very least would've heard about it regardless of what the media was saying), it's just that they weren't willing to pay $600 until they heard about the low supply. (And I would argue that a lot of those grandmas would've been willing to pay $600 even if there were millions of units available. The going price on eBay currently appears to be about $1500 or more, nearly three times retail price.)
Rob
Nah, not yet. Just look at most of the other replies to this article. Cognitive dissonance is a powerful thing, especially amongst console fanboys...
Rob
IOW, you're full of shit. If people didn't genuinely want the PS3, then they wouldn't have bought it. The only thing that lowered supply does is increase the market price for the console, and looking on eBay makes it quite clear that that price is quite a bit higher than $600.
Rob
Storied history. Unless there are some incriminating pictures of CliffyB involved somewhere.
Rob
The current-gen port of LCS has been out for about five months now.
Rob
That's because there are more pro-Nintendo articles than pro-Microsoft articles, and the /. audience is more receptive to them. Zonk's going by the idea that people who support the Wii are more likely to support the XBox 360 than the PS3.
Rob
MMORPGs are only addictive to people who already have mental and/or emotional problems. The thing is, though, that MMORPGs are designed in such a way as to entice only those types of people to play them (as opposed to use them as chatrooms) for any appreciable length of time. That's why their communities suck so bad.
Rob
The best part about how pathetic these guys are is how incongruous it is with how they view themselves. For example, look at the barely hidden disgust that "The Triforce" exhibits not only for video games, but for their fans. See, because their writing is so much better than anyone else's, and they only write about video games because that just happens to be what they feel like writing about, not because they'd be complete failures at any other form of criticism.
Rob
Just a bunch of New Games Journalists whining about how someone else had the gall to suggest that people want to read game reviews that talk about the game, as opposed to ones that talk about what the author had for lunch. (Which makes all of the whining about how "self-important" the author of the original article is all the funnier.) The article that started all of this isn't very good, to be sure, but neither is this depressing response.
Rob
The MSX wasn't precisely a console, either...it was more like a computer that could play cartridge-based games
So it wasn't a console, then. There's nothing about ROM-based media that keeps them from being used in computers. I'm pretty sure there were other computers that accepted cartridges, but my knowledge of obsolete non-x86 computers is a bit rusty so I can't name any.
BTW, the most notable game for the MSX was definitely Metal Gear 2. The real Metal Gear 2.
Rob
Now he doesn't have to make his favorite gaming company look bad anymore, at least on this subject. Note how he accepts Microsoft's shifting the blame for this rip-off without question. I dare anyone to imagine, without laughing, Zonk doing the same thing regarding a game on Sony's online service.
Rob
I hear that U9 is quite a bit more playable now than it was when it came out, especially if you include the fanmade patches.
Rob
Penn and Teller's Smoke and Mirrors game package (it never made it big, surprisingly).
That's probably because it was never released commercially.
Rob
Even ignoring the fact that the Wii's controller and the PS3's price are completely irrelevant to the issue at hand: Just because it's unsurprising that fanboys like to exaggerate Sony's flaws and minimize its advantages while doing the opposite for its competitors doesn't mean that it's right.
Rob
When Nintendo is secretive about its product: "It makes perfect sense for Nintendo not to give everything about the Wii away all at once. Secrecy keeps the rumor mill churning, thus making sure that the Wii doesn't lose its presence in the news media. And every time Nintendo releases new information, it causes a feeding frenzy among the fans. Secrecy also keeps Nintendo's competitors guessing and sometimes catches them off-guard."
When Sony is secretive about its product: "Christ, what the hell is taking them so long to give us information about the PS3? Obviously the only reason they aren't talking is because they have no clue what they're doing."
I'd like to remind Zonk and the other anti-Sony fanboys that most of the important details for the Wii's Virtual Console were only revealed a month ago.
Rob
There's actually a very simple logic behind it; you go from the smallest numbers to the largest. There are 12 months, between 28 and 31 days each month, and as many years as you can count. It also goes along with saying (for example) "January 1, 1980" which is easier than saying "The 1st of January, 1980."
Rob
If I had to guess, I would say that he's certainly disappointed.
Rob
And that's precisely why Jon Stewart could be the savior of games. People tune in. For many younger viewers, it's the only news program they watch.
This is what we on the Internets call "preaching to the choir."
Rob
I wonder if happy people are offended by people calling homosexuals "gay."
Seriously, language evolves, and a word that used to be used to refer to a group of people negatively may over time no longer have anything to do with that group. I personally use the word "gay" to mean "lame" sometimes, especially when I want to annoy the professionally offended, but I'm honestly not thinking about homosexuals at all when I do it. The problem here isn't that using "gay" to mean "lame" is automatically a slur against homosexuals, but that most of the people who use it that way on Counterstrike really are homophobic.
Intentions, not words, are important.
Rob
He might not be saying that poverty causes happiness, but he is saying that the impoverished are happier than the wealthy. It's a very fine (and ultimately irrelevant) difference.
Rob