are you asking a rhetorical question? because i think you answered it yourself here...
the fact remains that no matter what copy protection system you put into your games, there will hacked versions of the game floating around the internet, and in steam's case (the steaming pile of crap that it is), the fact that you can't just 'install' the game and instead it has to call home makes me want to puke all over gabe newell's shoes.
Vivendi is simply asking valve to obey the terms of the contract that Valve WILLINGLY SIGNED...
Just because 50 million fanboys eager to sell their souls for HL2 want something to be so, does not make it.
Then there's of course the issue of whether Valve was honest while signing said contract.
Remains to be seen, but frankly I think Valve will be losing big time over this and potentially will lose the ownership of Half-Life2 as a result (which is what VUG is asking for in the court proceedings).
VUG can keep Valve in court forever (being the size that it is) and Valve quite frankly can't do shit. You don't piss off an elephant without an elephant gun, and Valve doesn't have one.
What they do have is a typical ex-microsoftian mindset about how to manipulate their customers and apparently their publisher as well.
we could go on - contrary to popular belief, the consitution is NOT the gold-sealed symbol of democracy - perhaps the bill of rights is, but bush is taking care of that as quick as he can as well.
yeah most video cards come with s-video or composite out - run some mini-plug to RCA for the audio and it's done
the media is stored on cd's or harddrive (depending on what it is) and i never have to deal with anything except the computer i use every day.
couple of people i know have built low-end pc's - even to the point of developing 'appliance' type cases for them - that are run via pc anywhere or vnc or something similar - and cost alot less than an xbox - you don't have to pay your microsoft tax and basically 'just work'
good old slashdot and the so-called 'oh so simple' solutions...ridiculous.
you can't affect the outcome of THIS election, but Americans need to realize that Corporations (particularly such biased ones as Diebold) have absolutely NO business being so directly in control of your election process.
because the more cookies you have - particularly from the larger ad networks like doubleclick - the easier it is to track you - across dozens and dozens of sites - and all of the invasions of privacy that go along with them.
it's not about the filesize - it's about the information contained in those cookies.
half-life 1 was funded entirely by Valve, in exchange for a much higher royalty at retail sales.
half-life 2 is entirely funded by valve as well. same with any id game etc.
you make it seem like the 'poor poor publishers' don't deserve to be cut out of the loop, after decades of screwing game developers out of royalties.
the game industry is at exactly the same point that the record and film industry are - the 'middle men', ie the publishers, record companies, production companies etc - who used to have a complete lock on the retail market, suddenly find their business models completely obsolete...
aaawww...the poor poor suits won't be able to give themselves another multi-billion dollar raise this year...the poor guys...
in theory, steam is a great idea, should hopefully kick-start the bypassing of publishers for the game industry - however, valve's implementation of the idea just shows how ex-microsoft all of the original valve people are.
these kinds of 'activation' schemes and the privacy invasions that seem to be regular occurences for games wouldn't fly in any other industry. gamers need to learn to put down the crack pipe that is the next big game and be willing to make decisions with their pocketbook - ie don't submit to this kind of idiocy, don't support it, do not recommend these games to your non-technical friends...or, even better, educate them about these issues...
Exactly - not one post yet has mentioned the horrific privacy invasion that this kind of detailed tracking imposes on the players.
When corporations are already trying to break into the underage childrens market through schools, by sponsoring and pushing their products in every way possible to kids at school, now they also get to track little timmys every Grind in the game that their parents just bought for Timmy - thinking, mistakenly that the game was 'family-friendly' enough for him...
Instead we have a new advertising gimmick, with all of the new 'always on' consoles, hand-helds and PC's, suddenly the advertisers can not only track what shows are being played (very passive, they can't actually tell if anyone watches the ads or mutes etc), but now suddenly advertisers can tell exactly how long you play said game a day, not only that, but they track HOW you 'interact with the brand'?
Jeebuz, scary as all hell...where's the tinfoil hats when you need them...
too bad that they chose to destroy what looks like it will be a very cool game with this kind of thing.
i do agree that skateboard competitions are basically fashion shows for the corporations - i was involved with slam city jam here in vancouver and it was a big showboat for the sponsors, basically...but hey, those same sponsors took skateboarding from a blasphemous sport to a prime-time tv sport - and even spawned an olympic sport (snowboarding) as well!!
with that said, giving large corporations this amount of detailed tracking information can NEVER result in anything beneficial for the consumer...beware the spyware
exactly - nintendo is NOT going to go the direction of the 50-100 million dollar games, which are becoming expected budgets for ps3 and xbox2 titles - the next generation is exponentially increasing development budgets and time...
nintendo has done the math, they know that sony & microsoft can (and seem to be willing to) develop themselves to death and still not produce good games...it's only a matter of time before the return on investment simply does not add up.
you spend $50 million (HL2, Sims2, etc) to make a game, how many do you have to sell before it's considered a success for the company?
usually investors (stockholders, etc) want an 'increase' in their returns, not barely breaking even...
http://money.cnn.com/2004/10/11/news/newsmakers/ si nclair_kerry/index.htm
Anti-Kerry film sparks DNC response Sinclair Broadcast Group orders its 62 stations to show movie next week; DNC files FEC complaint. October 11, 2004: 4:21 PM EDT By Katie Benner, CNN/Money staff writer
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of the largest chain of television stations in the nation, plans to air a documentary that accuses Sen. John Kerry of betraying American prisoners during the Vietnam War, a newspaper reported Monday.
The reported plan prompted the Democratic National Committee to file a complaint against Sinclair with the Federal Election Commission.
Sinclair has ordered all 62 of its stations to air "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal" without commercials in prime-time next week, the Washington Post reported, just two weeks before the Nov. 2 election.
Sinclair's television group, which includes affiliates of all the major networks, reaches nearly a quarter of all U.S. television households, according to the company's Web site. A dozen of Sinclair's stations are in the critical swing states of Ohio, Florida, Iowa and Wisconsin.
Affiliates owned by the major television networks reach a larger percentage of U.S. homes because they are in the largest markets.
Calls to Sinclair by CNN/Money were not returned Monday.
This is the first time the DNC has filed a legal motion against a media organization, said group spokesman Jano Cabrera. Earlier this year, said a DNC statement, Sinclair-owned stations refused to air DNC ads criticizing President Bush.
The complaint to be filed with the FEC states it is inappropriate for the Sinclair Broadcasting Group to air partisan propaganda in the last 10 days of an election campaign, said Cabrera.
No one from the FEC was available to comment on the DNC complaint.
"We have received thousands of e-mails, people outraged by the very idea a company like Sinclair would direct stations to air a partisan film," said Wes Boyd, founder of political watchdog MoveOn.org.
"If they do air a partisan film, we'll challenge the FCC and the licenses of the local stations that broadcast the film because local stations have a responsibility to the community to air real news, not partisan messages," said Boyd.
The company made news in April when it ordered seven of its ABC-affiliated stations not to air a "Nightline" segment that featured a reading of the names of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq; a Sinclair executive called that broadcast "contrary to the public interest." Campaign violation?
A Bush campaign spokesman said the camp has nothing to do with Sinclair Broadcasting, the anti-Kerry film or Sinclair's plan to air the film just before this year's tight election.
Sinclair executives have shown support for the Bush campaign. Sinclair CEO David Smith contributed the legal limit of $2,000 Bush-Cheney 2004, and vice president Frederick Smith gave $175,000 to the RNC and maxed out his Bush-Cheney contribution.
FEC records show that two other top level Sinclair executives gave the maximum amount they could to Bush-Cheney.
Sinclair executives have given nearly $68,000 in political contributions, 97 percent of it going to Republicans, since the beginning of the year, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Media Matters for America, a liberal watchdog group, has written a letter to Sinclair asking the company to cancel reported plans to air the film between now and the Nov. 2 election. The Post reports the movie is about Kerry's antiwar testimony to Congress in 1971 and was produced independently of Sinclair.
"Sinclair's plan to air anti-Kerry propaganda before the election is an abuse of the public airwaves for what appears to be partisan political purposes," Media Matters CEO David Brock said in the letter.
The letter warned Sinclair that its plan could const
if the US has such a 'first-rate' broadcasting system, why do we need to go to the BBC and other foreign news sources to find out the latest news about the US?
visit www.projectcensored.org and then tell me that your media is delivering the news that is important to YOU, instead of the news that is important to the media company sponsors & advertisers?
in canada we have the CBC, which not only supports canadian TV, it also has the most relevant and useful news that we have in canada.
the 'other' option? massive media conglomerates that own hundreds of newspapers and tv stations, who's owners blatantly FORCE said tv stations & newspapers to broadcast/print blatant editorials of the owners opinions and call it 'news'.
they are 'informing' you - battering you with propoganda so that you can 'form in your mind' a viewpoint on the issues that is remarkably consistent with THEIR view of whatever issue is being discussed.
this is idiotic - conservative media czars don't 'happen' to be popular - they are popular because of the billions of dollars that they spend to promote & advertise their stations over all else...
watch the movie 'outfoxed' to get a fairly good overview of the 'unbiased' US news coverage that the US gets...
unbiased...this is the most hilarious thing that i've ever heard...
nevermind, just keep telling yourself that CNN & Fox are 'unbiased' while you suck on that soma pill...
Re:Corps will continue to rule, people are sheep..
on
Amateur Revolution?
·
· Score: 1
how is an EA-paid for and published game like the sims an 'amateur' game in any way?
the sim2 reportedly cost well upwards of $50 million dollars to develop - hardly an 'amateur' budget in the game industry, or any industry...
It's irregardless what the technical issue is - the simple fact is that more and more games are being shipped with ridiculous 'copy protection' that is extremely offensive to the end-consumer.
I recently returned the game 'Killswitch' for the exact same reason - you get the 2 CD game installed, run the launcher and click on 'Play Game' (specifically labeled as PLAY GAME) and suddenly the launcher is installing who-knows-what software onto my machine and then says 'copy protection software installed, please click ok to reboot'...
i mean WHAT THE F*CK IS THAT? no warning, no indication that this was going to happen...i immediately uninstalled the game, but have no been able to determine if the copy protection 'system' itself was removed...
Such a pain in the ass it's unbelievable. This was a Namco game, EA isn't the only one that is deserving of this kind of Consumer outcry.
Every single copy protected audio CD that comes out is horrified and defiled on Slashdot, but nearly every single game that is released these days has some kind of copy-protection-DRM-privacy invading software installed as a component of the game.
btw, if you don't think that games are invading our privacy, do a check on what kind of detailed usage information is being sent to the developers in that latest MMO game - if this kind of information was tracked TO THE USER for ANY other kind of media, there would be the hugest backlashes and likely lawsuits - why is the game industry immune to these kinds of issues up until this point?
It's so strange, the lawmakers are so eager to blacklist games, pass laws banning games etc - but they overlook the biggest thorn in the gaming industry's side completely.
And yes i am a game developer & college teacher (teaching game design). these are blatant issues that the game industry MUST resolve if we are to be taken seriously, and not as porn-peddling criminals.
exactly - that's all that this forces people to do, when their latest 'proprietary format' drm doesn't work with every cd player or cdrom or portable device or....
this is just microsoft using it's bulk to try and push something on the whole industry...
they're just bitter that apple's kicking their ass in the 'media' biz
Slashdot Mirror
just don't call it 'innovation'
microsoft hasn't innovated anything since pre-dos days...
all i can say to that is - barf
>> while simultanously training newbie developers.
and at the same time opening up millions of machines to untold viruses worms and other security nightmares...
no thanx.
btw, Remote desktop is just a hack of VNC and a poor, insecure one at that.
>>I hope I never damage my CD or I'm screwed.
are you asking a rhetorical question? because i think you answered it yourself here...
the fact remains that no matter what copy protection system you put into your games, there will hacked versions of the game floating around the internet, and in steam's case (the steaming pile of crap that it is), the fact that you can't just 'install' the game and instead it has to call home makes me want to puke all over gabe newell's shoes.
Vivendi is simply asking valve to obey the terms of the contract that Valve WILLINGLY SIGNED...
Just because 50 million fanboys eager to sell their souls for HL2 want something to be so, does not make it.
Then there's of course the issue of whether Valve was honest while signing said contract.
Remains to be seen, but frankly I think Valve will be losing big time over this and potentially will lose the ownership of Half-Life2 as a result (which is what VUG is asking for in the court proceedings).
VUG can keep Valve in court forever (being the size that it is) and Valve quite frankly can't do shit. You don't piss off an elephant without an elephant gun, and Valve doesn't have one.
What they do have is a typical ex-microsoftian mindset about how to manipulate their customers and apparently their publisher as well.
the only question remains whether anyone gives a rats ass anymore...
what's the point of useless tag lines like this?
;}
so wierd...people think that mod points give them near-god like powers...whoop-de-doo
how about evaluating the comments based on the information in the comment and then modding the comment appropriately as a result?
no...that's too difficult
yeah you haven't seen the busloads of EA clones that pile into the campus in burnaby every day...
revolt? not likely...
or canada, or new zealand, or switzerland...or...
we could go on - contrary to popular belief, the consitution is NOT the gold-sealed symbol of democracy - perhaps the bill of rights is, but bush is taking care of that as quick as he can as well.
yeah most video cards come with s-video or composite out - run some mini-plug to RCA for the audio and it's done
the media is stored on cd's or harddrive (depending on what it is) and i never have to deal with anything except the computer i use every day.
couple of people i know have built low-end pc's - even to the point of developing 'appliance' type cases for them - that are run via pc anywhere or vnc or something similar - and cost alot less than an xbox - you don't have to pay your microsoft tax and basically 'just work'
good old slashdot and the so-called 'oh so simple' solutions...ridiculous.
indeed - the people that actually paid attention to this have WAAAAY too much free time.
Get a hobby or something people.
ARG - Annoying, Really, GO away
you can't affect the outcome of THIS election, but Americans need to realize that Corporations (particularly such biased ones as Diebold) have absolutely NO business being so directly in control of your election process.
no need to generalize and label americans - fox is as brain-dead as murdoch's policies and political views are.
;P
the rest of the world watches news - america watches fox
sums it up pretty well
nuff said
all it does is add a bit of AI on top of a standard physics engine - and yes it is very old. they had a video demo up in 2003 after Siggraph
S ho w_Reel.mpg&videosection=/Games/TechDemoVidz
;}
http://www.pureanarchy.net/?page=NM_Siggraph03_
And, as some of you can read - the movie troy has been out for a while
the video is really hilarious though, they just throw these cg-stuntment around, so funny...
because the more cookies you have - particularly from the larger ad networks like doubleclick - the easier it is to track you - across dozens and dozens of sites - and all of the invasions of privacy that go along with them.
it's not about the filesize - it's about the information contained in those cookies.
half-life 1 was funded entirely by Valve, in exchange for a much higher royalty at retail sales.
half-life 2 is entirely funded by valve as well. same with any id game etc.
you make it seem like the 'poor poor publishers' don't deserve to be cut out of the loop, after decades of screwing game developers out of royalties.
the game industry is at exactly the same point that the record and film industry are - the 'middle men', ie the publishers, record companies, production companies etc - who used to have a complete lock on the retail market, suddenly find their business models completely obsolete...
aaawww...the poor poor suits won't be able to give themselves another multi-billion dollar raise this year...the poor guys...
in theory, steam is a great idea, should hopefully kick-start the bypassing of publishers for the game industry - however, valve's implementation of the idea just shows how ex-microsoft all of the original valve people are.
these kinds of 'activation' schemes and the privacy invasions that seem to be regular occurences for games wouldn't fly in any other industry. gamers need to learn to put down the crack pipe that is the next big game and be willing to make decisions with their pocketbook - ie don't submit to this kind of idiocy, don't support it, do not recommend these games to your non-technical friends...or, even better, educate them about these issues...
Exactly - not one post yet has mentioned the horrific privacy invasion that this kind of detailed tracking imposes on the players.
When corporations are already trying to break into the underage childrens market through schools, by sponsoring and pushing their products in every way possible to kids at school, now they also get to track little timmys every Grind in the game that their parents just bought for Timmy - thinking, mistakenly that the game was 'family-friendly' enough for him...
Instead we have a new advertising gimmick, with all of the new 'always on' consoles, hand-helds and PC's, suddenly the advertisers can not only track what shows are being played (very passive, they can't actually tell if anyone watches the ads or mutes etc), but now suddenly advertisers can tell exactly how long you play said game a day, not only that, but they track HOW you 'interact with the brand'?
Jeebuz, scary as all hell...where's the tinfoil hats when you need them...
too bad that they chose to destroy what looks like it will be a very cool game with this kind of thing.
i do agree that skateboard competitions are basically fashion shows for the corporations - i was involved with slam city jam here in vancouver and it was a big showboat for the sponsors, basically...but hey, those same sponsors took skateboarding from a blasphemous sport to a prime-time tv sport - and even spawned an olympic sport (snowboarding) as well!!
with that said, giving large corporations this amount of detailed tracking information can NEVER result in anything beneficial for the consumer...beware the spyware
yup, downloading an SDK for free - sure
what platforms does it run under? the microsoft version of 'cross-platform' - ie anything microsoft.
gee, looks like microsoft still gets their 'tax'...
exactly - nintendo is NOT going to go the direction of the 50-100 million dollar games, which are becoming expected budgets for ps3 and xbox2 titles - the next generation is exponentially increasing development budgets and time...
nintendo has done the math, they know that sony & microsoft can (and seem to be willing to) develop themselves to death and still not produce good games...it's only a matter of time before the return on investment simply does not add up.
you spend $50 million (HL2, Sims2, etc) to make a game, how many do you have to sell before it's considered a success for the company?
usually investors (stockholders, etc) want an 'increase' in their returns, not barely breaking even...
THIS is how 'unbiased' American News outlets are.
http://money.cnn.com/2004/10/11/news/newsmakers/ si nclair_kerry/index.htm
Anti-Kerry film sparks DNC response
Sinclair Broadcast Group orders its 62 stations to show movie next week; DNC files FEC complaint.
October 11, 2004: 4:21 PM EDT
By Katie Benner, CNN/Money staff writer
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of the largest chain of television stations in the nation, plans to air a documentary that accuses Sen. John Kerry of betraying American prisoners during the Vietnam War, a newspaper reported Monday.
The reported plan prompted the Democratic National Committee to file a complaint against Sinclair with the Federal Election Commission.
Sinclair has ordered all 62 of its stations to air "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal" without commercials in prime-time next week, the Washington Post reported, just two weeks before the Nov. 2 election.
Sinclair's television group, which includes affiliates of all the major networks, reaches nearly a quarter of all U.S. television households, according to the company's Web site. A dozen of Sinclair's stations are in the critical swing states of Ohio, Florida, Iowa and Wisconsin.
Affiliates owned by the major television networks reach a larger percentage of U.S. homes because they are in the largest markets.
Calls to Sinclair by CNN/Money were not returned Monday.
This is the first time the DNC has filed a legal motion against a media organization, said group spokesman Jano Cabrera. Earlier this year, said a DNC statement, Sinclair-owned stations refused to air DNC ads criticizing President Bush.
The complaint to be filed with the FEC states it is inappropriate for the Sinclair Broadcasting Group to air partisan propaganda in the last 10 days of an election campaign, said Cabrera.
No one from the FEC was available to comment on the DNC complaint.
"We have received thousands of e-mails, people outraged by the very idea a company like Sinclair would direct stations to air a partisan film," said Wes Boyd, founder of political watchdog MoveOn.org.
"If they do air a partisan film, we'll challenge the FCC and the licenses of the local stations that broadcast the film because local stations have a responsibility to the community to air real news, not partisan messages," said Boyd.
The company made news in April when it ordered seven of its ABC-affiliated stations not to air a "Nightline" segment that featured a reading of the names of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq; a Sinclair executive called that broadcast "contrary to the public interest."
Campaign violation?
A Bush campaign spokesman said the camp has nothing to do with Sinclair Broadcasting, the anti-Kerry film or Sinclair's plan to air the film just before this year's tight election.
Sinclair executives have shown support for the Bush campaign. Sinclair CEO David Smith contributed the legal limit of $2,000 Bush-Cheney 2004, and vice president Frederick Smith gave $175,000 to the RNC and maxed out his Bush-Cheney contribution.
FEC records show that two other top level Sinclair executives gave the maximum amount they could to Bush-Cheney.
Sinclair executives have given nearly $68,000 in political contributions, 97 percent of it going to Republicans, since the beginning of the year, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Media Matters for America, a liberal watchdog group, has written a letter to Sinclair asking the company to cancel reported plans to air the film between now and the Nov. 2 election. The Post reports the movie is about Kerry's antiwar testimony to Congress in 1971 and was produced independently of Sinclair.
"Sinclair's plan to air anti-Kerry propaganda before the election is an abuse of the public airwaves for what appears to be partisan political purposes," Media Matters CEO David Brock said in the letter.
The letter warned Sinclair that its plan could const
if the US has such a 'first-rate' broadcasting system, why do we need to go to the BBC and other foreign news sources to find out the latest news about the US?
visit www.projectcensored.org and then tell me that your media is delivering the news that is important to YOU, instead of the news that is important to the media company sponsors & advertisers?
in canada we have the CBC, which not only supports canadian TV, it also has the most relevant and useful news that we have in canada.
the 'other' option? massive media conglomerates that own hundreds of newspapers and tv stations, who's owners blatantly FORCE said tv stations & newspapers to broadcast/print blatant editorials of the owners opinions and call it 'news'.
they are 'informing' you - battering you with propoganda so that you can 'form in your mind' a viewpoint on the issues that is remarkably consistent with THEIR view of whatever issue is being discussed.
they say ignorance is bliss...enjoy
this is idiotic - conservative media czars don't 'happen' to be popular - they are popular because of the billions of dollars that they spend to promote & advertise their stations over all else...
watch the movie 'outfoxed' to get a fairly good overview of the 'unbiased' US news coverage that the US gets...
unbiased...this is the most hilarious thing that i've ever heard...
nevermind, just keep telling yourself that CNN & Fox are 'unbiased' while you suck on that soma pill...
how is an EA-paid for and published game like the sims an 'amateur' game in any way?
the sim2 reportedly cost well upwards of $50 million dollars to develop - hardly an 'amateur' budget in the game industry, or any industry...
exactly - more attempts to force upgrades that aren't necessary onto consumers
It's irregardless what the technical issue is - the simple fact is that more and more games are being shipped with ridiculous 'copy protection' that is extremely offensive to the end-consumer.
I recently returned the game 'Killswitch' for the exact same reason - you get the 2 CD game installed, run the launcher and click on 'Play Game' (specifically labeled as PLAY GAME) and suddenly the launcher is installing who-knows-what software onto my machine and then says 'copy protection software installed, please click ok to reboot'...
i mean WHAT THE F*CK IS THAT? no warning, no indication that this was going to happen...i immediately uninstalled the game, but have no been able to determine if the copy protection 'system' itself was removed...
Such a pain in the ass it's unbelievable. This was a Namco game, EA isn't the only one that is deserving of this kind of Consumer outcry.
Every single copy protected audio CD that comes out is horrified and defiled on Slashdot, but nearly every single game that is released these days has some kind of copy-protection-DRM-privacy invading software installed as a component of the game.
btw, if you don't think that games are invading our privacy, do a check on what kind of detailed usage information is being sent to the developers in that latest MMO game - if this kind of information was tracked TO THE USER for ANY other kind of media, there would be the hugest backlashes and likely lawsuits - why is the game industry immune to these kinds of issues up until this point?
It's so strange, the lawmakers are so eager to blacklist games, pass laws banning games etc - but they overlook the biggest thorn in the gaming industry's side completely.
And yes i am a game developer & college teacher (teaching game design). these are blatant issues that the game industry MUST resolve if we are to be taken seriously, and not as porn-peddling criminals.
exactly - that's all that this forces people to do, when their latest 'proprietary format' drm doesn't work with every cd player or cdrom or portable device or....
this is just microsoft using it's bulk to try and push something on the whole industry...
they're just bitter that apple's kicking their ass in the 'media' biz