Can I add, some people might take harshly what I said regarding Windows XP - do we all really wear such rose tinted glasses to forget just how insecure XP was without the firewall prior to SP1? Or how the majority of 9x games didn't work? Or that most of XPs services were turned on by default? My point being - XP was no saint. It may have became one and to be fair on Vista up until Windows 8 it also really did give the Windows UI a much needed visual refresh. I can see the hit & miss, hit & miss theme - but it's not quite as clear cut like people are making out.
I do agree with everything most people including yourself are saying here, however one thing that does seem strange is that no 'real user' ever upgrades their OS anyway. Yes, a few enthusiasts might and yes there are a few select MS partners that will, however the majority of your average companies are still using XP and the average user uses whatever their piece of crap PC came with.
With that in mind, your theory makes little sense. Unless MS expects desktop PCs to be entirely replaced by laptops and tablets over the next 5 years then they are leaving millions of customers out in the cold. Maybe that part is true? And the first thing they decided to 'cut' was the backwards compatible user interface? I have a love hate relationship with the 'start' menu, I think it's old fashioned and it's not very productive compared to quicksilver or some other alternative launchers. But, if MS added the proper desktop, launcher and task menu back to Win8 I doubt many people including myself would be too fussed about Win8 - we'd just ignore the touch crap that was grafted on. Maybe Microsoft realize if that was the case most developers would also ignore Metro? I think Microsoft is trying to force customers to do something - I just don't think it's the same thing as you do.
I do believe MS are trying to push users in front of the touchscreen screen train regardless of if it's better or not on non touch devices. I believe this is wrong however I also believe that if it was optional then it would be ignored just like the media centre interface pretty much was. Microsoft is trying to force itself into relevance and floundering. If they were not doing this deliberately they would have deprecated the start menu and not actively taken the thing out. They are actively discouraging people from adding it back in and from all knowledge there is no way of re-enabling anything resembling what we had - where is your backwards compatible now? BUT, at it's core, the only thing keeping Microsofts monopoly together is backwards compatibility - should they say 'sorry but no software from before now will run' then people have no reason to stay and may even jump to OSX or *gasp* Linux.
I believe MS are betting the farm that the majority of new sales will be tablets and laptops, where touchscreen does make sense. I also believe they are trying to move forward to the future and drag their customers into it with them. Your theory is amazingly logical - IF - people upgraded on a semi regular basis, however they do not!
These first PC's that have been released without touch - imho are just like the 'vista compatible' PCs that came out around the period Vista was launched. Remember those? I believe there was a court-case to prove just how 'in'compatible they really were? From a strategic point of view - MS probably think of these poor fools as collateral damage and are willing to sacrifice the few for the long term. I used to hate Vista, but by many user accounts it was not actually that bad if the hardware was built for it. I also hate Win8, however I can also see why it might be more practical on a tablet, RT or laptop where it's easier to touch than to click. The problem with me - is that Microsoft have removed the choice of going with touch or not. They are trying to do both and it's simply a mess. Microsofts biggest mistake is to align desktop with mobile, a utopia that many developers have been peering into for a while. Microsoft took the plunge and I believe they will get burnt for it. Shock horror! Microsoft is trying something new!
I believe what MS is doing now is a very brave ballsy move to get a leg up over Apple. I think this will fail and they will revert in SP1 with a start menu for people that want it. By doing so however - expect in 5 years people will still be talking about how much backwards compatible bloatware still sloshes around the OS.
Can Microsoft make everyone happy? No. Can they screw up spectacularly and revert back to their compatible history? Yes. With the exception
oooooh... I actually had to look this word up to make sure I was accurate in my response (of course)
"Misogyny (pron.:/msdni/) is the hatred or dislike of women or girls. Misogyny can be manifested in numerous ways, including sexual discrimination, denigration of women, violence against women, and sexual objectification of women.[1][2] Misogyny has been characterised as a prominent feature of the mythologies of the ancient world as well as various religions. In addition, many influential Western philosophers have been described as misogynistic.[1] The male counterpart of misogyny is misandry, the hatred or dislike of men; the antonym of misogyny is philogyny, the love or fondness of women."
Is the AC a woman? Statistically that would be a no, however we'll pass on that issue for now. Am I angry at someone who fails to do the smallest bit of research - yes. I mean no harm against you personally, however if my retort was intended to be anti-American etc I'm sure I could have came up with some better examples. My research is for free and my sarcasm a bonus - I'll take your criticism into consideration and promptly pass it on to my assistants at/dev/null/.
on a more serious note Gruber, you are right, if I was actively debating something I had a horse in, or, really had to use one ounce of diplomacy then personal attacks should not be encouraged, I will need to remember such next time I'm debating for world peace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Abusive_Hosts_Blocking_List, considering his own name is HARDLY spattered over the internet as a karma whore / full of himself - I would be much more likely to to believe him than some trolling A/C that has what, committed translations from English UK to English US? Of course that is on the assumption that the poster is who he says he is but if you did actually google rather than being arrogant and full of yourself - then you would find that the guy has indeed been rather involved in anti spam lawsuits etc.
http://www.declude.com/Articles.asp?ID=262 OR "My name is Andrew D Kirch, I'm one of the founders of the AHBL, and served in that capacity until 2008. I've been harassed, extorted, sued, and defamed by a Mr. Richard Morton Scoville, a resident of San Antonio, Texas for a period of 7 years. During that time I have suffered nearly irreparable damage to my character, and public reputation. I've been questioned by police, and my customers, and I have incurred over $10,000 in legal costs defending myself in court against this person."
So, AC - is your code contributions worth $10k to you?
Let me just make another assumption here, You are American and don't know who "Tim" Berners-Lee is either? I actually couldn't care less if you do or don't know who he is - but my point being is you wouldn't do the extra effort to look it up.
not posted anon, because I've not been a pussy since 1994.
I think everyone would agree the patent system is fubar. However going by the current patent system I strongly believe the result has been justifiable.
If I was in Apples position and saw such a big fat cow to milk... I would set my lawyers on them too - who wouldn't?
end of story.
Re:A Microsoft Nokia bad-analogy award
on
Why Nokia Is Toast
·
· Score: 1
and the RRDs?
$2 billion is an awful lot to fix a screw up that should never have existed.
Re:A Microsoft Nokia bad-analogy award
on
Why Nokia Is Toast
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
are they making a profit yet from R&D?
I bet some people within Microsoft are trying to forgot XBOX and cant.
So other relatives etc can see them that may a) not be in the picture or B) want to see their long distance relatives?
That's like me saying why does anyone want to see the inside of someones computer or 'insert other geeky shit here' it's not like we all don't have geeky shit so why do we need to share it with others?
Interesting insight into Sony! 9/10 times it's internal employees we speak to - store support, customer relations, network faults, cell outages etc.
Seriously there are some decent contact centres out there.. But for financial authority by regulation we can't use non sanctioned comms incase we give out account / bank info.
Phone drone? Come do my job for a day and see how you get on. Outbound centres give us a bad name, bit like saying your tech team must be based in India
Like the 15 minutes between calls that I'm doing now? In the current climate we are one of the few places hiring for new departments. Nobody is leaving and we just hired another 200.
To be truthful 95% of the monitoring done is seriously for training purposes.... the company spends a lot of time with an employee each month with both the TL and employee listening to a few calls and giving a pep talk as to what they thought went well and what did not..9/10 times the employee go away from the experience with a pat on the back tips to improve and the targets are discussed with how they feel they are progressing within the company.
If an employee gets a terrible customer satisfaction survey with no obvious reason (the customer was foreign and didn't understand the procedure as an example or just did not have the time right then) we have a full team of quality people calling them back to confirm. Those scores effect our bonus and if any are deemed unfair they are struck off.
Quality, adherence and average handling time is what our bonus / job expectation already gets weighted on. I'm sure though if they wanted rid of me they could go through all my calls / interactions and find x amount of faults that would be enough to get me out the door. The thing is - they don't actively look for problems My every keystroke is not logged... etc etc
I'm also one of the highest in the company for customer satisfaction (but my AHT is through the roof =D )
I may not have any expectation of having privacy - but I do have the expectation of being human.
I work for the worlds largest mobile telecom (that was a hint at its name not me suggesting grandeur) and due to laws in the UK I can not have a cellphone on the floor, by company policy I would be fired for using facebook, ebay, {insert any personal site here}. Once I used hotmail to assist a customer with their on-line account and a day later IT were round asking me what I was doing. All paper used during the day is shredded, bags aren't allowed on the desks etc etc The company can and does monitor me remotely, most of which is for customer satisfaction (when the call is recorded so is our desktop) They can tell when a call is released, how long you've been in aftercall/outboud/teabreak/comfort break etc for to the milisecond and if they are suspicious they can run traces on your turret to catch something you might be up to.
I have not been fired for reading http://www.theregister.co.uk/ during my shifts... Although I vaguely remember it being sanctioned once on the intranet 'useful external resources list' (for it suddenly to disappear) If they ask me then I'm using it as research. Our e-mail is monitored and yet we still send round the odd joke etc...
Personally I don't really mind the surveillance... you are right, under company time we shouldn't be slacking. What I do not like is the acceptance we have no privacy. You are inherently taking away from me something workers 20 years ago were privileged of, although I agree you should passively monitor employees like the governent mostly monitors roads... I *HIGHLY* discourage the idea of actively tracking an employee like you might a criminal.
Do also remember I'm from the country where there is 1 camera per 14 people monitoring you already.
I know, lets put a tracker on your car and watch when you go over the speed limit by a fraction or decide to be in a hurry during slippery conditions. Don't worry, we wont bother you with actually being there to see it, we'll just take the money out of your bank account automagically and update your driving status accordingly. The old way, the police just have to sit behind you and watch you drive or have a speed camera aimed right at you. right? The only difference between the two is the technology behind the first one.
it used to be that free demos had good content to encourage you to buy the game... they'll just make the free ones worse and double pick your pocket for the rest.
I'm from Ayrshire in south west of Scotland. Ayrshire is a key port when transferring goods from the UK to Ireland. Just a year or two ago a safe house down the street was busted for running guns for the loyalists (Red hand of ulster, UVF, UDF etc) I thought the 'troubles' had stopped? 4000 people dead is no real exaggeration when you consider the amount of organised crime that was connected to the two factions. There is no bigger organized crime than Governments and corporations. Who donated money to the St patricks day parades? Who supports St Patricks day in general in America 'for their fellow irishman'? Have you any idea where that money really went? How many people died or have been seriously injured in the 'orange walks' that are not counted here? Or the 'old firm' football games in Glasgow between Rangers and Celtic?
As a interesting but not connected sidenote - We talk about Political farces. I also live less than 50 miles away from Lockerbie. Or at least what is left of Lockerbie.
We live directly under the planned flight path of that fateful flight. Perspective is something NONE of us Armchair philosophers know anything about.
I really have to say it though, what the TSA have done to restrict passengers further in this security theatre... is nothing more than the UVF and the IRA wanted to do in the UK -- disrupt communities and cause terror. They knew that they could not make any really big physical changes by bombing innocent people, but by bombing the mind and causing fear in the hearts of millions - you can change the world.
The terrorists have won, I'm just not so sure who the 'terrorists' are anymore.
Thousands of thousands of people die each day outside the US in wars that appear to be a 'minor' annoyance to the US. 4000 people died under the terror campaign by the IRA in Ireland - supported by most in the US.
Every year 15 million children die of hunger alone.
Perspective - it's a great thing. I also don't believe most democratic elections are won via terrorist attacks at home or abroad. And we still have not really made up our mind whether the US/UK invasion of Iraq was legal.
The 9/11 attacks were a tragedy. However by turning such a tragedy into an excuse to attack and govern another nation or not even disclose the full details on the attacks of that day then the event was not a 'minor annoyance' to the US at all - it was a convenient opportunity!
I was almost thinking Sims 3 might bring them back into quality...
Then I found out about them releasing a half finished empty game that micro transactioned you into the ground...
First sims game I actually bought - and it will be the last.
Spore was a great idea - that EA management managed to butcher because their 'user groups' felt were too intelligent for the masses.
Simcity Societies... what? !
I realised then, whatever was left of maxis was gone.
I dont really think the problem is that hard to find... to quote a kotaku comment:
"Somehow, this pushes EA back towards the top of my hated publishers list"
Outside of jock sports I believe people now vote with their wallets after being repeatedly raped over stupid release after stupid release watching their favourite brands/houses becoming assimilated. I'm also sure that whenever workers are being told they are being taken over by EA, those that dont jump out the window and commit suicide scurry home to update their resume. Hardly a great work ethic is it?
Slashdot Mirror
Can I add, some people might take harshly what I said regarding Windows XP - do we all really wear such rose tinted glasses to forget just how insecure XP was without the firewall prior to SP1? Or how the majority of 9x games didn't work? Or that most of XPs services were turned on by default? My point being - XP was no saint. It may have became one and to be fair on Vista up until Windows 8 it also really did give the Windows UI a much needed visual refresh. I can see the hit & miss, hit & miss theme - but it's not quite as clear cut like people are making out.
I do agree with everything most people including yourself are saying here, however one thing that does seem strange is that no 'real user' ever upgrades their OS anyway. Yes, a few enthusiasts might and yes there are a few select MS partners that will, however the majority of your average companies are still using XP and the average user uses whatever their piece of crap PC came with.
With that in mind, your theory makes little sense. Unless MS expects desktop PCs to be entirely replaced by laptops and tablets over the next 5 years then they are leaving millions of customers out in the cold. Maybe that part is true? And the first thing they decided to 'cut' was the backwards compatible user interface? I have a love hate relationship with the 'start' menu, I think it's old fashioned and it's not very productive compared to quicksilver or some other alternative launchers. But, if MS added the proper desktop, launcher and task menu back to Win8 I doubt many people including myself would be too fussed about Win8 - we'd just ignore the touch crap that was grafted on. Maybe Microsoft realize if that was the case most developers would also ignore Metro? I think Microsoft is trying to force customers to do something - I just don't think it's the same thing as you do.
I do believe MS are trying to push users in front of the touchscreen screen train regardless of if it's better or not on non touch devices. I believe this is wrong however I also believe that if it was optional then it would be ignored just like the media centre interface pretty much was. Microsoft is trying to force itself into relevance and floundering. If they were not doing this deliberately they would have deprecated the start menu and not actively taken the thing out. They are actively discouraging people from adding it back in and from all knowledge there is no way of re-enabling anything resembling what we had - where is your backwards compatible now? BUT, at it's core, the only thing keeping Microsofts monopoly together is backwards compatibility - should they say 'sorry but no software from before now will run' then people have no reason to stay and may even jump to OSX or *gasp* Linux.
I believe MS are betting the farm that the majority of new sales will be tablets and laptops, where touchscreen does make sense. I also believe they are trying to move forward to the future and drag their customers into it with them. Your theory is amazingly logical - IF - people upgraded on a semi regular basis, however they do not!
These first PC's that have been released without touch - imho are just like the 'vista compatible' PCs that came out around the period Vista was launched. Remember those? I believe there was a court-case to prove just how 'in'compatible they really were? From a strategic point of view - MS probably think of these poor fools as collateral damage and are willing to sacrifice the few for the long term. I used to hate Vista, but by many user accounts it was not actually that bad if the hardware was built for it. I also hate Win8, however I can also see why it might be more practical on a tablet, RT or laptop where it's easier to touch than to click. The problem with me - is that Microsoft have removed the choice of going with touch or not. They are trying to do both and it's simply a mess. Microsofts biggest mistake is to align desktop with mobile, a utopia that many developers have been peering into for a while. Microsoft took the plunge and I believe they will get burnt for it. Shock horror! Microsoft is trying something new!
I believe what MS is doing now is a very brave ballsy move to get a leg up over Apple. I think this will fail and they will revert in SP1 with a start menu for people that want it. By doing so however - expect in 5 years people will still be talking about how much backwards compatible bloatware still sloshes around the OS.
Can Microsoft make everyone happy? No. Can they screw up spectacularly and revert back to their compatible history? Yes. With the exception
oooooh... I actually had to look this word up to make sure I was accurate in my response (of course)
"Misogyny (pron.: /msdni/) is the hatred or dislike of women or girls. Misogyny can be manifested in numerous ways, including sexual discrimination, denigration of women, violence against women, and sexual objectification of women.[1][2] Misogyny has been characterised as a prominent feature of the mythologies of the ancient world as well as various religions. In addition, many influential Western philosophers have been described as misogynistic.[1] The male counterpart of misogyny is misandry, the hatred or dislike of men; the antonym of misogyny is philogyny, the love or fondness of women."
Is the AC a woman? Statistically that would be a no, however we'll pass on that issue for now. Am I angry at someone who fails to do the smallest bit of research - yes. I mean no harm against you personally, however if my retort was intended to be anti-American etc I'm sure I could have came up with some better examples. My research is for free and my sarcasm a bonus - I'll take your criticism into consideration and promptly pass it on to my assistants at /dev/null/.
on a more serious note Gruber, you are right, if I was actively debating something I had a horse in, or, really had to use one ounce of diplomacy then personal attacks should not be encouraged, I will need to remember such next time I'm debating for world peace.
been hiding under a rock much?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Abusive_Hosts_Blocking_List, considering his own name is HARDLY spattered over the internet as a karma whore / full of himself - I would be much more likely to to believe him than some trolling A/C that has what, committed translations from English UK to English US? Of course that is on the assumption that the poster is who he says he is but if you did actually google rather than being arrogant and full of yourself - then you would find that the guy has indeed been rather involved in anti spam lawsuits etc.
http://www.declude.com/Articles.asp?ID=262
OR
"My name is Andrew D Kirch, I'm one of the founders of the AHBL, and served in that capacity until 2008. I've been harassed, extorted, sued, and defamed by a Mr. Richard Morton Scoville, a resident of San Antonio, Texas for a period of 7 years. During that time I have suffered nearly irreparable damage to my character, and public reputation. I've been questioned by police, and my customers, and I have incurred over $10,000 in legal costs defending myself in court against this person."
So, AC - is your code contributions worth $10k to you?
OR
http://www.ahbl.org/legal/scoville/courtdocs
Let me just make another assumption here, You are American and don't know who "Tim" Berners-Lee is either? I actually couldn't care less if you do or don't know who he is - but my point being is you wouldn't do the extra effort to look it up.
not posted anon, because I've not been a pussy since 1994.
holy shit! ... stop using logic
I think everyone would agree the patent system is fubar. However going by the current patent system I strongly believe the result has been justifiable.
If I was in Apples position and saw such a big fat cow to milk ... I would set my lawyers on them too - who wouldn't?
end of story.
and the RRDs?
$2 billion is an awful lot to fix a screw up that should never have existed.
are they making a profit yet from R&D?
I bet some people within Microsoft are trying to forgot XBOX and cant.
and an awful lot of people are not technically savvy enough to accommodate any of your solutions..
So other relatives etc can see them that may a) not be in the picture or B) want to see their long distance relatives?
That's like me saying why does anyone want to see the inside of someones computer or 'insert other geeky shit here' it's not like we all don't have geeky shit so why do we need to share it with others?
"Or a few bucks on a ROM management app? "
So you stop piracy by encouraging piracy?
Not that I'm saying playing old games you played years ago and the methods of doing so is wrong... but most of them are still licensed after all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoGpLl-SUfk =D
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/PSP-PSP-Go-PSP2-PlayStation-3DS,news-7016.html
Failure.
Interesting insight into Sony! 9/10 times it's internal employees we speak to - store support, customer relations, network faults, cell outages etc.
Seriously there are some decent contact centres out there.. But for financial authority by regulation we can't use non sanctioned comms incase we give out account / bank info.
To be honest it suits me as I study my geology degree in-between. 9/10 times it's internal employees I speak to anyway =D
Phone drone? Come do my job for a day and see how you get on. Outbound centres give us a bad name, bit like saying your tech team must be based in India
Like the 15 minutes between calls that I'm doing now? In the current climate we are one of the few places hiring for new departments. Nobody is leaving and we just hired another 200.
To be truthful 95% of the monitoring done is seriously for training purposes.... the company spends a lot of time with an employee each month with both the TL and employee listening to a few calls and giving a pep talk as to what they thought went well and what did not..9/10 times the employee go away from the experience with a pat on the back tips to improve and the targets are discussed with how they feel they are progressing within the company.
If an employee gets a terrible customer satisfaction survey with no obvious reason (the customer was foreign and didn't understand the procedure as an example or just did not have the time right then) we have a full team of quality people calling them back to confirm. Those scores effect our bonus and if any are deemed unfair they are struck off.
Quality, adherence and average handling time is what our bonus / job expectation already gets weighted on. I'm sure though if they wanted rid of me they could go through all my calls / interactions and find x amount of faults that would be enough to get me out the door. The thing is - they don't actively look for problems My every keystroke is not logged... etc etc
I'm also one of the highest in the company for customer satisfaction (but my AHT is through the roof =D )
I may not have any expectation of having privacy - but I do have the expectation of being human.
I work for the worlds largest mobile telecom (that was a hint at its name not me suggesting grandeur) and due to laws in the UK I can not have a cellphone on the floor, by company policy I would be fired for using facebook, ebay, {insert any personal site here}. Once I used hotmail to assist a customer with their on-line account and a day later IT were round asking me what I was doing. All paper used during the day is shredded, bags aren't allowed on the desks etc etc The company can and does monitor me remotely, most of which is for customer satisfaction (when the call is recorded so is our desktop) They can tell when a call is released, how long you've been in aftercall/outboud/teabreak/comfort break etc for to the milisecond and if they are suspicious they can run traces on your turret to catch something you might be up to.
I have not been fired for reading http://www.theregister.co.uk/ during my shifts... Although I vaguely remember it being sanctioned once on the intranet 'useful external resources list' (for it suddenly to disappear) If they ask me then I'm using it as research. Our e-mail is monitored and yet we still send round the odd joke etc...
Personally I don't really mind the surveillance... you are right, under company time we shouldn't be slacking. What I do not like is the acceptance we have no privacy. You are inherently taking away from me something workers 20 years ago were privileged of, although I agree you should passively monitor employees like the governent mostly monitors roads... I *HIGHLY* discourage the idea of actively tracking an employee like you might a criminal.
Do also remember I'm from the country where there is 1 camera per 14 people monitoring you already.
I agree with you entirely!
I know, lets put a tracker on your car and watch when you go over the speed limit by a fraction or decide to be in a hurry during slippery conditions. Don't worry, we wont bother you with actually being there to see it, we'll just take the money out of your bank account automagically and update your driving status accordingly. The old way, the police just have to sit behind you and watch you drive or have a speed camera aimed right at you. right? The only difference between the two is the technology behind the first one.
Rodger :)
it used to be that free demos had good content to encourage you to buy the game... they'll just make the free ones worse and double pick your pocket for the rest.
then you are a kiddie fiddler...
and if you distribute it you are a drug dealer of course!
I was trying not to bite but I can't help myself.
I'm from Ayrshire in south west of Scotland. Ayrshire is a key port when transferring goods from the UK to Ireland. Just a year or two ago a safe house down the street was busted for running guns for the loyalists (Red hand of ulster, UVF, UDF etc) I thought the 'troubles' had stopped? 4000 people dead is no real exaggeration when you consider the amount of organised crime that was connected to the two factions. There is no bigger organized crime than Governments and corporations. Who donated money to the St patricks day parades? Who supports St Patricks day in general in America 'for their fellow irishman'? Have you any idea where that money really went? How many people died or have been seriously injured in the 'orange walks' that are not counted here? Or the 'old firm' football games in Glasgow between Rangers and Celtic?
The troubles have ended?
http://www.soccer365.com/scottish_news/story_27509002359.php
As a interesting but not connected sidenote - We talk about Political farces. I also live less than 50 miles away from Lockerbie. Or at least what is left of Lockerbie.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Flight_103
We live directly under the planned flight path of that fateful flight. Perspective is something NONE of us Armchair philosophers know anything about.
I really have to say it though, what the TSA have done to restrict passengers further in this security theatre... is nothing more than the UVF and the IRA wanted to do in the UK -- disrupt communities and cause terror. They knew that they could not make any really big physical changes by bombing innocent people, but by bombing the mind and causing fear in the hearts of millions - you can change the world.
The terrorists have won, I'm just not so sure who the 'terrorists' are anymore.
Thousands of thousands of people die each day outside the US in wars that appear to be a 'minor' annoyance to the US. 4000 people died under the terror campaign by the IRA in Ireland - supported by most in the US.
Every year 15 million children die of hunger alone.
Perspective - it's a great thing. I also don't believe most democratic elections are won via terrorist attacks at home or abroad. And we still have not really made up our mind whether the US/UK invasion of Iraq was legal.
The 9/11 attacks were a tragedy. However by turning such a tragedy into an excuse to attack and govern another nation or not even disclose the full details on the attacks of that day then the event was not a 'minor annoyance' to the US at all - it was a convenient opportunity!
so true....
I was almost thinking Sims 3 might bring them back into quality...
Then I found out about them releasing a half finished empty game that micro transactioned you into the ground...
First sims game I actually bought - and it will be the last.
Spore was a great idea - that EA management managed to butcher because their 'user groups' felt were too intelligent for the masses.
Simcity Societies ... what? !
I realised then, whatever was left of maxis was gone.
I dont really think the problem is that hard to find... to quote a kotaku comment:
"Somehow, this pushes EA back towards the top of my hated publishers list"
Outside of jock sports I believe people now vote with their wallets after being repeatedly raped over stupid release after stupid release watching their favourite brands/houses becoming assimilated. I'm also sure that whenever workers are being told they are being taken over by EA, those that dont jump out the window and commit suicide scurry home to update their resume. Hardly a great work ethic is it?