I'm sure all of those 100000 pirates just want to test the game before buying.
I haven't seen this mentioned yet, so I figured it was worth adding to the discussion. I think connections to the server is a fairly poor metric for determining pirated copies in this particular case. I could imagine the following scenario happening quite easily for someone who pirated the game:
1. Download a copy of the game to try out.
2. Determine you like the game and purchase a legitimate copy.
3. Since the game already works in every important capacity, don't bother uninstalling the downloaded copy and installing the new boxed copy.
4. Continue to be shown as an illegitimate user, even though you have the game sitting on the shelf and have spent your $50+.
VII was my favorite, and I actually liked X (but not really X-2). I tried to play IX a long, long time ago, and couldn't get more than a couple of hours into the game. Maybe it just started too slow or something, but it just never seemed to be able to hook my interest. Several friends of mine, however, swear it is better than VII in their opinions.
Considering that the long-awaited PC version was just released a few days ago and people who didn't have access to XBox Live are just starting to play it, this game isn't exactly old news to some people even though it may be to you.
I had to look it up on Wikipedia, as I had never heard of the game before (I refuse to own or play an Xbox, which may have something to do with it). I can't see what all the hype is about, though. It looks like a fairly standard Mario-clone that copies the time reversal mechanic from Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. The graphics aren't particularly good, I've seen better looking Flash games. Is there something I'm missing that should make me even care that it exists, let alone that I might be able to mod it?
Incredibly annoying, and it doesn't just affect tooltips. Switching windows (alt+tabbing, clicking a program on the task bar, or just clicking on a program window) will often bring the wrong window to the front, etc. Their resolutions are very disruptive as well.
It's been a month or two since I've done anything significant with Blender, so it's possible that it has changed significantly since then, but at the time it was atrocious and unintuitive at best, and down right unusable at times, compared to the likes of Maya. Granted, it's not nearly as bad as Milkshape, but it still got in the way and just plain didn't provide some of the functionality that is commonly needed in the workflow I've become accustomed to as well as that which is used by my artists.
The only useful aspect in which I would consider it to be superior to other 3D packages is in its plugin/scripting system. I was able to toss together a quick Python importer/exporter in a night's worth of coding, whereas the API for most other packages is much less friendly.
I can't speak for other places, but where I live we have pretty terrible options for "high speed" internet access.
The main source, if you happen to be located near the downtown area, is the cable company, who offers UP TO 2Mbps. Sadly, where I live, they don't provide service, so I'm stuck with DSL from the phone company with a maximum down speed of 512 Kbps and a mere quarter of that up.
There's another company starting up that claims to be planning to offer up to 12Mbps connections over DSL fairly soon in the area. I'll believe it when I see it, of course. Likely, if they ever do come into existence, they won't service my area anyway.
>>i'm not playing $20 for a movie i dont know is worth it yet. and i have no idea where the closest rental place is
Netflix and Blockbuster online have all the movies you can watch for about $20 month. You only have to walk to the mailbox.
You can find trailers and movie reviews online as well to help you decide how to spend your money.
Laziness is kind of a lame excuse.
That would be a nice alternative, except for one problem. I'm not sure about the person you were replying to, but I personally rarely find one or two movies a year worth watching, so I'd end up spending $60-$120 per movie with your method.
As for the original discussion, I personally download whatever catches my fancy, and if it's good I'll either buy it or support the artists as directly as possible.
A second third are people who truly honestly have rich, full lives without connectivity;
As much as I wish it were the case, I'd hardly call my life rich nor full. It just so happens that I'm pretty much equally as bored with internet access at home as I am without.
I don't really fit into your groupings, but I'll share my situation.
Until about a year ago, I had a high speed internet from one provider or another, depending on my location. Money isn't an issue, and I'm well versed in computers and the internet. A long time ago I even helped a cable company start setting up their cable internet system.
For the last year or so, however, the internet has pretty much lost most of its appeal to me. I still read slashdot and such at work, but that's about it. Beyond that, I just don't find it worth having. There's so little useful information, and anything I do happen to need to look up or read about I can do while I'm at work all day.
I suppose I'm a rather small minority when it comes to this, though.
This idea that WoW gets boring (never played it myself) intrigues me. On one hand you have people are have only barely broken an addiction to the game. And on the other people who complain that it gets boring. It seems like what you're really asking for is a game that make true addicts out of just about every player. Is that what you really want?
Here's my take on it, as a former player.
It's not so much boring as monotonous and repetitive. Those, of course, are boring in themselves, which lead to the ultimate conclusion of boredom. The entire game consists basically of about 4 different quests that are replicated and changed slightly. The problem is that there's so little to do in the game. You can kill monsters, you can go to an instance to kill bigger monsters, you can take quests to kill certain kinds of monsters, and you can gather materials to make the one or two useful items for each profession.
For as long as I played, people kept recommending leveling up a different class, as that supposedly relieved the boredom. It didn't, for me at least. Even with a different class, you're still doing essentially the same quests in the same areas killing the same monsters. The only real difference is what spells and abilities are tied to those two or three buttons you're pressing.
Player vs. player (PvP) wise, this game is horrible. It basically comes down to who has the better equipment. There's little to no skill involved, and even if you're "good" at it, someone with good enough equipment will still win against you.
The end game is raiding. Guess what that means? Going into an instance and killing bigger monsters with a few more people than the non-raid instances.
Anyway, that's what I got from the game. I played from a few months after release up until about 6 months ago. I had quit a few times already out of boredom, but I came back to help a couple my friends from work who play with some things a couple of times.
You know, that would almost be a valid comparison, if copyright infringement placed anyone's lives in danger or actually removed something from their possession.
I agree completely. Every game I've tried that both a Linux and windows version on this computer has performed better in Linux than in windows. Perhaps I just have a fluke hardware setup that prefers Linux (nVidia card). The UT2004 benchmark scores 5-10 points higher in Linux. It runs smoother and the FPS report shows it pushing 120 FPS average where in windows with the same setup, same map, same bots, etc. I get around 80.
Neverwinter Nights, Return to Castle Wolfenstein and a few others all run more smoothly and faster in Linux. I don't see the problem.
Personally, my next game (I'm an indy developer) is going to be designed for Linux first and then ported to windows, since I can use OpenGL and OpenAL and such in windows already. It will mostly be a matter of recoding a couple classes and it's ready to go. I expect it shouldn't take more than a day or two of coding and tweaking to get it right.
Well, I can remember three times within a few months that I had to reactivate. First, I installed a new motherboard and processor, so that one should be obvious. Next, I installed another gig of RAM and a gigabit network card (new MAC address). Then I replaced my IDE hard drives with larger SATA ones. This all happened within about a 6 month period.
Well, I'm currently running a pirated copy of XP Pro on my gaming/Windows development computer. I actually own a legal license of XP Pro, but I don't use it. I tend to upgrade that computer fairly regularly, and the activation is enough of a hassle to prevent me from using it altogether. I haven't actually installed any security updates in months. The combination of safe browsing habits and my Linux firewall/router seem to prevent most of the problems people tend to have anyway.
If they'd get rid of the requirement to activate for installing new hardware, or at least make it work online rather than having to call and sit through their automated pile of shit, I'd use the legal license in an instant.
..to install spyware, adware, dialers and computer viruses on unsuspecting PC users.
I think I'd be unsuspecting too if some program tried to install a virus on me.
Considering that the Windows platform has never had the ability to parallel compute in the past, it leaves great potential to the company's operating system development.
This isn't entirely accurate. Server 2003 supports clustering, and if I remember correctly it even has a toolkit that allows you to add XP Pro systems to a cluster started by the Server 2003 machine. A friend of mine created a small cluster as part of one of his courses last year.
Slashdot Mirror
I haven't seen this mentioned yet, so I figured it was worth adding to the discussion. I think connections to the server is a fairly poor metric for determining pirated copies in this particular case. I could imagine the following scenario happening quite easily for someone who pirated the game:
1. Download a copy of the game to try out.
2. Determine you like the game and purchase a legitimate copy.
3. Since the game already works in every important capacity, don't bother uninstalling the downloaded copy and installing the new boxed copy.
4. Continue to be shown as an illegitimate user, even though you have the game sitting on the shelf and have spent your $50+.
Is this in the same sense that businesses with their own parking lots help commit car jacking?
VII was my favorite, and I actually liked X (but not really X-2). I tried to play IX a long, long time ago, and couldn't get more than a couple of hours into the game. Maybe it just started too slow or something, but it just never seemed to be able to hook my interest. Several friends of mine, however, swear it is better than VII in their opinions.
I'm a bit worried about this, but I'm hoping it's just because the demo is short.
It's a shame I'm boycotting Square-Enix over the whole Star Ocean/PS3 thing.
But there's no peanut butter in my... wait a minute!
I had to look it up on Wikipedia, as I had never heard of the game before (I refuse to own or play an Xbox, which may have something to do with it). I can't see what all the hype is about, though. It looks like a fairly standard Mario-clone that copies the time reversal mechanic from Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. The graphics aren't particularly good, I've seen better looking Flash games. Is there something I'm missing that should make me even care that it exists, let alone that I might be able to mod it?
Dictionary attack + Levenshtein distance?
How about this one: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/912650
Incredibly annoying, and it doesn't just affect tooltips. Switching windows (alt+tabbing, clicking a program on the task bar, or just clicking on a program window) will often bring the wrong window to the front, etc. Their resolutions are very disruptive as well.
It's been a month or two since I've done anything significant with Blender, so it's possible that it has changed significantly since then, but at the time it was atrocious and unintuitive at best, and down right unusable at times, compared to the likes of Maya. Granted, it's not nearly as bad as Milkshape, but it still got in the way and just plain didn't provide some of the functionality that is commonly needed in the workflow I've become accustomed to as well as that which is used by my artists.
The only useful aspect in which I would consider it to be superior to other 3D packages is in its plugin/scripting system. I was able to toss together a quick Python importer/exporter in a night's worth of coding, whereas the API for most other packages is much less friendly.
I can't speak for other places, but where I live we have pretty terrible options for "high speed" internet access.
The main source, if you happen to be located near the downtown area, is the cable company, who offers UP TO 2Mbps. Sadly, where I live, they don't provide service, so I'm stuck with DSL from the phone company with a maximum down speed of 512 Kbps and a mere quarter of that up.
There's another company starting up that claims to be planning to offer up to 12Mbps connections over DSL fairly soon in the area. I'll believe it when I see it, of course. Likely, if they ever do come into existence, they won't service my area anyway.
That would be a nice alternative, except for one problem. I'm not sure about the person you were replying to, but I personally rarely find one or two movies a year worth watching, so I'd end up spending $60-$120 per movie with your method.
As for the original discussion, I personally download whatever catches my fancy, and if it's good I'll either buy it or support the artists as directly as possible.
A second third are people who truly honestly have rich, full lives without connectivity;
As much as I wish it were the case, I'd hardly call my life rich nor full. It just so happens that I'm pretty much equally as bored with internet access at home as I am without.
I don't really fit into your groupings, but I'll share my situation.
Until about a year ago, I had a high speed internet from one provider or another, depending on my location. Money isn't an issue, and I'm well versed in computers and the internet. A long time ago I even helped a cable company start setting up their cable internet system.
For the last year or so, however, the internet has pretty much lost most of its appeal to me. I still read slashdot and such at work, but that's about it. Beyond that, I just don't find it worth having. There's so little useful information, and anything I do happen to need to look up or read about I can do while I'm at work all day.
I suppose I'm a rather small minority when it comes to this, though.
Here's my take on it, as a former player.
It's not so much boring as monotonous and repetitive. Those, of course, are boring in themselves, which lead to the ultimate conclusion of boredom. The entire game consists basically of about 4 different quests that are replicated and changed slightly. The problem is that there's so little to do in the game. You can kill monsters, you can go to an instance to kill bigger monsters, you can take quests to kill certain kinds of monsters, and you can gather materials to make the one or two useful items for each profession.
For as long as I played, people kept recommending leveling up a different class, as that supposedly relieved the boredom. It didn't, for me at least. Even with a different class, you're still doing essentially the same quests in the same areas killing the same monsters. The only real difference is what spells and abilities are tied to those two or three buttons you're pressing.
Player vs. player (PvP) wise, this game is horrible. It basically comes down to who has the better equipment. There's little to no skill involved, and even if you're "good" at it, someone with good enough equipment will still win against you.
The end game is raiding. Guess what that means? Going into an instance and killing bigger monsters with a few more people than the non-raid instances.
Anyway, that's what I got from the game. I played from a few months after release up until about 6 months ago. I had quit a few times already out of boredom, but I came back to help a couple my friends from work who play with some things a couple of times.
You know, that would almost be a valid comparison, if copyright infringement placed anyone's lives in danger or actually removed something from their possession.
Worked fine for me. Firefox 1.0, Fedora Core 3, KDE. No adblock installed, so you may be right.
I don't usually comment very often, but when I do, I make them good. Here's one from my most recent project. It's from one of the tree classes.
// Hahaha, take that stupid kids!
delete m_pChildren[i];
And, if you shorten it down, you get the P4 DCEEHT (pronounced "deceit").
I agree completely. Every game I've tried that both a Linux and windows version on this computer has performed better in Linux than in windows. Perhaps I just have a fluke hardware setup that prefers Linux (nVidia card). The UT2004 benchmark scores 5-10 points higher in Linux. It runs smoother and the FPS report shows it pushing 120 FPS average where in windows with the same setup, same map, same bots, etc. I get around 80. Neverwinter Nights, Return to Castle Wolfenstein and a few others all run more smoothly and faster in Linux. I don't see the problem. Personally, my next game (I'm an indy developer) is going to be designed for Linux first and then ported to windows, since I can use OpenGL and OpenAL and such in windows already. It will mostly be a matter of recoding a couple classes and it's ready to go. I expect it shouldn't take more than a day or two of coding and tweaking to get it right.
Warning: Clicking this link will crash your Windows box.
Hardly. I let it open about 200 windows, then closed them all except the window containing slashdot. Didn't even slow my system down.
Well, I can remember three times within a few months that I had to reactivate. First, I installed a new motherboard and processor, so that one should be obvious. Next, I installed another gig of RAM and a gigabit network card (new MAC address). Then I replaced my IDE hard drives with larger SATA ones. This all happened within about a 6 month period.
Well, I'm currently running a pirated copy of XP Pro on my gaming/Windows development computer. I actually own a legal license of XP Pro, but I don't use it. I tend to upgrade that computer fairly regularly, and the activation is enough of a hassle to prevent me from using it altogether. I haven't actually installed any security updates in months. The combination of safe browsing habits and my Linux firewall/router seem to prevent most of the problems people tend to have anyway.
If they'd get rid of the requirement to activate for installing new hardware, or at least make it work online rather than having to call and sit through their automated pile of shit, I'd use the legal license in an instant.
3) Or maybe he's just saying, "The important thing is I didn't get my comeuppance, and I never will."
..to install spyware, adware, dialers and computer viruses on unsuspecting PC users. I think I'd be unsuspecting too if some program tried to install a virus on me.
Considering that the Windows platform has never had the ability to parallel compute in the past, it leaves great potential to the company's operating system development.
This isn't entirely accurate. Server 2003 supports clustering, and if I remember correctly it even has a toolkit that allows you to add XP Pro systems to a cluster started by the Server 2003 machine. A friend of mine created a small cluster as part of one of his courses last year.