Interesting, I've never seen any form of contract in any console game except Phantasy Star Online and that was just the online play terms of use. Grabbed the box of Metroid Prime 3 Corruption at random, the manual doesn't mention the word license at all, only says that using the game with illegal hardware voids the warranty and that the game is subject to copyright. Even tells you "thank you for buying this disc". Next sample, Megaman X for the SNES. No license again, only a copyright notice and the warranty again. Where exactly did you see anything like an EULA?
Point 2 isn't really that different, if your connection has some absurd per MB charge (I've seen dorm connections that cost 7 cents per MB, the residents pooled their money to afford their warez downloads) that still doesn't make it legal, neither does getting a 128kb/sec MP3 file instead of PCM audio.
They said they do it to keep the service alive. The logic is sound, if all the good games were available already you'd go through, download them and then forget about the service, if new games keep popping up you'll at least have a reason to look at it again.
What license? Did your games come with an EULA or something? Mine didn't, just a notice that the data on the cart is covered by copyrights and trademarks, probably some patents too. This whole EULA bullshit may have made people think of software as licenses but without an EULA you just bought a physical copy you can use, nothing more, nothing less.
(you've got thousands of console games in original? Wow, that's a lot of money. Don't go around expecting everyone to have that, though)
Most people didn't buy all the games or consoles they might have wanted to play and getting them legally now isn't easy or cheap, on fleamarkets you'll easily pay the same for a game as you would for a VC download but the physical cart can end up defective. I got ROMs on the Wii for consoles I haven't even seen in stores. Pretty much anything besides SNES or Gameboy games is impossible to find now (granted, the Gameboy isn't available on the Wii yet). While it's not great if you have everything already the vast majority of people don't have everything.
However there's no way they could sell as many ROMs at 1$ a pop as Apple can sell songs at 1$ a pop, a game lasts much longer than a song and you only need a handful of them unfinished. Also the number of games that will sell well is much smaller than the number of songs that will sell well. I'd say every artist releases an album about as often as a game company releases a game, there's both more music artists and dozens of songs per album.
If every game was 1$ you'd just buy one of those 20$ cards and can buy pretty much everything you care about for that, no?
I only know the continental prices but a BigMac is 3 Euros, a Whopper 4, IIRC. A SNES game is 8. Of course the really cheap hamburgers are 1 Euro a piece but those are so tiny you have to eat two. Still, VC games are less of a ripoff than retail games which cost 10 Euros more than a 1:1 conversion (50$ -> 60€, 20$->30€,...) and importing, including shipping and duty/taxes, still ends up cheaper than a game sold at retail. Even more if the game is budget priced in the US since those usually end up being priced at the full 60€ here anyway.
No. Godwin's law does not make any judgements about the analogy, it only states that the longer a conversation grows the more likely a Nazi analogy becomes. The whole "thread over" thing is a corollary, not Godwin's law itself.
Depends on what there is to do in a game. StarCraft has no grind and nowhere near the content for 100+ hours but it's still played because it's not played for the content but the competition, the content is just a mean to that end. Content and grind aren't the only things a player can be busy with. Even MMOs use other means, social interaction, for example. Of course that won't work for the me-centered gamer who just wants to get to the max level and never even tries allying with other players but you don't need to sell those people an MMO anyway.
Under the condition that the subject of the test must not be coerced or required to take the test, I agree. That would include any form of explicit or implicit requirement, e.g. for employment the employer would not be allowed to require or encourage DNA tests (by preferring candidates who subject themselves to the test).
And if you want universal health care why not universal lawyers.
Don't they have those in the US already? On TV among the rights that get read one is always that you have the right to a defender and if you cannot afford one you will be assigned one by the court.
The problem is that often that "Macs are cheaper" claim is based on comparing the Mac to a PC that has every single spec at least as good as the Mac (which isn't always possible so some are bigger). Of course noone really needs every last spec at exactly that level. If you turned this comparison around, took a PC and looked for the cheapest Mac that reaches or exceeds that PC in every spec you'll end up with a much more expensive Mac (because it's easy to have a single spec in a PC that's only reached by a top-end Mac). This is pretty much the result of quantization errors.
You seem pretty fixated on Dell, there are literally hundreds of other stores out there that offer complete PCs and you can choose one you really want or need instead of the closest step. E.g. my sister needed a cheap PC that can do text processing and web browsing, she got a 300€ system that does what she needs. You should compare systems to your requirements, not other systems.
If you compare requirements and none of the requirements is "must be a Mac" then you'll often end up cheaper with a PC because often you'll have to go to the next bigger line of Macs if you want a specific feature not available in the lower Macs.
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Interesting, I've never seen any form of contract in any console game except Phantasy Star Online and that was just the online play terms of use. Grabbed the box of Metroid Prime 3 Corruption at random, the manual doesn't mention the word license at all, only says that using the game with illegal hardware voids the warranty and that the game is subject to copyright. Even tells you "thank you for buying this disc". Next sample, Megaman X for the SNES. No license again, only a copyright notice and the warranty again. Where exactly did you see anything like an EULA?
Point 2 isn't really that different, if your connection has some absurd per MB charge (I've seen dorm connections that cost 7 cents per MB, the residents pooled their money to afford their warez downloads) that still doesn't make it legal, neither does getting a 128kb/sec MP3 file instead of PCM audio.
Yep, this would fall under the copying and broadcast clauses instead.
They said they do it to keep the service alive. The logic is sound, if all the good games were available already you'd go through, download them and then forget about the service, if new games keep popping up you'll at least have a reason to look at it again.
What license? Did your games come with an EULA or something? Mine didn't, just a notice that the data on the cart is covered by copyrights and trademarks, probably some patents too. This whole EULA bullshit may have made people think of software as licenses but without an EULA you just bought a physical copy you can use, nothing more, nothing less.
(you've got thousands of console games in original? Wow, that's a lot of money. Don't go around expecting everyone to have that, though)
Most people didn't buy all the games or consoles they might have wanted to play and getting them legally now isn't easy or cheap, on fleamarkets you'll easily pay the same for a game as you would for a VC download but the physical cart can end up defective. I got ROMs on the Wii for consoles I haven't even seen in stores. Pretty much anything besides SNES or Gameboy games is impossible to find now (granted, the Gameboy isn't available on the Wii yet). While it's not great if you have everything already the vast majority of people don't have everything.
However there's no way they could sell as many ROMs at 1$ a pop as Apple can sell songs at 1$ a pop, a game lasts much longer than a song and you only need a handful of them unfinished. Also the number of games that will sell well is much smaller than the number of songs that will sell well. I'd say every artist releases an album about as often as a game company releases a game, there's both more music artists and dozens of songs per album.
If every game was 1$ you'd just buy one of those 20$ cards and can buy pretty much everything you care about for that, no?
I only know the continental prices but a BigMac is 3 Euros, a Whopper 4, IIRC. A SNES game is 8. Of course the really cheap hamburgers are 1 Euro a piece but those are so tiny you have to eat two. Still, VC games are less of a ripoff than retail games which cost 10 Euros more than a 1:1 conversion (50$ -> 60€, 20$->30€, ...) and importing, including shipping and duty/taxes, still ends up cheaper than a game sold at retail. Even more if the game is budget priced in the US since those usually end up being priced at the full 60€ here anyway.
No. Godwin's law does not make any judgements about the analogy, it only states that the longer a conversation grows the more likely a Nazi analogy becomes. The whole "thread over" thing is a corollary, not Godwin's law itself.
I'd say they should be slammed with something large (including jailtime for the people at fault) for the forgery thing.
No way. You've seen what they've done with all their other series?
GTA Underground
GTA Street
GTA 'Hood Edition
etc.
Depends on what there is to do in a game. StarCraft has no grind and nowhere near the content for 100+ hours but it's still played because it's not played for the content but the competition, the content is just a mean to that end. Content and grind aren't the only things a player can be busy with. Even MMOs use other means, social interaction, for example. Of course that won't work for the me-centered gamer who just wants to get to the max level and never even tries allying with other players but you don't need to sell those people an MMO anyway.
Meh, "football". The football videogame market is contested with EA's FIFA fighting against Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer.
I like how you try to obscure your email address when there's a mailto: link right next to your username...
If Blizzard were to announce a completely new game, don't you think people would still buy it in droves because it's Blizzard?
And you base this all on your conjecture?
Under the condition that the subject of the test must not be coerced or required to take the test, I agree. That would include any form of explicit or implicit requirement, e.g. for employment the employer would not be allowed to require or encourage DNA tests (by preferring candidates who subject themselves to the test).
Why not have the quests reappear if the village is taken back and rebuilt? Gives people some incentive to capture cities.
You plead insanity when you face jailtime, NOT when you're trying to keep your license to practice law!
Uh-oh, better evacuate the court room, those bosses are load bearing!
And if you want universal health care why not universal lawyers.
Don't they have those in the US already? On TV among the rights that get read one is always that you have the right to a defender and if you cannot afford one you will be assigned one by the court.
Should've said copyright infringement to avoid starting the whole debate about what to call it.
It's not even throttling, it's spoofing (identity fraud?).
The problem is that often that "Macs are cheaper" claim is based on comparing the Mac to a PC that has every single spec at least as good as the Mac (which isn't always possible so some are bigger). Of course noone really needs every last spec at exactly that level. If you turned this comparison around, took a PC and looked for the cheapest Mac that reaches or exceeds that PC in every spec you'll end up with a much more expensive Mac (because it's easy to have a single spec in a PC that's only reached by a top-end Mac). This is pretty much the result of quantization errors.
You seem pretty fixated on Dell, there are literally hundreds of other stores out there that offer complete PCs and you can choose one you really want or need instead of the closest step. E.g. my sister needed a cheap PC that can do text processing and web browsing, she got a 300€ system that does what she needs. You should compare systems to your requirements, not other systems.
If you compare requirements and none of the requirements is "must be a Mac" then you'll often end up cheaper with a PC because often you'll have to go to the next bigger line of Macs if you want a specific feature not available in the lower Macs.
They could just share a plot summary. Sharing data verbatim that you could not reproduce manually is not a human trait.
Splitting a skull is just moving atoms. Moving atoms is a perfectly normal process so why should we object to smashing other people's heads?