Look, why is this even a debate? I'm speechless. Is it because of the whole "gay" issue? So WHAT. It is THEIR servers, THEIR rules, and THEIR property. Nobody is requiring you to buy WoW and pay $15 a month to play online. Blizzard makes the rules within WoW, NOT you. You don't like it, discuss it with them. If I recall, you agreed to a EULA.
I am constantly amazed by these continuous "non-news" stories.
Knowledge doesn't disprove a God. I don't know why so many people have this misconception. Even if you come to the end of all knowledge, and you know absolutely everything possible, all that data and facts you have gathered can be interpreted in different ways. (notice keyword "possible...") No matter how much data we gather, we can't verify how the universe began, data is just that - numbers, which must be INTERPRETED, and each theory's proponents can interpret this data just as dogmatically, ignorantly, and stupidly as the other. Knowledge does not disprove God, knowledge does not disprove evolution. The reason this misconception exists is because so many stupid evolutionists and so many stupid ID-ists/creationists try to get hung up on this "do-know/do-not-know" idea when in fact it really has no bearing at all on the ID/Evolution debate.
This should be a science post, not a deliberate inflammatory remark meant to spur on yet another ID/Evolution debate. Why on earth would knowing how something works be the doom of ID? Why is it a boost to evolution? Its a great leap in science. The end. Its great that we know it - but it has nothing to do with the origins of life.
And I thought the whole bee thing had been put to rest years ago, due to the fact that it was based on a faulty argument/equations, etc.]
So stop reinforcing the ancient belief that somehow science and God can't go together. The two reinforce one another, depending on your worldview. Everyone has the same sets of data to work with. How you interpret is different.
An atheistic scientist is more likely to discard data not conducive to his worldview, and a creationist/ID scientist is likely to do the same. You filter what you see through what you believe.
And like the poster mentioned, Creationists/ID proponents need to stop jumping the gun and attacking scientists any time they admit that they don't know something, saying that that disproves evolution in some stupid way. They are simply mature and honest enough to admit that they don't know anything, and aren't going to side with some of the egotistical nutheads running around in the ID crowd. You need to stop alienating YOURSELVES from science, because once you start denying FACT, you start to look like a moronic asshole.
Evolutionists need to stop making stupid, petty, baseless attacks like this post and focus on scientific debate, and some of them, yes, need to admit they DON'T know everything, and stop trying to say that any scientific discovery somehow brings an end to ID/Creationism theory. Most of what I wrote above for ID/Creationists, too. Start basing your arguments in fact, rather than trying to use the religious aspects of ID to disprove it.
All data we gather can be used to prove either theory. I'm sorry if you don't like it, but its true. The same data you use to promote Creationism can be used to promote evolutionism, and vice versa. The problems come in how you interpret that data, and most times it is done in a nonsensical way. Stop acting, BOTH of you, like your side is the all-knowing saint that has it perfectly right, and using idiotic flames and 1,000 rephrasements of "You are wrong and stupid" as your main proof that the other side is wrong. There are lots of things we can't understand or explain, just fess up to it and admit it and move on with your life.
Both sides need to stop bringing up age old arguments that have long been put to rest and actually learn about the opposing theories points before engaging in any debate. I'm sick and tired of ID proponents bringing up this bee argument, and I'm sick and tired of evolutionists bringing up the faked fetus photos that still, for some reason, exist in textbooks today.
Grow up. I'm not kidding. Research before you go off and blow shit out your ass. Both sides have the same kinds of egotistical nutheads that have no idea what they are talking about running their mouths off making both sides of the debate look like complete asswipes.
Because nobody buys them. How many of you went out and bought Viewtiful Joe, or Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, or Project Snowblind, or? Both of them got some great reviews, but were poor sellers (with the exception of viewtiful joe, although that took well over a year for the word to get out about that....but it still pales in comparison with "sequels."
If you guys want original games, tell the devs that with your dollar. Buy original games, give them a whirl. Next time you are at the store, instead of picking up Doom IV or Quake V, pick up a title that you know nothing about other than what is on the back, and give it a try.
Games cost a LOT of money to make, and consumers are telling companies they don't want them to be original. It's too risky to make an original game with such high development costs, when consumers don't buy them.
And yes, I'm as guilty as the rest of the crowd. When I see a sequel to anything that I like, I'm all for it, and can't wait to get my hands on it. COD2, TES4, Twilight Princess, etc.
As long as only old characters and franchises keep making devs money, they are going to keep using them.
I've never even played this game before, and I never even knew there was an Asheron's Call 2 until I heard the first report of the servers being shut down awhile back on/.
And yet I still feel a kind of sadness reading about it...an emotional sadness. Its seriously like some part of me was lost - an entire world just killed like that....maybe I'm a good candidate for Jedi Training:D
"I feel a great disturbance in the Force. As if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced."
I think that actually applies to me. Anybody else in this kind of situation? It's just a weird feeling knowing that an entire world (just a digital fake world, but still...) is gone, and just terminated in a split second, you know what I mean?
I noticed some of you talking about "there has to be a line...14? 15?" My question to you is, why DOES there need to be a line at all? The government needs to get the hell out of our lives and stop trying to tell parents how to raise their kids. You stupid authoritarians want to "protect" anyone and everyone and cite a bunch of stupid exceptions to the rule as the reasons why this needs to happen. Stop trying to ruin it for other parents/kids just because one parent/kid couldn't handle responsiblity themselves. In short: STOP MANDATING RESPONSIBILITY.
Another guy mentioned a friends that grew up an extremely sheltered life and spent 10 years in jail for drug trafficing. Protecting your kid like that is just going to piss them off and they are going to wait to do all the stuff you told them not to, without any kinds of restraints and a lot less knowledge about it. They aren't just going to TRY alcohol - they are going to binge on it as a rebellion act. I have a friend in college now who that happened to - drugs, alcohol, smoking, sex, etc. Bright future, now he is screwing himself completely over.
BTW I am from indiana and conservative, but have had it with our stupid bullshit authoritarian stance on everything. I'm a conservative libertarian if you will, and electing Bitch Daniels was the worst mistake this state ever made.
There is a reason human children develop so slowly compared to all other animals. Or at least, a theoreticized reason. Children need that time to grow social skills, they need that time to be dependent on another person to learn how to form social bonds. Animals don't need this, and in fact it would be horribly dangerous for them to develop as slowly as we do. We basically need it to learn human language and how to function in a family culture. An interesting thing I read recently about language:
1. Place the pencil in your hand and tap it on the table. Start with a slow tapping rate and gradually increase the rate, counting the number of taps that you can distinctly hear in one second. Ready? Start!
2. What was the maximum tap rate?
3. Now simply talk slowly for a few seconds and try to remember what you said. Keep track of the elapsed time and write down the words that you said. Try talking fast. Calculate the number of sounds (roughly the letters of the alphabet) that you uttered (a graceless but useful word) in one second.
What you'll discover is that it's almost impossible even to differentiate and count more than seven or so taps per second. In fact, when sounds are presented at a rate that exceeds fifteen per second, they merge into a continuous buzz. However, you can easily differentiate and identify more than ten speech sounds per second when you talk slowly. If you talk rapidly, the maximum rate at which speech sounds can be produced and comprehended is about twenty-five to thirty sounds per second.
I think language has a much more massive role in explaining humans, who we are, and why we are so developmentally different from the animal world. This is but one of the examples. Animals haven't ever even shown the inclination to need to speak in an actual language - not even chimps. Yes, there is sign language, etc, but that is nothing more than a response-stimuli sort of deal. They are able to learn the symbol and use to to ask for certain things - but animals have never strung those simple words/phrases together on their own to convey anything deeper. I believe there have been some cases where chimps were able to express themselves using very raw emotions - such as a symbol for angry, or happy. But nothing complex, no matter how hard we try.
Sorry, that was quite a bit off topic:D but its just something that sprung to mind while I was reading this. I think scientists need to be focusing more on language to understand why we are so different - it seems to be the key linking factor in all our differences.
And like other people have said - these were adult chimps compared to very young human children, children who have also been taught to perform essentially redundant or useless tasks, and to do them without question because "mommy said so."
FF7 and others were great to be sure, but with the 3D era I feel like they have basically sacrificed the story in favor of juicy 3D graphics. FF has steadily degenerated until we get crap like FF:Tactics and FF:Crystal Chronicles - games that could be retitled under any series and had absolutely no story. "Umm...we can only think of a lame-ass story this time, so lets stick judges in to spice up the battle." Crystal Chronicles was worse. Bad evil fog that you have to save your town from once a year. No ending. Utterly boring. Probably the worse $50 I have ever spent, and I have bought some real stinkers. FF7 was pretty good, but I couldn't ever get addicted to it like I did FF6. I'll still play through VI and have just as much fun as I did the first time.
I suppose this is to be expected. When gaming is brought to the mainstream, companies follow the masses. And the masses don't want a story. They want a game with juicy graphics that they can finish playing in a few hours.
Dragon-slaying in games seems to be on a huge decline - I havn't played a game where you really have a serious quest that involves slaying a dragon in a long time, and not just as a side thing that takes 40 people in WOW. Maybe PETA got involved?
Ok, seriously - why do people treat gaming as some sort of an addiction in most all cases? Anything can become an addiction if it is taken to unhealthy or unproductive levels. Everyone *NEEDS* entertainment. Having fun isn't some sort of sin, unless you are neglecting family/work and other responsibilities. In that case, it *is* an uncontrollable addiction. You can't spend every hour of your life exclusively focusing on just your work/family.
Just a thought I had when i caught this article. People think, and even gamers themselves think there is something wrong with them for enjoying video games - but this is no different than someone whose favorite pasttime is playing piano, or watching movies, or playing chess. It's a different form of entertainment, and like all entertainment *CAN* be taken to unhealthy levels - but in most cases it is not.
I thought they were selling a lot of what they got to raise money in an auction? At any rate I'm really proud of PA. People like Jack Thompson sit there and blabber about how horrible and evil gamers are, and how GTA is turning us all into serial killers, and PA is there to prove him wrong at every turn, and even help keep him honest:D.
I know this might seem out of the question to you, but it might be time to start expanding how many game titles you sell, and having a section where you DO sell things like Doom 3. Don't get me wrong - I love being able to sit down with friends and play a good game of Mario Party 39 or whatever they are up to now:D - but as I grow older, I also like more "mature" games like Doom 3. You also have to consider the 13-17 base, which are basically *only* going to want games like that to impress their friends. If you are going to card people, do it with every kid, whether his parents are there or not - I personally wouldn't like being denied a game based on my age, but when I was that age (maybe not 13, but by 16 or 17) I could respect someones decision based on store policy like that.
Treating your customers like that is also harming your business - if I have a bad experience at a store, I let my friends know to help them avoid the same situation. You don't just lose the blacklisted customers. Piracy isn't actually going to hurt you so much as it is large game distrubutors/manufacturers. I wouldn't worry about that so much as you seem to - yes, its illegal, but its not hurting your business so much as the way you treat some customers, and your exclusive hold on just family titles. It's hard enough to succeed in selling games, much less just a certain type.
Also, another note about piracy - I used to be heavily into game piracy, but I ended up stopping. I don't know why, but theres just pride in being able to show off my game collection to friends maybe. Often times I used to pirate a game, but then I thought...this is a really awesome game. The developers deserve the money for this. I'd delete it, realizing I didn't need it and save up for it (if I didn't already have the cash). Some of my friends still pirate games, but they almost always end up buying those games.
If you want to cut down on piracy in your area, have a place where people can preview games. This should cut down at least some of it. Be willing to change to whatever game the customer asks for so they can try it out. A lot of people arn't willing to plunk down $50-$60 on a game they don't know if they will like. That was part of the reason I committed a lot of game piracy - if I didn't like it, I wouldn't be able to return it and I would be out $50.
yah, i decided to look around their site a bit more, and found the x86_64 edition. it wasn't on DVD, which i would prefer but thats ok too.
the Limited Edition is just mandrivia commercial without all the commercial packages, right?
okay, i think i understand it now, but doesn't that kill their profit?
also, is the Mandriva Limited Edition just the OS without all the commercial packages?
ok, got it now, thanks:D
so how would i go about compiling the source for x86-64? where do i even GET the source - i was looking around on mandrivas site for a bit, but all i found were some pre-compiled binaries free for download.
ok, sorry for being a complete idiot, but what it sounds like you are saying is this:
so basically they are saying that if somebody buys a $150 package of their software, they have the complete freedom to distribute it to anyone they want at will? doesn't that completely kill their money-making opportunities? i'm not quite sure i'm understanding this - in fact, lol, i know im not getting this.
yeah, but doesn't most of their income come from corporate liscences and people who buy the packaged versions of their distro?
i mean they can still make tons of money with an "along-side" free distro, and im not saying they shouldn't - i cant imagine its easy upkeeping and distributing a "free" OS.
maybe i just don't understand the words open source very well, do they not mean exactly what they say or something?
i thought the theory behind open source software was that it was open source.
i guess i just have a bad understanding of how those companies work - id always thought that it was basically the open source community that worked on the kernel/distros.
to the common user, the point of switching over to linux is
A) (and most importantly) its FREE
B) it actually works
im not looking from a corporation mindset. im looking from a "me" mindset. which makes perfect sense considering its going to be "me" using the product.
if you have a high paying job, then fine, money isn't an object for you. but for the rest of us "little" people out here, its nice to be able to cut corners and lower costs.
i'm not saying they don't have a right to make money, yes, i think they should. i'm not complaining that they are making money, thats good.
i was complaining, because as far as I can see, there isn't any way to obtain a free edition of the x86-64 bit edition.
Commercial Products: The Mandriva Linux Distributions that are not available for free download and which are sold in retail, e-commerce, and directly by Mandriva its partners and distributors. These include (but are not restricted to) Discovery, Powerpack, Powerpack+, Corporate Server, Move, Multi Network Firewall, Mandrivaclustering, Mandriva Linux for PPC, and Mandrivalinux for AMD64.
if there is a legal way to get it, i'd sure like to know about it.
ok, if its totally open source, why can't i download an x86-64 edition of it?
Commercial Products: The Mandriva Linux Distributions that are not available for free download and which are sold in retail, e-commerce, and directly by Mandriva its partners and distributors. These include (but are not restricted to) Discovery, Powerpack, Powerpack+, Corporate Server, Move, Multi Network Firewall, Mandrivaclustering, Mandriva Linux for PPC, and Mandrivalinux for AMD64.
and before you jump to any conclusions, im not bashing either you or mandriva, im just wondering here. is there still a way to get the x86-64 edition free? i used mandrake 10.0, the 64 bit edition of it for awhile, and i really liked it, but i didnt have time to figure out how to get all my games to work, and id really rather do all or nothing, not a dual boot. now i have time to do that, so im looking more into switching over.
sorry for an uninformed post from a linux noob:D
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Look, why is this even a debate? I'm speechless. Is it because of the whole "gay" issue? So WHAT. It is THEIR servers, THEIR rules, and THEIR property. Nobody is requiring you to buy WoW and pay $15 a month to play online. Blizzard makes the rules within WoW, NOT you. You don't like it, discuss it with them. If I recall, you agreed to a EULA. I am constantly amazed by these continuous "non-news" stories.
Knowledge doesn't disprove a God. I don't know why so many people have this misconception. Even if you come to the end of all knowledge, and you know absolutely everything possible, all that data and facts you have gathered can be interpreted in different ways. (notice keyword "possible...") No matter how much data we gather, we can't verify how the universe began, data is just that - numbers, which must be INTERPRETED, and each theory's proponents can interpret this data just as dogmatically, ignorantly, and stupidly as the other. Knowledge does not disprove God, knowledge does not disprove evolution. The reason this misconception exists is because so many stupid evolutionists and so many stupid ID-ists/creationists try to get hung up on this "do-know/do-not-know" idea when in fact it really has no bearing at all on the ID/Evolution debate.
This should be a science post, not a deliberate inflammatory remark meant to spur on yet another ID/Evolution debate. Why on earth would knowing how something works be the doom of ID? Why is it a boost to evolution? Its a great leap in science. The end. Its great that we know it - but it has nothing to do with the origins of life.
And I thought the whole bee thing had been put to rest years ago, due to the fact that it was based on a faulty argument/equations, etc.]
So stop reinforcing the ancient belief that somehow science and God can't go together. The two reinforce one another, depending on your worldview. Everyone has the same sets of data to work with. How you interpret is different.
An atheistic scientist is more likely to discard data not conducive to his worldview, and a creationist/ID scientist is likely to do the same. You filter what you see through what you believe.
And like the poster mentioned, Creationists/ID proponents need to stop jumping the gun and attacking scientists any time they admit that they don't know something, saying that that disproves evolution in some stupid way. They are simply mature and honest enough to admit that they don't know anything, and aren't going to side with some of the egotistical nutheads running around in the ID crowd. You need to stop alienating YOURSELVES from science, because once you start denying FACT, you start to look like a moronic asshole.
Evolutionists need to stop making stupid, petty, baseless attacks like this post and focus on scientific debate, and some of them, yes, need to admit they DON'T know everything, and stop trying to say that any scientific discovery somehow brings an end to ID/Creationism theory. Most of what I wrote above for ID/Creationists, too. Start basing your arguments in fact, rather than trying to use the religious aspects of ID to disprove it.
All data we gather can be used to prove either theory. I'm sorry if you don't like it, but its true. The same data you use to promote Creationism can be used to promote evolutionism, and vice versa. The problems come in how you interpret that data, and most times it is done in a nonsensical way. Stop acting, BOTH of you, like your side is the all-knowing saint that has it perfectly right, and using idiotic flames and 1,000 rephrasements of "You are wrong and stupid" as your main proof that the other side is wrong. There are lots of things we can't understand or explain, just fess up to it and admit it and move on with your life.
Both sides need to stop bringing up age old arguments that have long been put to rest and actually learn about the opposing theories points before engaging in any debate. I'm sick and tired of ID proponents bringing up this bee argument, and I'm sick and tired of evolutionists bringing up the faked fetus photos that still, for some reason, exist in textbooks today.
Grow up. I'm not kidding. Research before you go off and blow shit out your ass. Both sides have the same kinds of egotistical nutheads that have no idea what they are talking about running their mouths off making both sides of the debate look like complete asswipes.
Because nobody buys them. How many of you went out and bought Viewtiful Joe, or Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, or Project Snowblind, or? Both of them got some great reviews, but were poor sellers (with the exception of viewtiful joe, although that took well over a year for the word to get out about that....but it still pales in comparison with "sequels."
If you guys want original games, tell the devs that with your dollar. Buy original games, give them a whirl. Next time you are at the store, instead of picking up Doom IV or Quake V, pick up a title that you know nothing about other than what is on the back, and give it a try.
Games cost a LOT of money to make, and consumers are telling companies they don't want them to be original. It's too risky to make an original game with such high development costs, when consumers don't buy them.
And yes, I'm as guilty as the rest of the crowd. When I see a sequel to anything that I like, I'm all for it, and can't wait to get my hands on it. COD2, TES4, Twilight Princess, etc.
As long as only old characters and franchises keep making devs money, they are going to keep using them.
I've never even played this game before, and I never even knew there was an Asheron's Call 2 until I heard the first report of the servers being shut down awhile back on /.
:D
And yet I still feel a kind of sadness reading about it...an emotional sadness. Its seriously like some part of me was lost - an entire world just killed like that....maybe I'm a good candidate for Jedi Training
"I feel a great disturbance in the Force. As if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced." I think that actually applies to me. Anybody else in this kind of situation? It's just a weird feeling knowing that an entire world (just a digital fake world, but still...) is gone, and just terminated in a split second, you know what I mean?
And get the hell out of our lives.
I noticed some of you talking about "there has to be a line...14? 15?" My question to you is, why DOES there need to be a line at all? The government needs to get the hell out of our lives and stop trying to tell parents how to raise their kids. You stupid authoritarians want to "protect" anyone and everyone and cite a bunch of stupid exceptions to the rule as the reasons why this needs to happen. Stop trying to ruin it for other parents/kids just because one parent/kid couldn't handle responsiblity themselves. In short: STOP MANDATING RESPONSIBILITY.
Another guy mentioned a friends that grew up an extremely sheltered life and spent 10 years in jail for drug trafficing. Protecting your kid like that is just going to piss them off and they are going to wait to do all the stuff you told them not to, without any kinds of restraints and a lot less knowledge about it. They aren't just going to TRY alcohol - they are going to binge on it as a rebellion act. I have a friend in college now who that happened to - drugs, alcohol, smoking, sex, etc. Bright future, now he is screwing himself completely over.
BTW I am from indiana and conservative, but have had it with our stupid bullshit authoritarian stance on everything. I'm a conservative libertarian if you will, and electing Bitch Daniels was the worst mistake this state ever made.
Rant Done.
wouldn't you end up flooding the engine using the gas pedal while playing PGR3?
thats the main problem I see with it, other than endangerment to other drivers - it takes time to switch from one mental scenario to another.
Yeah I know this is a couple days old, but -
:D but its just something that sprung to mind while I was reading this. I think scientists need to be focusing more on language to understand why we are so different - it seems to be the key linking factor in all our differences.
There is a reason human children develop so slowly compared to all other animals. Or at least, a theoreticized reason. Children need that time to grow social skills, they need that time to be dependent on another person to learn how to form social bonds. Animals don't need this, and in fact it would be horribly dangerous for them to develop as slowly as we do. We basically need it to learn human language and how to function in a family culture. An interesting thing I read recently about language:
1. Place the pencil in your hand and tap it on the table. Start with a slow tapping rate and gradually increase the rate, counting the number of taps that you can distinctly hear in one second. Ready? Start!
2. What was the maximum tap rate?
3. Now simply talk slowly for a few seconds and try to remember what you said. Keep track of the elapsed time and write down the words that you said. Try talking fast. Calculate the number of sounds (roughly the letters of the alphabet) that you uttered (a graceless but useful word) in one second.
What you'll discover is that it's almost impossible even to differentiate and count more than seven or so taps per second. In fact, when sounds are presented at a rate that exceeds fifteen per second, they merge into a continuous buzz. However, you can easily differentiate and identify more than ten speech sounds per second when you talk slowly. If you talk rapidly, the maximum rate at which speech sounds can be produced and comprehended is about twenty-five to thirty sounds per second.
I think language has a much more massive role in explaining humans, who we are, and why we are so developmentally different from the animal world. This is but one of the examples. Animals haven't ever even shown the inclination to need to speak in an actual language - not even chimps. Yes, there is sign language, etc, but that is nothing more than a response-stimuli sort of deal. They are able to learn the symbol and use to to ask for certain things - but animals have never strung those simple words/phrases together on their own to convey anything deeper. I believe there have been some cases where chimps were able to express themselves using very raw emotions - such as a symbol for angry, or happy. But nothing complex, no matter how hard we try.
Sorry, that was quite a bit off topic
And like other people have said - these were adult chimps compared to very young human children, children who have also been taught to perform essentially redundant or useless tasks, and to do them without question because "mommy said so."
FF7 and others were great to be sure, but with the 3D era I feel like they have basically sacrificed the story in favor of juicy 3D graphics. FF has steadily degenerated until we get crap like FF:Tactics and FF:Crystal Chronicles - games that could be retitled under any series and had absolutely no story. "Umm...we can only think of a lame-ass story this time, so lets stick judges in to spice up the battle." Crystal Chronicles was worse. Bad evil fog that you have to save your town from once a year. No ending. Utterly boring. Probably the worse $50 I have ever spent, and I have bought some real stinkers. FF7 was pretty good, but I couldn't ever get addicted to it like I did FF6. I'll still play through VI and have just as much fun as I did the first time. I suppose this is to be expected. When gaming is brought to the mainstream, companies follow the masses. And the masses don't want a story. They want a game with juicy graphics that they can finish playing in a few hours.
Dragon-slaying in games seems to be on a huge decline - I havn't played a game where you really have a serious quest that involves slaying a dragon in a long time, and not just as a side thing that takes 40 people in WOW. Maybe PETA got involved?
Ok, seriously - why do people treat gaming as some sort of an addiction in most all cases? Anything can become an addiction if it is taken to unhealthy or unproductive levels. Everyone *NEEDS* entertainment. Having fun isn't some sort of sin, unless you are neglecting family/work and other responsibilities. In that case, it *is* an uncontrollable addiction. You can't spend every hour of your life exclusively focusing on just your work/family. Just a thought I had when i caught this article. People think, and even gamers themselves think there is something wrong with them for enjoying video games - but this is no different than someone whose favorite pasttime is playing piano, or watching movies, or playing chess. It's a different form of entertainment, and like all entertainment *CAN* be taken to unhealthy levels - but in most cases it is not.
I thought they were selling a lot of what they got to raise money in an auction? :D.
At any rate I'm really proud of PA. People like Jack Thompson sit there and blabber about how horrible and evil gamers are, and how GTA is turning us all into serial killers, and PA is there to prove him wrong at every turn, and even help keep him honest
I know this might seem out of the question to you, but it might be time to start expanding how many game titles you sell, and having a section where you DO sell things like Doom 3. Don't get me wrong - I love being able to sit down with friends and play a good game of Mario Party 39 or whatever they are up to now :D - but as I grow older, I also like more "mature" games like Doom 3. You also have to consider the 13-17 base, which are basically *only* going to want games like that to impress their friends. If you are going to card people, do it with every kid, whether his parents are there or not - I personally wouldn't like being denied a game based on my age, but when I was that age (maybe not 13, but by 16 or 17) I could respect someones decision based on store policy like that.
Treating your customers like that is also harming your business - if I have a bad experience at a store, I let my friends know to help them avoid the same situation. You don't just lose the blacklisted customers. Piracy isn't actually going to hurt you so much as it is large game distrubutors/manufacturers. I wouldn't worry about that so much as you seem to - yes, its illegal, but its not hurting your business so much as the way you treat some customers, and your exclusive hold on just family titles. It's hard enough to succeed in selling games, much less just a certain type.
Also, another note about piracy - I used to be heavily into game piracy, but I ended up stopping. I don't know why, but theres just pride in being able to show off my game collection to friends maybe. Often times I used to pirate a game, but then I thought...this is a really awesome game. The developers deserve the money for this. I'd delete it, realizing I didn't need it and save up for it (if I didn't already have the cash). Some of my friends still pirate games, but they almost always end up buying those games.
If you want to cut down on piracy in your area, have a place where people can preview games. This should cut down at least some of it. Be willing to change to whatever game the customer asks for so they can try it out. A lot of people arn't willing to plunk down $50-$60 on a game they don't know if they will like. That was part of the reason I committed a lot of game piracy - if I didn't like it, I wouldn't be able to return it and I would be out $50.
Best of luck in keeping your business open.
The gaming industry is doomed to die. This article means nothing!
yeah, thats what I was looking at before. i ended up downloading the cd edition since i couldnt find a dvd edition anywhere
yah, i decided to look around their site a bit more, and found the x86_64 edition. it wasn't on DVD, which i would prefer but thats ok too. the Limited Edition is just mandrivia commercial without all the commercial packages, right?
okay, i think i understand it now, but doesn't that kill their profit? also, is the Mandriva Limited Edition just the OS without all the commercial packages?
ok, got it now, thanks :D
so how would i go about compiling the source for x86-64? where do i even GET the source - i was looking around on mandrivas site for a bit, but all i found were some pre-compiled binaries free for download.
ok, sorry for being a complete idiot, but what it sounds like you are saying is this:
so basically they are saying that if somebody buys a $150 package of their software, they have the complete freedom to distribute it to anyone they want at will? doesn't that completely kill their money-making opportunities? i'm not quite sure i'm understanding this - in fact, lol, i know im not getting this.
you don't get windows for free at all. if you a buy a computer with windows preinstalled, its figured in with the price.
yeah, but doesn't most of their income come from corporate liscences and people who buy the packaged versions of their distro?
i mean they can still make tons of money with an "along-side" free distro, and im not saying they shouldn't - i cant imagine its easy upkeeping and distributing a "free" OS.
maybe i just don't understand the words open source very well, do they not mean exactly what they say or something? i thought the theory behind open source software was that it was open source.
i guess i just have a bad understanding of how those companies work - id always thought that it was basically the open source community that worked on the kernel/distros.
dude, seriously, chill out.
to the common user, the point of switching over to linux is
A) (and most importantly) its FREE B) it actually works
im not looking from a corporation mindset. im looking from a "me" mindset. which makes perfect sense considering its going to be "me" using the product.
if you have a high paying job, then fine, money isn't an object for you. but for the rest of us "little" people out here, its nice to be able to cut corners and lower costs.
i'm not saying they don't have a right to make money, yes, i think they should. i'm not complaining that they are making money, thats good.
i was complaining, because as far as I can see, there isn't any way to obtain a free edition of the x86-64 bit edition.
Commercial Products: The Mandriva Linux Distributions that are not available for free download and which are sold in retail, e-commerce, and directly by Mandriva its partners and distributors. These include (but are not restricted to) Discovery, Powerpack, Powerpack+, Corporate Server, Move, Multi Network Firewall, Mandrivaclustering, Mandriva Linux for PPC, and Mandrivalinux for AMD64. if there is a
legal way to get it, i'd sure like to know about it.
ok, if its totally open source, why can't i download an x86-64 edition of it?
:D
Commercial Products: The Mandriva Linux Distributions that are not available for free download and which are sold in retail, e-commerce, and directly by Mandriva its partners and distributors. These include (but are not restricted to) Discovery, Powerpack, Powerpack+, Corporate Server, Move, Multi Network Firewall, Mandrivaclustering, Mandriva Linux for PPC,
and Mandrivalinux for AMD64. and before you jump to any conclusions, im not bashing either you or mandriva, im just wondering here. is there still a way to get the x86-64 edition free? i used mandrake 10.0, the 64 bit edition of it for awhile, and i really liked it, but i didnt have time to figure out how to get all my games to work, and id really rather do all or nothing, not a dual boot. now i have time to do that, so im looking more into switching over. sorry for an uninformed post from a linux noob