Do you excuse the other game vendors to push a product out before it really should be done and then tell us to wait for the next patch? That makes us nothing more than beta testers as well.
At least with episodic gaming we're getting a subset of the game that might be affected by a bug instead of a complete game that could be affected by a bug. A smaller game also has fewer things that can go wrong. That by its very nature also can provide a more complete testing process before the game is released because there's not as much to be tested as there would be for a "complete" game.
As for costing more, you're obviously just looking to make an argument without knowing a lot of what you're talking about. Tell Tale is pricing Sam and Max very competitively. Individually, the episodes are $9 or $10, if I recall correctly. If you buy all six episodes at once, the price is $35 and they'll send the whole "season" on CD for free when the final episode is released. That's significantly less than just about ANY new game at Best Buy.
This isn't the first time we've covered episodic gaming here, but I'll say what I've said before. Depending on what the game is, episodic gaming could be a really good move. Tell Tale Games seems to be taking the lead in episodic gaming with Bone and Sam and Max, and so far the feedback that I've read has been quite positive.
Most of the costs for any episodic series would be for the first episode - 3D modeling, bitmapping, fine-tuning the graphics, developing the game engine, and so forth. After that, the rest if just using what tools have already been made available plus additional characters and graphics, possibly some engine tweaks as well. Plus is gives the company a bit of capital to work with to produce additional episodes.
It also gives the gamers the ability to say, "Hey, this is where we think you got it wrong" and let the company make the changes for the next episode - if they feel that the changes are apporpriate, of course. And since episodes are almost always cheaper than a full-blown game, more people would be willing to plunk own the dollars to see if they're interested enough to continue the season.
The only problem that I see with episodic games is the length of the game. It's a very delicate balance between providing enough material that the customer feels that he got his money's worth and not so much material that the release is not cost effective. It's a bit of a gamble, but the feedback for Bone, Sam and Max, and Half-Life 2: Episode One would seem to suggest that episodic gaming is being accepted as a viable alternative for certain genres. I'm sure that gamers would not appreciate an episodic Unreal Tournament 2007.:)
In fact, the second episode of Sam and Max is out on Friday. I've got to buy the season -- and this is coming from someone who originally was not in favor of episodic gaming but now supports it as long as the game is one that can benefit from it.
Whereas I've been converting my bulbs to flourescent from incandescent, I have a major problem with Wal-Mart once again strong-arming the public to do Wal-Mart's bidding, when it should be the other way around. This is no different than Wal-Mart's previous tactics of {MOB VOICE}Hey, if you wanna sell your music CDs youz gotta get rid of da nasty lyrics. An' if you wanna sell your DVDs... well... you gotta go through the headaches and expense of offering a full-screen version for us to force on our clientele. If youz got a problem with that... well... dat's your problem to figure out.{/MOB VOICE} This time, the target seems to be the customers, not the manufacturers.
As I said, I'm converting to flourescent replacements from incandescent bulbs, but at least it's of my own choosing. It's not Wal-Mart's place to force their customers to buy what they want them to buy. They're supposed to be responding to the demands of their customers, not vice versa. Regardless of whether or not this will be a good thing in the long run, Wal-Mart is pulling another "You're too f**king stupid to know what's best for you" tactic. One more reason for me to shop at local, mom-and-pop stores, even if I end up paying more.
The BBC tends to agree with you, as per their article on the BBC News web site: "Analysts believe in the short term it may have cost him the 1976 election, but in the long term the decision has been seen as astute."
At the time there was so much going on and so much devisiveness because of Vietnam that a long, drawn-out impeachment would have been just about guaranteed. Nixon did the right thing by getting out of there so that he couldn't bring further disgrace to the Office of the Presidency and Ford did the right thing by saying, "That's it. It's done. Now, can we look at healing instead of creating more wounds, thankyouverymuch?"
I wasn't aware that he recommended against the Clinton impeachment, but he did the right thing there, too. I wish that my fellow Republicans heeded him.
In the annals of American presidencies, I don't think that he'll get much more than a footnote in many respects, with exception of the pardon; but his attitude, demeanor, and honesty were exactly what the U.S. needed at the time. Hopefully, we'll get someone of the same integrity in 2008 because we really need it, but right now it doesn't look like we will.
The one thing that these types of articles always seem to do is to lump all types of alcohol together although there are several different types of alcohol sources. I'm not a connoisseur by any stretch, but I've heard from people who are in the medical profession that the body reacts very differently to different types of alcohol and that different types have different health benefits.
As I understand it, and I have full confidence in the Slashdot crowd to let me know if I'm wrong, red wine alcohol comes from the sugar fermentation of red grapes and contains quite a bit of healthy anti-oxidants. White wine, on the other hand, contains far fewer anti-oxidants and therefore does not have the health benefits of red wine. In fact, the anti-oxidants entry on Wikipedia also makes this claim. Conversely, the alcohol in harder drinks like whiskey is grain-based alcohol that generally has little health benefits, not including its ability to wipe out the weaker brain cells.;)
Friends of mine who are very much into drinking and partying have said from their own experience that the alcohol buzz from sources like grapes is vastly different and impacts them differently than the grain alcohol in harder drinks. (Yes, I'm aware that the smart-ass responses to that almost write themselves.)
But even a friend's mom who is a registered nurse got on his case one time when he got plastered from a combination of wine and spirits, claiming that, "Mixing those types of alcohol together is incredibly dangerous!"
Again, as one not involved in the medical profession I can only make suppositions on all of this. But it does bother me how reports like this have a tendency of throwing around the generic term "alcohol" as though it encompasses all drinks when that should not necessarily be the case.
Oh, that's really mature. { rolling eyes } Yessir, such deep, intellectual humor as to be expected from someone who doesn't have the balls to post with his real user ID.
And I'll have you know that it's my basement/game room because the deed is in my name and I pay the mortgage, thankyouverymuch.
Whoa, hold on, hold on. We're all going to grow old. We can't stop that. Many will also grow out, but a few sessions on the treadmill every week could help to take care of that. However, I'll be damned before I grow up!! Some things are just not worth doing!:)
And considering that your user ID roughly translates to "deceased person", what the hell are you complaining about?!:)
Actually, some of the most fun times that I have with my daughter are the multi-hour sessions playing head-to-head games like Mario Kart 64 or Diddy Kong Racing on the old Nintendo 64. Many times my wife joins in, particularly with Mario Kart 64, and we'll play together for hours on end. Once I get the Wii hooked up, I expect we'll all spend a lot more time playing Wii Sports as well. (I'm going to have to reinforce that ol' Wiimote strap for my daughter. That handcuff mod might do nicely.)
"More to life" doesn't have to mean "outside" or "at the park".
Oh, sure. For instance the whole DS hinge-cracking thing. They handled that well.
I will not confess to know everything about that except that it happened, so do enlighten me.
Rayman comes to mind, that sequence with the cow/chain thing that makes you whirl the Wii remote over your head - that's just asking for trouble.
Not as long as you keep a firm grip on the Wiimote.;)
But you are pretty quick to take shots at Sony - the scaling issue, for instance, which seems fixed. They did the right thing as well, no?
Did not Ars Technica claim that the "fix" actually didn't do a whole hell of a lot? And what does my disgust for a company that installed a root kit on people's PCs and then had the audacity to state the equivalent of "What's the big deal?" have to do with my support for a company that's replacing wrist straps when they don't have to?
But, unlike "fanbois", Nintendo has my loyalty because they've earned it, not because it might or might not be fashionable or because it's the coolest thing or because it makes me seem 1337 or whatever. That's an important difference, especially when most XBox 360 and PS3 fans appear to have their fandom based more on the geek factors - speed, power, graphics, etc. Whereas I'd prefer to have a company that offers both excellent customer service and newest-generation technology, if only given a choice of one I'll take the company that actually treats me like a customer.
That said, my loyalty to them is by no means undying. My support for them could change on a dime. If Nintendo starts acting like jerks, any loyalty to them will disappear, unlike what true "fanbois" would do, which would most likely be to make excuses.
How ironic that on a site that seeps Linux fandom on a regular basis I should be chastised for showing my support a company who currently deserves my support. I wonder if you feel the same kind of disdain for those who are as quick to blame Nintendo.
Not only are you completely wrong, the fact that you don't have the balls to post under your real user ID doesn't give you any credibility anyway. See, unlike those who think, "Hey, if I can get it for free, I should get it for free!", an idea that is somewhat prevalent on Slashdot, I firmly believe that the best way to keep a company that you appreciate in business is to -- horrors! -- actually buying from them is actually a good way to do that!
Imagine that.
My karma's fine, so I have no need for astroturfing. How's your karma? Oh, wait. You posted AC. Nevermind.
You're absolutely correct. It's not Nintendo's fault that people are getting too emotionally involved with their games.
But this replacement is something else that makes Nintendo win kudos from me. Not only are they not playing the CPU/graphics/power marketing bullsh*t, they're actually going to take the time and financial expense of replacing items that as far as I'm concerned they are not responsible for replacing. They're taking the high road. In fact, they tower above those idiots at Sony. Remember their rootkit attitude? "If you don't know it's there, it shouldn't bother you. What's all the fuss about?"
Just because of things like this, I'll be more apt to pay for things like the virtual console instead of trying to hack it to play older games for free. Actions like this deserve loyalty and honest purchases.
You're completely missing the point, which considering how you're approaching the topic is not surprising. The number of houses that currently have coax vastly outnumbers the number of houses that don't. There is no reason to re-run a whole new set of cable when what is already there will do nicely. It saves Verizon money, which an optimist would say keeps rates low, although we know better; it save a ton of headaches for the tech, I'm sure; and it saves time on installation, which the customer will no doubt appreciate.
Upgrading to fibre just for the sake of upgrading to fibre is a waste of money IMHO, just like those who feel the need to spend hundreds of dollars every few months just to have the newest CPU for their personal PC. If you're that concerned, feel free to run your own or go ahead any pay to have it done. It's your money; do with it as you wish. As much as I think Verizon is just as bad as any other monopoly, I fully understand and agree with their decision to utilize existing resources.
And knock it off with the complaints about us vs. Europe and Asia. As is said on Slashdot over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, you cannot compare numbers accordingly. The population densities of the vast majority of countries in Europe and Asia compared to the population density of the United States make any such comparisons completely baseless.
When I saw that my new router had a coax connection, I completely choked. My brain immediately said, "What The FU*K!!! They're supporting 10Base2 again?" So, I asked the tech when he was installing my FiOS this weekend what's with the coax.
The reason why they're using coax, even for FiOS Internet, is because just about every house has coax in it because of their cable company! I was fortunate in that my house is a ranch-style with a four-inch gap in the walls, so one of the first things I did was wire my house up. It now has 21 network jacks installed throughout. I'm in the minority of people who can even do that -- but almost everyone has coax throughout their house. By going "back" to coax, Verizon is completely eliminating the need to lay out new cable or to use a comparatively slow wireless connection. They're using existing resources. Each TV will get a box that connects to the coax, just like a standard cable box. When FiOS TV becomes available, they run a coax cable from my FiOS box on the outside of my house to the cable box a few feet away and each TV gets a FiOS converter box.
As soon as he explained that, the coax connection on my FiOS router made total sense.
I would assume that they have something like this for business, but you're guaranteed to pay more for a more comprehensive support policy. I can't say that I've ever looked into it because I don't need to. Even with a personal account, you can for the most part run whatever you want, but they will keep tabs to make sure that you're not running a commercial service. If I run a personal web site with low bandwidth, I'm sure (because I've been told by their service reps) that they're not going to bother me. Now, if that turns into a commercial site with a lot of bandwidth and/or it gets hijacked and becomes a spambot, that's a different story.
As for land line, it's opposite of DSL. DSL runs over the phone line so you need to have a landline to get DSL (unless you get a "dry" connection which does not require a phone number). With FiOS the phone runs over the fibre optic connection so technically there is no need to have a landline phone, although I think he said that the account is linked to the phone number. I don't work for Verizon and my knowledge is limited to my conversations with the rep as he was installing it. I don't know if having a landline number is required. He told me that the main reason for pushing FiOS is for Verizon TV. I don't know what kind of priority they might have on landline phone numbers.
That might be true; but based on my experience with Comcast if you stick with cable you're likely to get an insatiable yet uncontrollable need to bend over and grab your ankles resulting in a severe case of rectal bleeding. Just by coincidence, this malady often flares up on a monthly basis when the cable bill arrives in the mail. Must be an allergic reaction to something in the ink that they use.
Here in Pennsylvania our incompetent legislature decided to be a bunch of f**ktards and denied Verizon state-wide permission to provide TV over fibre. So, now Verizon needs to negotiate with all 660+ of Pennsylvania's municipalities individually. (Gee, I wonder if the fact that Comcast is headquartered in Philadelphia has anything to do with it.) This is different than what Verizon did with Texas and a few other states where they were granted state-wide permission to offer TV.
I just had FiOS installed this past Saturday and it definitely is incredible! I'm getting 15Mb down (confirmed) and 2Mb up (averaging at 1.8Mb up) for less than Comcast high-speed Internet. I wish Verizon would get to my municipality. I'm fed up with Comcast.
And who's to say that they didn't? As I mentioned in an earlier post, if all of their playtesters ran it through its paces but nothing like this happened, why would they have had any expectation that it would have happened when it went on sale? At what point do you have to give your customers the benefit of the doubt that they won't act like maniacs?
We're just going to have to agree to disagree on this to an extent. If the user loses their grip because they're swinging harder than they should be or need to be, that's not Nintendo's fault. I'm not saying that you're saying it is, just that I don't agree with the "Nintendo should have known" attitude that seems to be prevalent. I'm definitely going to be purchasing some adhesive, rubber strips for the Wiimote now.
...or it shows that the people who did test it were using it responsibly. If 200 people tested it and there was no indication of problems, then why would they have had an expectation of thousands of over-zealous people losing their self-control?
And I still don't define that as spin. People generally don't get "excited" if they're not having fun. (Take that statement as you wish.) Sounds more like a valid cause than a spin to me.
Slashdot Mirror
That's a total, straw man argument.
Do you excuse the other game vendors to push a product out before it really should be done and then tell us to wait for the next patch? That makes us nothing more than beta testers as well.
At least with episodic gaming we're getting a subset of the game that might be affected by a bug instead of a complete game that could be affected by a bug. A smaller game also has fewer things that can go wrong. That by its very nature also can provide a more complete testing process before the game is released because there's not as much to be tested as there would be for a "complete" game.
As for costing more, you're obviously just looking to make an argument without knowing a lot of what you're talking about. Tell Tale is pricing Sam and Max very competitively. Individually, the episodes are $9 or $10, if I recall correctly. If you buy all six episodes at once, the price is $35 and they'll send the whole "season" on CD for free when the final episode is released. That's significantly less than just about ANY new game at Best Buy.
This isn't the first time we've covered episodic gaming here, but I'll say what I've said before. Depending on what the game is, episodic gaming could be a really good move. Tell Tale Games seems to be taking the lead in episodic gaming with Bone and Sam and Max, and so far the feedback that I've read has been quite positive.
:)
Most of the costs for any episodic series would be for the first episode - 3D modeling, bitmapping, fine-tuning the graphics, developing the game engine, and so forth. After that, the rest if just using what tools have already been made available plus additional characters and graphics, possibly some engine tweaks as well. Plus is gives the company a bit of capital to work with to produce additional episodes.
It also gives the gamers the ability to say, "Hey, this is where we think you got it wrong" and let the company make the changes for the next episode - if they feel that the changes are apporpriate, of course. And since episodes are almost always cheaper than a full-blown game, more people would be willing to plunk own the dollars to see if they're interested enough to continue the season.
The only problem that I see with episodic games is the length of the game. It's a very delicate balance between providing enough material that the customer feels that he got his money's worth and not so much material that the release is not cost effective. It's a bit of a gamble, but the feedback for Bone, Sam and Max, and Half-Life 2: Episode One would seem to suggest that episodic gaming is being accepted as a viable alternative for certain genres. I'm sure that gamers would not appreciate an episodic Unreal Tournament 2007.
In fact, the second episode of Sam and Max is out on Friday. I've got to buy the season -- and this is coming from someone who originally was not in favor of episodic gaming but now supports it as long as the game is one that can benefit from it.
Whereas I've been converting my bulbs to flourescent from incandescent, I have a major problem with Wal-Mart once again strong-arming the public to do Wal-Mart's bidding, when it should be the other way around. This is no different than Wal-Mart's previous tactics of {MOB VOICE}Hey, if you wanna sell your music CDs youz gotta get rid of da nasty lyrics. An' if you wanna sell your DVDs ... well ... you gotta go through the headaches and expense of offering a full-screen version for us to force on our clientele. If youz got a problem with that ... well ... dat's your problem to figure out.{/MOB VOICE} This time, the target seems to be the customers, not the manufacturers.
As I said, I'm converting to flourescent replacements from incandescent bulbs, but at least it's of my own choosing. It's not Wal-Mart's place to force their customers to buy what they want them to buy. They're supposed to be responding to the demands of their customers, not vice versa. Regardless of whether or not this will be a good thing in the long run, Wal-Mart is pulling another "You're too f**king stupid to know what's best for you" tactic. One more reason for me to shop at local, mom-and-pop stores, even if I end up paying more.
The BBC tends to agree with you, as per their article on the BBC News web site: "Analysts believe in the short term it may have cost him the 1976 election, but in the long term the decision has been seen as astute."
At the time there was so much going on and so much devisiveness because of Vietnam that a long, drawn-out impeachment would have been just about guaranteed. Nixon did the right thing by getting out of there so that he couldn't bring further disgrace to the Office of the Presidency and Ford did the right thing by saying, "That's it. It's done. Now, can we look at healing instead of creating more wounds, thankyouverymuch?"
I wasn't aware that he recommended against the Clinton impeachment, but he did the right thing there, too. I wish that my fellow Republicans heeded him.
In the annals of American presidencies, I don't think that he'll get much more than a footnote in many respects, with exception of the pardon; but his attitude, demeanor, and honesty were exactly what the U.S. needed at the time. Hopefully, we'll get someone of the same integrity in 2008 because we really need it, but right now it doesn't look like we will.
Rest in peace, Mr. President.
The one thing that these types of articles always seem to do is to lump all types of alcohol together although there are several different types of alcohol sources. I'm not a connoisseur by any stretch, but I've heard from people who are in the medical profession that the body reacts very differently to different types of alcohol and that different types have different health benefits.
;)
As I understand it, and I have full confidence in the Slashdot crowd to let me know if I'm wrong, red wine alcohol comes from the sugar fermentation of red grapes and contains quite a bit of healthy anti-oxidants. White wine, on the other hand, contains far fewer anti-oxidants and therefore does not have the health benefits of red wine. In fact, the anti-oxidants entry on Wikipedia also makes this claim. Conversely, the alcohol in harder drinks like whiskey is grain-based alcohol that generally has little health benefits, not including its ability to wipe out the weaker brain cells.
Friends of mine who are very much into drinking and partying have said from their own experience that the alcohol buzz from sources like grapes is vastly different and impacts them differently than the grain alcohol in harder drinks. (Yes, I'm aware that the smart-ass responses to that almost write themselves.)
But even a friend's mom who is a registered nurse got on his case one time when he got plastered from a combination of wine and spirits, claiming that, "Mixing those types of alcohol together is incredibly dangerous!"
Again, as one not involved in the medical profession I can only make suppositions on all of this. But it does bother me how reports like this have a tendency of throwing around the generic term "alcohol" as though it encompasses all drinks when that should not necessarily be the case.
*sigh* Next time I'll put the smiley in there. Apparently, it's needed by people on a Friday. :/
Oh, that's really mature. { rolling eyes } Yessir, such deep, intellectual humor as to be expected from someone who doesn't have the balls to post with his real user ID.
And I'll have you know that it's my basement/game room because the deed is in my name and I pay the mortgage, thankyouverymuch.
Whoa, hold on, hold on. We're all going to grow old. We can't stop that. Many will also grow out, but a few sessions on the treadmill every week could help to take care of that. However, I'll be damned before I grow up!! Some things are just not worth doing! :)
:)
And considering that your user ID roughly translates to "deceased person", what the hell are you complaining about?!
There's just so much more to life (YMMV).
Actually, some of the most fun times that I have with my daughter are the multi-hour sessions playing head-to-head games like Mario Kart 64 or Diddy Kong Racing on the old Nintendo 64. Many times my wife joins in, particularly with Mario Kart 64, and we'll play together for hours on end. Once I get the Wii hooked up, I expect we'll all spend a lot more time playing Wii Sports as well. (I'm going to have to reinforce that ol' Wiimote strap for my daughter. That handcuff mod might do nicely.)
"More to life" doesn't have to mean "outside" or "at the park".
:)
:)
I think you took my "fashionable" comment a bit too literally.
Oh, sure. For instance the whole DS hinge-cracking thing. They handled that well.
;)
I will not confess to know everything about that except that it happened, so do enlighten me.
Rayman comes to mind, that sequence with the cow/chain thing that makes you whirl the Wii remote over your head - that's just asking for trouble.
Not as long as you keep a firm grip on the Wiimote.
But you are pretty quick to take shots at Sony - the scaling issue, for instance, which seems fixed. They did the right thing as well, no?
Did not Ars Technica claim that the "fix" actually didn't do a whole hell of a lot? And what does my disgust for a company that installed a root kit on people's PCs and then had the audacity to state the equivalent of "What's the big deal?" have to do with my support for a company that's replacing wrist straps when they don't have to?
But, unlike "fanbois", Nintendo has my loyalty because they've earned it, not because it might or might not be fashionable or because it's the coolest thing or because it makes me seem 1337 or whatever. That's an important difference, especially when most XBox 360 and PS3 fans appear to have their fandom based more on the geek factors - speed, power, graphics, etc. Whereas I'd prefer to have a company that offers both excellent customer service and newest-generation technology, if only given a choice of one I'll take the company that actually treats me like a customer.
That said, my loyalty to them is by no means undying. My support for them could change on a dime. If Nintendo starts acting like jerks, any loyalty to them will disappear, unlike what true "fanbois" would do, which would most likely be to make excuses.
How ironic that on a site that seeps Linux fandom on a regular basis I should be chastised for showing my support a company who currently deserves my support. I wonder if you feel the same kind of disdain for those who are as quick to blame Nintendo.
Not only are you completely wrong, the fact that you don't have the balls to post under your real user ID doesn't give you any credibility anyway. See, unlike those who think, "Hey, if I can get it for free, I should get it for free!", an idea that is somewhat prevalent on Slashdot, I firmly believe that the best way to keep a company that you appreciate in business is to -- horrors! -- actually buying from them is actually a good way to do that!
Imagine that.
My karma's fine, so I have no need for astroturfing. How's your karma? Oh, wait. You posted AC. Nevermind.
You're absolutely correct. It's not Nintendo's fault that people are getting too emotionally involved with their games.
But this replacement is something else that makes Nintendo win kudos from me. Not only are they not playing the CPU/graphics/power marketing bullsh*t, they're actually going to take the time and financial expense of replacing items that as far as I'm concerned they are not responsible for replacing. They're taking the high road. In fact, they tower above those idiots at Sony. Remember their rootkit attitude? "If you don't know it's there, it shouldn't bother you. What's all the fuss about?"
Just because of things like this, I'll be more apt to pay for things like the virtual console instead of trying to hack it to play older games for free. Actions like this deserve loyalty and honest purchases.
You're completely missing the point, which considering how you're approaching the topic is not surprising. The number of houses that currently have coax vastly outnumbers the number of houses that don't. There is no reason to re-run a whole new set of cable when what is already there will do nicely. It saves Verizon money, which an optimist would say keeps rates low, although we know better; it save a ton of headaches for the tech, I'm sure; and it saves time on installation, which the customer will no doubt appreciate.
Upgrading to fibre just for the sake of upgrading to fibre is a waste of money IMHO, just like those who feel the need to spend hundreds of dollars every few months just to have the newest CPU for their personal PC. If you're that concerned, feel free to run your own or go ahead any pay to have it done. It's your money; do with it as you wish. As much as I think Verizon is just as bad as any other monopoly, I fully understand and agree with their decision to utilize existing resources.
And knock it off with the complaints about us vs. Europe and Asia. As is said on Slashdot over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, you cannot compare numbers accordingly. The population densities of the vast majority of countries in Europe and Asia compared to the population density of the United States make any such comparisons completely baseless.
When I saw that my new router had a coax connection, I completely choked. My brain immediately said, "What The FU*K!!! They're supporting 10Base2 again?" So, I asked the tech when he was installing my FiOS this weekend what's with the coax.
The reason why they're using coax, even for FiOS Internet, is because just about every house has coax in it because of their cable company! I was fortunate in that my house is a ranch-style with a four-inch gap in the walls, so one of the first things I did was wire my house up. It now has 21 network jacks installed throughout. I'm in the minority of people who can even do that -- but almost everyone has coax throughout their house. By going "back" to coax, Verizon is completely eliminating the need to lay out new cable or to use a comparatively slow wireless connection. They're using existing resources. Each TV will get a box that connects to the coax, just like a standard cable box. When FiOS TV becomes available, they run a coax cable from my FiOS box on the outside of my house to the cable box a few feet away and each TV gets a FiOS converter box.
As soon as he explained that, the coax connection on my FiOS router made total sense.
I would assume that they have something like this for business, but you're guaranteed to pay more for a more comprehensive support policy. I can't say that I've ever looked into it because I don't need to. Even with a personal account, you can for the most part run whatever you want, but they will keep tabs to make sure that you're not running a commercial service. If I run a personal web site with low bandwidth, I'm sure (because I've been told by their service reps) that they're not going to bother me. Now, if that turns into a commercial site with a lot of bandwidth and/or it gets hijacked and becomes a spambot, that's a different story.
As for land line, it's opposite of DSL. DSL runs over the phone line so you need to have a landline to get DSL (unless you get a "dry" connection which does not require a phone number). With FiOS the phone runs over the fibre optic connection so technically there is no need to have a landline phone, although I think he said that the account is linked to the phone number. I don't work for Verizon and my knowledge is limited to my conversations with the rep as he was installing it. I don't know if having a landline number is required. He told me that the main reason for pushing FiOS is for Verizon TV. I don't know what kind of priority they might have on landline phone numbers.
That might be true; but based on my experience with Comcast if you stick with cable you're likely to get an insatiable yet uncontrollable need to bend over and grab your ankles resulting in a severe case of rectal bleeding. Just by coincidence, this malady often flares up on a monthly basis when the cable bill arrives in the mail. Must be an allergic reaction to something in the ink that they use.
Here in Pennsylvania our incompetent legislature decided to be a bunch of f**ktards and denied Verizon state-wide permission to provide TV over fibre. So, now Verizon needs to negotiate with all 660+ of Pennsylvania's municipalities individually. (Gee, I wonder if the fact that Comcast is headquartered in Philadelphia has anything to do with it.) This is different than what Verizon did with Texas and a few other states where they were granted state-wide permission to offer TV.
I just had FiOS installed this past Saturday and it definitely is incredible! I'm getting 15Mb down (confirmed) and 2Mb up (averaging at 1.8Mb up) for less than Comcast high-speed Internet. I wish Verizon would get to my municipality. I'm fed up with Comcast.
It's the same chapter from the same playbook the Nazi's used.
And once again the Republicans are being compared to the Nazis. It's the same chapter from the same playbook that liberals/Democrats use.
Oh, I don't know. They could .. perhaps .. hold onto the damned thing so that it doesn't fly out of their hands???
Just a wild thought, I know. No one would ever believe it.
And who's to say that they didn't? As I mentioned in an earlier post, if all of their playtesters ran it through its paces but nothing like this happened, why would they have had any expectation that it would have happened when it went on sale? At what point do you have to give your customers the benefit of the doubt that they won't act like maniacs?
Well, okay, yes. Maybe the American and Japanese defintions of "normal usage" got lost in translation somewhere. :)
We're just going to have to agree to disagree on this to an extent. If the user loses their grip because they're swinging harder than they should be or need to be, that's not Nintendo's fault. I'm not saying that you're saying it is, just that I don't agree with the "Nintendo should have known" attitude that seems to be prevalent. I'm definitely going to be purchasing some adhesive, rubber strips for the Wiimote now.
...or it shows that the people who did test it were using it responsibly. If 200 people tested it and there was no indication of problems, then why would they have had an expectation of thousands of over-zealous people losing their self-control?
And I still don't define that as spin. People generally don't get "excited" if they're not having fun. (Take that statement as you wish.) Sounds more like a valid cause than a spin to me.