NCSoft did it right when they briefly toyed with in game advertising in City of Heroes and City of Villains. They actually listened to their customers (aka the paying subscribers) and gave us an option to disable ads, so that instead of a real ad for a product and company that does not exist in the game world, we would see the fake and often humorous ads on the in game billboards that we were accustomed to.
They only sold 2 ads though, which is not a big deal, since they are making plenty from booster packs and other useful micro-transactions. Biggest problem with lack of interest from advertisers is that 150K or so potential viewers was too small for them.
But hopefully, now that the tech is in place for in game ads, they will go ahead and use it to sell ad space to super groups for recruiting purposes. And they could also plug upcoming in game events as well this way.
So this is a game that is not good enough to turn a profit on its own merits I presume? Otherwise, there is no need to shove advertising at the players who purchased the game to play instead of to watch commercials.
Sounds like something I would not want to bother purchasing if it is so craptacular they have to sell ad space in the game. Then again, it's a Sony product, and Sony is already on my No Buy List.
Personally, there's one rule I'd like ingrained in every driver's head: never match speeds with someone in the lane next to you. Pass, fall behind, whatever. Just don't sit there turning a two-lane road into what's effectively a one-lane road.
One I would like people to get is: "If you know that you are going to have to merge soon (either because the lane you are in is about to go buh-bye, or you are coming off an on-ramp), and someone is obviously making an opening for you to safely merge, then for fuck's sake, take the damn opening instead of waiting until the last possible second and hoping someone else will be merciful.
Your penis is not going to get any smaller if you don't try to get ahead of as many others on the freeway as possible before you have to merge.
Personally, I only buy CDs for myself and rip those to.ogg for my computer and iRiver MP3 player.
You do realize that according to the RIAA/MPAA members that this illegal copying and they're paying off as many politicians as possible to alter the law so that it's actually true.
And when all is said and done, those RIAA/MPAA members are cordially invited to go fuck themselves. Despite their idiotic claims, when you purchase a legal copy of a movie or a CD, that copy is yours to do with whatever you wish, as long as you are not distributing copies made from that original to other people.
Who gives a shit if they claim that it is illegal to rip the music or movie to your hard drive so it can be played in a format of your choosing? They can bluster about this all they want. That does not mean jack shit. Do you think they are going to somehow confiscate every CD and DVD you own because you are watching them in a format other than the one they sold it to you in? GMAFB!
The only way they could pull that off would be to start raiding the homes of anyone they suspect might be buying their products and ripping them to their hard drives, and then physically confiscating every disk and piece of computer equipment owned. What RIAA or MPAA goon is going to want to risk leaving any given target's home in an ambulance or body bag?
Whoever tagged this with passthebuck was a bit off the mark. Since there were used condoms among the waste, passthefuck would have been more appropriate.:)
There are plenty of jobs that nobody could possibly want to do.
Yeah. There's a good chance that the guys who run Doody Calls (a septic service in Tacoma) don't actually enjoy their work. Bet it pulls in some decent income though. I briefly entertained the notion of opening a competing service called It Happens. However, I just don't have the ambition needed to get into such a crappy line of work.:)
In City of Heroes, unless you personally know someone in the game who already has a major supergroup (guild) built up, getting anywhere is going to be a chore.
That is not entirely true. I have several characters (both heroes and villains) who are doing quite well while not being affiliated with any super group. Specifically, I set up characters on two servers with the intention of not creating my own group at 10. These are:
And on Guardian, I have Bow Chicka Bow Wow - Dark Melee/Electric Armor Stalker.
As I said, these characters are all operating without a supergroup (though if I get an invite to one, I will consider it.) Additionally, most of these characters have operated solo, and I have plenty of others who have progressed through the game mostly on their own. These are in small super groups, which is why they are listed apart from the above examples. My prime examples (since I will admit I like showing off here...) are:
Twilight Dream - My first Warshade on (Dual form Human/Dark Nova). She mostly soloed her way to 30 on Virtue. And her villainous incarnation on Protector (a Ninjas/Dark Mastermind) has also soloed primarily so far.
The Virtue incarnation of Polar Peregrine, an Archery/Ice Blaster primarily soloed her way to 50. I think it took me about 3 months of casual play with her to get to 50. Sure, she did do some teaming, which was a real blast, but the majority of her career was solo.
Sparkle Swan, my Broadsword/Shield Defense Scrapper made it to 32 mostly solo in about 4 days time.
Never-Moore, a Mercenaries/Pain Master Mind is 37, and has also soloed most of his career.
And finally, we have "Crimson Duck, a Fire/Energy Blaster on Liberty. Actually, come to think of it, her career has been a pretty even mix of solo and team play. Sadly, she got knocked off her high horse when she got thoroughly spanked by the Envoy of Shadow in her 30s. That was when it was discovered that she was not as invincible as I thought she was.:) She is currently level 46, and I sorta have her competing with Kilderon, My Ice/Radiation Controller to become my second level 50 hero and my third level 50 character (second was my first level 50 villain, Sonnenblume - Fire/Dark Corruptor. She made the journe
What makes you think your data is safe on your computer? Microsoft can access anything on your PC if they so choose.
If Microsoft could do that, I would be sending some emails to debian-user asking the maintainers why they are allowing such a travesty to go unchecked in their repositories.
And then I would probably post a whistle-blowing story right here on Slashdot.
This shit wouldn't fly if you could only use Samsung TVs on Comcast. Nor would it fly if Earthlink required you to use a Dell computer to access their dialup service.
Gather around, Grasshoppers. For I present to you the tale of the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home video game system to go to market.
Although there was no true exclusivity involved anywhere, there was an appearance of exclusivity, as customers were under the impression that it would only work on Magnavox television sets due to the system being sold only at Magnavox stores. This hurt the Odyssey's sales tremendously.
Why would anyone go to the bank two days in a row? If that actually happened I would suspect that the person was indeed the robber.
Congratulations, Anonymous Coward! You have been nominated for the award for "Most Retarded Post Ever On Slashdot."
There are plenty of legitimate reasons why someone might need to engage in banking activities two days in a row (or even more frequently.) Back in the old days, before the economy went south, I often made daily trips to the bank to deposit payments from customers who purchased assorted products from me through eBay and various newsgroups. Why would that seem so out of place, hmmm?
Maybe just me. When i see the sony label on something, I instantly think 'Evil! Eeeevilll!'.
You are not the only one. Sony is high on my No Buy List.
Other outfits on that list include: EA, Microsoft, Amazon, Wal-Mart, McDonalds, Apple (that's been on my list the longest since they abandoned their Apple IIGS users with no viable upgrade path that made use of the computer hardware we paid handsomely for back in the day), RIAA members, and others I may recall later.
This information is relevant because one of Apple's selling point for the iPhone is that it is a good software platform.
Just out of curiosity, has anyone been able to confirm whether or not something like the iPhone can be used to place and receive phone calls? That would be a good feature for one of these devices, I would think.
Or is that concept a bit too inconceivable at this point in the history of electronics?
They do have both the technical and legal ability to do so. You agree to their terms the moment you access the site. If you don't like the terms, you are free to browse elsewhere.
You have it backwards. By making a website available to the public without requiring logging in to a registered account, the site owners are agreeing to the public's terms that we the viewers can browse their site with no obligation to view any ads that they may be hosting or otherwise providing any sort of compensation.
As for agreeing to a site's terms as soon as you access it? Let's take this one for example:
Show us where the terms are that we must agree to before accessing any of the content hosted here. Nothing on the front page as far as I can see.
Well, I am doing what I can to convince my fellow Americans that Bud is just beer flavored water. It's not easy to convert the typical beer drinker, but I have turned several on to Alaskan Amber over the years.:)
Would the Andromeda galaxy be visible from Costa Rica? I thought CR was too far south of the Equator for anything in that part of the northern night sky to be visible.
Slashdot Mirror
I guess Sony is like Slurm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUqpBYLDGCU
(1:10-1:35 for example)
NCSoft did it right when they briefly toyed with in game advertising in City of Heroes and City of Villains. They actually listened to their customers (aka the paying subscribers) and gave us an option to disable ads, so that instead of a real ad for a product and company that does not exist in the game world, we would see the fake and often humorous ads on the in game billboards that we were accustomed to.
They only sold 2 ads though, which is not a big deal, since they are making plenty from booster packs and other useful micro-transactions. Biggest problem with lack of interest from advertisers is that 150K or so potential viewers was too small for them.
But hopefully, now that the tech is in place for in game ads, they will go ahead and use it to sell ad space to super groups for recruiting purposes. And they could also plug upcoming in game events as well this way.
So this is a game that is not good enough to turn a profit on its own merits I presume? Otherwise, there is no need to shove advertising at the players who purchased the game to play instead of to watch commercials.
Sounds like something I would not want to bother purchasing if it is so craptacular they have to sell ad space in the game. Then again, it's a Sony product, and Sony is already on my No Buy List.
Personally, there's one rule I'd like ingrained in every driver's head: never match speeds with someone in the lane next to you. Pass, fall behind, whatever. Just don't sit there turning a two-lane road into what's effectively a one-lane road.
One I would like people to get is: "If you know that you are going to have to merge soon (either because the lane you are in is about to go buh-bye, or you are coming off an on-ramp), and someone is obviously making an opening for you to safely merge, then for fuck's sake, take the damn opening instead of waiting until the last possible second and hoping someone else will be merciful.
Your penis is not going to get any smaller if you don't try to get ahead of as many others on the freeway as possible before you have to merge.
And in the blink of an eye, he discovers that he was not specifically promised 72 female virgins.
Personally, I only buy CDs for myself and rip those to .ogg for my computer and iRiver MP3 player.
You do realize that according to the RIAA/MPAA members that this illegal copying and they're paying off as many politicians as possible to alter the law so that it's actually true.
And when all is said and done, those RIAA/MPAA members are cordially invited to go fuck themselves. Despite their idiotic claims, when you purchase a legal copy of a movie or a CD, that copy is yours to do with whatever you wish, as long as you are not distributing copies made from that original to other people.
Who gives a shit if they claim that it is illegal to rip the music or movie to your hard drive so it can be played in a format of your choosing? They can bluster about this all they want. That does not mean jack shit. Do you think they are going to somehow confiscate every CD and DVD you own because you are watching them in a format other than the one they sold it to you in? GMAFB!
The only way they could pull that off would be to start raiding the homes of anyone they suspect might be buying their products and ripping them to their hard drives, and then physically confiscating every disk and piece of computer equipment owned. What RIAA or MPAA goon is going to want to risk leaving any given target's home in an ambulance or body bag?
Bring up your preferred search engine and do a search of the Internet for more info.
Hmm, my penis doesn't seem to get a 3G internet signal.
3G? As in Giggity-Giggity-Giggity?
Oh. I wasn't aware of that. Thanks for clarifying. So much for that attempt at humor. :p
Whoever tagged this with passthebuck was a bit off the mark. Since there were used condoms among the waste, passthefuck would have been more appropriate. :)
Belgium! Looks like I had a visit from the Fuck Up Fairy...
... Ah, what the hell. Here's another look at Sparkle Swan in her level 30 costume. The one in the first shot is what she will get at 40. :)
Trying again...
Sparkle Swan - Broadsword/Shield Defense Scrapper.
Crimson Duck - Fire/Energy Blaster.
There are plenty of jobs that nobody could possibly want to do.
Yeah. There's a good chance that the guys who run Doody Calls (a septic service in Tacoma) don't actually enjoy their work. Bet it pulls in some decent income though. I briefly entertained the notion of opening a competing service called It Happens. However, I just don't have the ambition needed to get into such a crappy line of work. :)
In City of Heroes, unless you personally know someone in the game who already has a major supergroup (guild) built up, getting anywhere is going to be a chore.
That is not entirely true. I have several characters (both heroes and villains) who are doing quite well while not being affiliated with any super group. Specifically, I set up characters on two servers with the intention of not creating my own group at 10. These are:
:) She is currently level 46, and I sorta have her competing with Kilderon, My Ice/Radiation Controller to become my second level 50 hero and my third level 50 character (second was my first level 50 villain, Sonnenblume - Fire/Dark Corruptor. She made the journe
Screamsicle - Sonic Blast/Cold Domination Corruptor
Full Metal Duck - Assault Rifle/Energy Melee Blaster
Impact Event - Earth Control/Thermal Radiation Controller
Polar Peregrine - Ice/Storm Controller
Willowpaw - Fire/Electric Blaster
Willie Whompem - Triform Warshade
Spring Flurrie - Triform Peacebringer
And on Guardian, I have Bow Chicka Bow Wow - Dark Melee/Electric Armor Stalker.
As I said, these characters are all operating without a supergroup (though if I get an invite to one, I will consider it.) Additionally, most of these characters have operated solo, and I have plenty of others who have progressed through the game mostly on their own. These are in small super groups, which is why they are listed apart from the above examples. My prime examples (since I will admit I like showing off here...) are:
Twilight Dream - My first Warshade on (Dual form Human/Dark Nova). She mostly soloed her way to 30 on Virtue. And her villainous incarnation on Protector (a Ninjas/Dark Mastermind) has also soloed primarily so far.
The Virtue incarnation of Polar Peregrine, an Archery/Ice Blaster primarily soloed her way to 50. I think it took me about 3 months of casual play with her to get to 50. Sure, she did do some teaming, which was a real blast, but the majority of her career was solo.
The Virtue incarnation of Stellar Jay, a Plants/Energy Dominator, has also mostly soloed, and he is in his 30s now.
Sparkle Swan, my Broadsword/Shield Defense Scrapper made it to 32 mostly solo in about 4 days time.
Never-Moore, a Mercenaries/Pain Master Mind is 37, and has also soloed most of his career.
And finally, we have "Crimson Duck, a Fire/Energy Blaster on Liberty. Actually, come to think of it, her career has been a pretty even mix of solo and team play. Sadly, she got knocked off her high horse when she got thoroughly spanked by the Envoy of Shadow in her 30s. That was when it was discovered that she was not as invincible as I thought she was.
What makes you think your data is safe on your computer? Microsoft can access anything on your PC if they so choose.
If Microsoft could do that, I would be sending some emails to debian-user asking the maintainers why they are allowing such a travesty to go unchecked in their repositories.
And then I would probably post a whistle-blowing story right here on Slashdot.
This then raises the question of what market conditions exist that make it attractive for Apple to sign such a deal for the iPhone.
Sorry, I am finally unable to resist this...
Is it possible that the folks at Apple mispronounced AT&T, and thought it was GayT&T? :)
(ducks out of the way of the flying fresh veggies...and flying canned veggies).
Mount everest has people on it 1 month a year, there are over a million people in maine at any given time!
Like duh! The top of Mt. Everest is much closer to the satellites than anywhere in Maine would be. ;)
Odd... My link didn't take. I was actually referring to the original Odyssey from 1972.
This shit wouldn't fly if you could only use Samsung TVs on Comcast. Nor would it fly if Earthlink required you to use a Dell computer to access their dialup service.
Gather around, Grasshoppers. For I present to you the tale of the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home video game system to go to market.
Although there was no true exclusivity involved anywhere, there was an appearance of exclusivity, as customers were under the impression that it would only work on Magnavox television sets due to the system being sold only at Magnavox stores. This hurt the Odyssey's sales tremendously.
Why would anyone go to the bank two days in a row? If that actually happened I would suspect that the person was indeed the robber.
Congratulations, Anonymous Coward! You have been nominated for the award for "Most Retarded Post Ever On Slashdot."
There are plenty of legitimate reasons why someone might need to engage in banking activities two days in a row (or even more frequently.) Back in the old days, before the economy went south, I often made daily trips to the bank to deposit payments from customers who purchased assorted products from me through eBay and various newsgroups. Why would that seem so out of place, hmmm?
Maybe just me. When i see the sony label on something, I instantly think 'Evil! Eeeevilll!'.
You are not the only one. Sony is high on my No Buy List.
Other outfits on that list include: EA, Microsoft, Amazon, Wal-Mart, McDonalds, Apple (that's been on my list the longest since they abandoned their Apple IIGS users with no viable upgrade path that made use of the computer hardware we paid handsomely for back in the day), RIAA members, and others I may recall later.
This information is relevant because one of Apple's selling point for the iPhone is that it is a good software platform.
Just out of curiosity, has anyone been able to confirm whether or not something like the iPhone can be used to place and receive phone calls? That would be a good feature for one of these devices, I would think.
Or is that concept a bit too inconceivable at this point in the history of electronics?
They do have both the technical and legal ability to do so. You agree to their terms the moment you access the site. If you don't like the terms, you are free to browse elsewhere.
You have it backwards. By making a website available to the public without requiring logging in to a registered account, the site owners are agreeing to the public's terms that we the viewers can browse their site with no obligation to view any ads that they may be hosting or otherwise providing any sort of compensation.
As for agreeing to a site's terms as soon as you access it? Let's take this one for example:
Show us where the terms are that we must agree to before accessing any of the content hosted here. Nothing on the front page as far as I can see.
Well, I am doing what I can to convince my fellow Americans that Bud is just beer flavored water. It's not easy to convert the typical beer drinker, but I have turned several on to Alaskan Amber over the years. :)
See Subject.
Would the Andromeda galaxy be visible from Costa Rica? I thought CR was too far south of the Equator for anything in that part of the northern night sky to be visible.