This happened with the PS2/Xbox generation too, if some of the older (25+) of us remember.
I remember the same thing when the SNES was released in Australia (1992), soon we had Doom. Same with the PS1 (1996), then we got Half Life, Total Annihilation, Starcraft. The PS3 was supposed to herald the end of PC gaming, then we got Supreme Commander, S.T.A.L.K.E.R, Crysis. I cant wait for the next generation of consoles to bring about the death of PC gaming as we always get awesome new games on the PC.
This story really is quite old, every time a new console comes out they say the same thing. I might go load up some of my old 286 games on my 2009 built gaming PC.
I love PC gaming, but I think it's biggest weakness right now is the confusion created by video card manufacturers
Yes, exactly.
People waffle on about erroneous piracy statistics and wail about the "imminent death of PC gaming", they've been doing it since my first 286 gaming PC ignoring the fact that time and time again its been proven a copy != a lost sale and piracy statistics are vastly over inflated (at the behest of DRM salesmen). Every time the console manufacturers bring out a new console the cry "it's the death of the PC" is heard, we've had the SNES, PS, Xbox and Wii, PC's are still here and bigger then ever.
What is actually doing more harm to PC gaming then Piracy and consoles ever could are manufacturers. Nvidia have changed their nomenclature at least twice in the last 15 years. How are most people supposed to know the 8800 in my old gaming box is less powerful then the 285 in my current gaming box? It's not just the GPU manufacturers but PC manufacturers as well, the likes of Alienware and others who market overpriced pieces of junk as "gaming monsters". A lot of the marketing around GPU's and gaming machines seem designed to confuse and MS haven't made it easier by pushing people towards the Windows Experience(TM) number.
No DRM is DRM done right because DRM is a fundamentally flawed concept. It is a form of cryptography that treats the receiver and the attacker as the same person, hence in order for the receiver to get the message (decrypt) you have to give the key to the attacker which means no DRM concept could ever hope to be in any way effective.
you can move your games from system to system,
Now this is what valve did right. They provided a delivery platform that gives functionality that was previously unavailable to gamers. Download games without media (if one likes), backup games, copy games to a new OS/system. I've just upgraded my HDD and restored about 30 GB of steam games with minimal effort. DRM is what detracts from this and makes the whole process annoying. I have to wait for Steam to start, modding games becomes more difficult because the EXE is obscured (X3 Terran Conflict is one I could mention). Stardock's Impulse is a better platform as you aren't required to run Impulse to run a game and they don't obscure the game (modding is easy). Yes there is less DRM but is that entirely a bad thing(TM).
Valve did good by creating a decent delivery platform, the DRM is what detracts from this and prevents it from being a good delivery platform.
The iPhone/iPod Touch, on the other hand, has a enormous game market. The difference is that Apple doesn't punish you for downloading apps.
I disagree.
Someone who buys a PSP or DS is buying that device for the express purpose of playing games on it. People who buy an Iphone are not. Nintedo have sold 128.89 Million units of all DS types as of March 2010 according to Wikipedia and each and every one of those units is expressly for gaming. Now Even if Apple have sold the same amount of units (not that they have) their audience is not comprised entirely of gamers. In fact I'd say that 20% of iOwners (iOwned) are gamers and that this would be a very liberal estimate. Further more, the audience will be divided into different genres so 1 game will only apeal to 1o or 15% of the total gaming audience. So if you are selling a platformer, you can sell it to 15% of the DS's total audience or 15% of 20% of the Iphones. If numbers are equal you're only getting 1/5 of the audience by targeting a non gaming platform. Saying there are x million I/Android phones does not equate to x million gamers.
In addition to this you have the mindset amongst a lot of mobile phone gamers that they simply do not want to pay for games, many like myself only want a simple time waster like the free version of robo-defence on Android.
The mobile games market is very well established with very agile and innovative players, Apple will not be able to compete in this space for long if Nintendo and Sony turn their attention towards destroying them in this space. Right now Apple cannot possibly make a dent in Nintendo's monolithic presence nor in Sonys considerable presence either. I think MS would have an easier time introducing the Xbox Mobile and taking share away from Sony or Big N as they've already got an established games division.
No, you disagree with my point and the easiest way to destroy it is to twist my words into something logical.
What I said is that creating something via the use of money does not give it an intrinsic value. The value is decided by the market, well it is in most markets, in the entertainment industry it's given an arbitrary value that does not reflect the real cost of production. When a market decides your product is worthless or not worth the asking price, you are not entitled to a cent, you are entitled to make something worthwhile/adjust prices or go out of business.
The real straw man was created by the GP.
he artist is entitled to be paid if those people who have a copy of their work made use of it.
Once again you do not understand. No they are not entitled to get paid, they may get paid if the market decides it is worth their asking price.
An enviable position to be in... the artist having no recourse whatsoever in the eventuality that greed might result in you being less than generous.
Now this is a real straw man. You've create a fictional scenario where the artist is actually paid for CD sales. This is not true, the artist earns money by touring, now this is something that cannot be re-created thus has an intrinsic and measurable value. Have a read of this and try to tell me that the artist will starve, you are repeating stale and inaccurate propaganda as their true income source, the live shows and merchandise will not disappear even if copyright ceases to exist.
Then we have variations of song length, timing, down/up tuning, major/minor/seventh/ninth and tempo.
Which a judge is likely to ignore. Songs need not be identical; they need only be "substantially similar".
Only a tone-deaf retard could call a song played in a different key, to a different tempo with clean major chords swapped out for heavily distorted power (fifth) chords "substantially similar". But your point stands as US Judges and Lawmakers often fit this description.
For the most part, this would be called "derivative" and happens a lot in music. Quite a few Megadeth and Metalica songs are similar, classical music (Mozart, Beethoven) gets ripped off all the time, the guy who invented "1+2+3+4+" should be a millionaire.
Copyrighting sheet music is as pointless as copyrighting blocks of code as anyone with enough skill can figure out what the code is by seeing what it does (same with a guitarist listening to riffs).
The correct command is:
# sudo cp -rf sandwich sandwich2. The files are contained within the directory sandwich/bread, sandwich/chicken, sandwich/mayo, sandwich/lettuce and so forth.
and what kind of uncouth barbarian eats mayonnaise with ham.
This post is crystallised what I suspect is the "recording-cartel-approved" stance with regards to culture. I will now correct your points.
1. If you want to make a living creating works that exist in a data format (music, books, video) just accept the fact that nobody owes you a dime for your time. If some people choose to drop some money in your hat, that's awesome - but don't count on it.
You're assuming that one is entitled to get paid, you're also assuming that because you put money into something it has an intrinsic value equal to or greater then the time and money already expended on it. This falls down when you find out that, a product is worth what a purchaser will pay for it. Quite simple, because it cost you x dollars does not mean it is worth x dollars in the market. If your purchasers determine your product is worth 0 dollars you are not then entitled to payment.
2. If your music is so great, tour and make money that way. each band member might be able to clear $80 a night! Of course you'll need a huge cash infusion (i.e. debt) to start touring big, but I'm sure the banks will be happy to help you with loans for such a riskless endeavour.
This is how a band actually makes money. More often then not a portion of the money raised from touring will go to repay the recording contract debt (a loan forwarded to the artist by the publisher to cover the costs of hiring a studio, producing a film clip, living expenses, manufacture and distribution of an album as well as managers customary 10%) as CD sales often do not cover this debt 100%. Publishers do not take a loss here if it can be avoided even if it means reducing people to destitution. Loan's aren't given to artists by banks, they are given by publishers as banks have to follow rules about how to treat the debtor.
3. Always remember - costs like studio time, special effects, actors, musicians, props, sets, insurance, essentially every cost involved in the production of your work magically disconnect from the work itself at the moment it is finalized. A ripped copy of that work has absolutely no moral, legal, or implied connection to any of those costs.
Once again we go back to point number 1. Just because you spent x dollars on y does not entitle you to receive x dollars for y. When the costs of distribution are nil (zero cost to produce and distribute a flawless copy) all of these costs are diluted until they cant be realistically measured on the scale that money operates (I.E, each copy becomes a fraction of a cent).
You've pretty much described the Modus Operandi of the recording industry. 1. set the artist up in debt. 2. make sure the only way they can earn money for themselves is by hard touring. 3. as soon as their recording is complete disconnect the artist from their own works. Remember that Brittany Spears does not hold the rights to her own songs, her recording studio does.
As for the entity "recording-cartel" I hearby decree that the whole idea of "Independent Artist" is forever banned. You have been doomed to abusive and one sided contracts.
I wonder how hard it would be to computer generate every possible combination of music in music sheet form. To the level of satisfying copyright "it's practically the same song" rule. That way it isnt a matter of generating every possible combination per bit. This would obliterate the copyrights of the future music industry. Placing all the copyrights in control of the distributed computing group that does it. A GPL equivalent or perhaps lesser one could be used. All music from day 1 on has to be released under that copyright. Which bars them from suing consumers.
Nice idea but fails in implementation.
There are 12 notes in music, C, C#, D, D# E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A# and B. In 4/4 timing there can be 16 combination of these 12 notes plus pauses (essentially left blank). So 13^16 = 665416609183179841 possible combinations of notes in a single bar ignoring slides, vibrato, hammer on/pull off, bends and half bends as well as all the funky effects of other instruments (admitting guitar bias here \m/). Assuming a tempo of 60 BPM there will be 120 bars per minute. Assume an average of 4 minutes per song (480 bars) and you get 1.2160339961839677144837309996667e+8555 -1 possible permutations (because you cant patent a song made entirely of pauses). Then we have variations of song length, timing, down/up tuning, major/minor/seventh/ninth and tempo.
It is much easier to go down the software patent course and patent each source note, then you only have 12 to worry about. BTW A is mine (patent pending).
And today we have embargoes that not only harm our own citizens but keep some parts of the world in poverty because we disagree with their government... -cough- Cuba -cough-
To be fair, Cuba is not that bad off. Yes life would be better for the Cubans if the US stopped putting up trade barriers but many US friendly caribian nations are far worse off self sufficient Cuba.
The problem of Greece has a lot to do with corruption in the minority of people who work in administration and very little to do with a welfare state
You're half right, it has nothing to do with a "welfare state" and everything to do with industry. You see Greece doesn't really have any to speak of. So they are spending without being able to collect enough money to cover those expenses. Greece has practically no income since the EU economy is down (Greece relied heavily on tourism from the EU, which has largely dissapeared). Places which Americans would refer to as socialist such as Sweden and Norway have several industries that can be relied on, thus are running balenced budgets and not getting heavily into debt.
Greece is in trouble because of piss-poor economic planning and the problems in the US have the same cause.
I read through all the messages and came up with this: The Slashdot users complaining here about the iPhone 4 don't even fucking have one. You turds.
Oh dry your eyes princess,
Here's a tissue.
This is the same thing that happens to every story about Google, Microsoft, Dell, IBM, Apple or most companies. Some of it's true and some of it's FUD. You're just upset because it's happening to your beloved Apple.
And if I see one single comment pimping the Android in this story, I'll have all you Android fans know that you have become what you hate.
No, I haven't become what I hate. You don't see me supporting an abusive, shitty company so I can have a trendy, overpriced device. I don't slap Google stickers on my car and blindly claim my device is superior to all others.
Indeed, I do not blindly trust everything that Google says. I know Google has their own motives, despite the fact Google is quite open about it I remain sceptical.
At the very least Google admits to their screwups and issue patches/fixes. They dont just come out and say "you're holding it wrong". To the GP, your logic is wrong, it's a strawman that you connect liking Android to blind fanboyism without any actual connection.
This is the great thing about SS2, I personally didn't like the gamepig and thought it was a waste of inventory (but carried it anyway like the pack rat I am). The game is so varied that almost everyone has their own best part about it.
Sure, that was correct at one time but that's not how it works, at least in Sweden, any more. For starters they translate the texts from material that predates the versions in the middle ages.
To be fair, I was being a sarcastic bastard but you raise a very good point.
Translation is a big one, many European kings/religious elite used crafty translations to guide the people into specific beliefs. This changed from generation to generation a little but we end up with people who have had contact with each other since before Christianity even existed having completely different methods of worshipping the same god/ideals. Going to a French church and a Swedish church are quite different and this is the kind of thing I was sarcastically talking about.
Even today this continues to go on. Everyone's favourite religion, Islam is the poster child of this, want to be the religion of peace you concentrate on the nicer, forgiving parts of the Koran. Want to kill all infidels, preach from the fiery, violent parts, swords to necks and what not. The bible is the same with both forgiveness and violence and I'm willing to bet the Torah is too (never read the Torah). Even with modern Christianity, in many nations most notably the third world like Philippines and some in South America different interpretations of the bible (old or new testament) are made to give people certain perception. In the Philippines in particular (OK this is the one I know) the church cant afford to send relatively highly educated people out to the sticks so there are a lot of lay-preachers. These people are ordinary villagers with higher then average aptitude who receive advanced religious educations. In simple terms they are told what to say to their village. For the most part it's benign, god loves you, Philippines is a devout nation of good people and so forth but with this comes some indoctrination and a little altering of public opinion towards or against certain political individuals.
This is the biggest problem I have with cheesy minigames. Really? I have to "hack a computer" by redirecting pipes so water can flow through them? (Or whatever the hell it is you're doing in Bioshock... this is the best way I can explain it). That shit was fun when it came with my Games for Windows 95 pack, but it's a bit out of place in a modern immersive shooter.
You see, having a game based around a minigame is OK, having a game that using minigames are an extension (most often optional) to the gameplay often makes it better. However making serious shooter or RPG where a gimmick or minigame is central to the gameplay is bad and this goes for most game types. My point is that some people like games such as Tetris or Tower Defence that are based around simple principals as a minigame is, whilst most shooters/RPG/Strategy games cannot work as simply as Tetris they can often use minigames with simple principals to break up the flow and ad atmosphere and character to the game.
If the last sentence offends you, go back to threatening to cockpunch people on Modern Warfare, this conversation is for adults.
Many games have implemented mini-games as a core yet optional part of the gameplay experience. The parent mentioned Bioshock which really is the retarded cousin of a game that was released almost 10 years before it called System Shock 2. Bioshock fails so badly at even getting close to living up to the System Shock 2 standard it's not funny but that's another story. In System Shock 2 there was a hacking minigame, based on selecting squares to illuminate and getting three illuminated squares in a row, of course certain squares would fail to illuminate and three failures resulted in an alarm going off, Which squares were failures was randomised. This was done as a side panel, so the game was going on around you as you tried to hack and there was no time limit. Bioshock, in it's many failures turned this into a skill/time based game which basically turned a fun extension of the game into a clickfest. You had to race against the water moving bits of pipe, further more this removed you from the game. So hacking in Bioshock sucked a lot of fun out of the game by changing the pace of the game and removing you from it. Mini game done wrong. Fallout 3 also removed you from the game but it made hacking and lockpicking optional and the minigames maintained the character of the game.
A well done minigame adds to the atmosphere of an immersive shooter as it did in System Shock 2 to those of you who think Modern Warfare is an immersive shooter, go back to button mashing as this conversation is for adults whilst a poorly done minigame detracts from it. This can be said of all facets of gameplay. Much like Quick Time Events, when they are overused and become a crutch to the central gameplay elements (shooting, jumping, puzzle solving, story) they detract from it and only serve to annoy the player, however a well place QTE will add to the excitement of the game, much the same as cut scenes (which should come in after an accomplishment, when the player is relaxed not when the player is in the middle of something. Valve understood this, even with cutscene-less Half Life, they didn't display pertinent information whilst the player was busy).
Slashdot Mirror
I remember the same thing when the SNES was released in Australia (1992), soon we had Doom. Same with the PS1 (1996), then we got Half Life, Total Annihilation, Starcraft. The PS3 was supposed to herald the end of PC gaming, then we got Supreme Commander, S.T.A.L.K.E.R, Crysis. I cant wait for the next generation of consoles to bring about the death of PC gaming as we always get awesome new games on the PC.
1992, 1990, 1988.
This story really is quite old, every time a new console comes out they say the same thing. I might go load up some of my old 286 games on my 2009 built gaming PC.
Yes, exactly.
People waffle on about erroneous piracy statistics and wail about the "imminent death of PC gaming", they've been doing it since my first 286 gaming PC ignoring the fact that time and time again its been proven a copy != a lost sale and piracy statistics are vastly over inflated (at the behest of DRM salesmen). Every time the console manufacturers bring out a new console the cry "it's the death of the PC" is heard, we've had the SNES, PS, Xbox and Wii, PC's are still here and bigger then ever.
What is actually doing more harm to PC gaming then Piracy and consoles ever could are manufacturers. Nvidia have changed their nomenclature at least twice in the last 15 years. How are most people supposed to know the 8800 in my old gaming box is less powerful then the 285 in my current gaming box? It's not just the GPU manufacturers but PC manufacturers as well, the likes of Alienware and others who market overpriced pieces of junk as "gaming monsters". A lot of the marketing around GPU's and gaming machines seem designed to confuse and MS haven't made it easier by pushing people towards the Windows Experience(TM) number.
No,
No DRM is DRM done right because DRM is a fundamentally flawed concept. It is a form of cryptography that treats the receiver and the attacker as the same person, hence in order for the receiver to get the message (decrypt) you have to give the key to the attacker which means no DRM concept could ever hope to be in any way effective.
Now this is what valve did right. They provided a delivery platform that gives functionality that was previously unavailable to gamers. Download games without media (if one likes), backup games, copy games to a new OS/system. I've just upgraded my HDD and restored about 30 GB of steam games with minimal effort. DRM is what detracts from this and makes the whole process annoying. I have to wait for Steam to start, modding games becomes more difficult because the EXE is obscured (X3 Terran Conflict is one I could mention). Stardock's Impulse is a better platform as you aren't required to run Impulse to run a game and they don't obscure the game (modding is easy). Yes there is less DRM but is that entirely a bad thing(TM).
Valve did good by creating a decent delivery platform, the DRM is what detracts from this and prevents it from being a good delivery platform.
I disagree.
Someone who buys a PSP or DS is buying that device for the express purpose of playing games on it. People who buy an Iphone are not. Nintedo have sold 128.89 Million units of all DS types as of March 2010 according to Wikipedia and each and every one of those units is expressly for gaming. Now Even if Apple have sold the same amount of units (not that they have) their audience is not comprised entirely of gamers. In fact I'd say that 20% of iOwners (iOwned) are gamers and that this would be a very liberal estimate. Further more, the audience will be divided into different genres so 1 game will only apeal to 1o or 15% of the total gaming audience. So if you are selling a platformer, you can sell it to 15% of the DS's total audience or 15% of 20% of the Iphones. If numbers are equal you're only getting 1/5 of the audience by targeting a non gaming platform. Saying there are x million I/Android phones does not equate to x million gamers.
In addition to this you have the mindset amongst a lot of mobile phone gamers that they simply do not want to pay for games, many like myself only want a simple time waster like the free version of robo-defence on Android.
The mobile games market is very well established with very agile and innovative players, Apple will not be able to compete in this space for long if Nintendo and Sony turn their attention towards destroying them in this space. Right now Apple cannot possibly make a dent in Nintendo's monolithic presence nor in Sonys considerable presence either. I think MS would have an easier time introducing the Xbox Mobile and taking share away from Sony or Big N as they've already got an established games division.
No, you disagree with my point and the easiest way to destroy it is to twist my words into something logical.
What I said is that creating something via the use of money does not give it an intrinsic value. The value is decided by the market, well it is in most markets, in the entertainment industry it's given an arbitrary value that does not reflect the real cost of production. When a market decides your product is worthless or not worth the asking price, you are not entitled to a cent, you are entitled to make something worthwhile/adjust prices or go out of business. The real straw man was created by the GP.
Once again you do not understand. No they are not entitled to get paid, they may get paid if the market decides it is worth their asking price.
Now this is a real straw man. You've create a fictional scenario where the artist is actually paid for CD sales. This is not true, the artist earns money by touring, now this is something that cannot be re-created thus has an intrinsic and measurable value. Have a read of this and try to tell me that the artist will starve, you are repeating stale and inaccurate propaganda as their true income source, the live shows and merchandise will not disappear even if copyright ceases to exist.
Only a tone-deaf retard could call a song played in a different key, to a different tempo with clean major chords swapped out for heavily distorted power (fifth) chords "substantially similar". But your point stands as US Judges and Lawmakers often fit this description.
For the most part, this would be called "derivative" and happens a lot in music. Quite a few Megadeth and Metalica songs are similar, classical music (Mozart, Beethoven) gets ripped off all the time, the guy who invented "1+2+3+4+" should be a millionaire.
Copyrighting sheet music is as pointless as copyrighting blocks of code as anyone with enough skill can figure out what the code is by seeing what it does (same with a guitarist listening to riffs).
The correct command is:
# sudo cp -rf sandwich sandwich2. The files are contained within the directory sandwich/bread, sandwich/chicken, sandwich/mayo, sandwich/lettuce and so forth.
and what kind of uncouth barbarian eats mayonnaise with ham.
Glad you cleared that one up for us. I thought someone at the BBC couldn't spell sado.
Not if one's already been made.
You're assuming that one is entitled to get paid, you're also assuming that because you put money into something it has an intrinsic value equal to or greater then the time and money already expended on it. This falls down when you find out that, a product is worth what a purchaser will pay for it. Quite simple, because it cost you x dollars does not mean it is worth x dollars in the market. If your purchasers determine your product is worth 0 dollars you are not then entitled to payment.
This is how a band actually makes money. More often then not a portion of the money raised from touring will go to repay the recording contract debt (a loan forwarded to the artist by the publisher to cover the costs of hiring a studio, producing a film clip, living expenses, manufacture and distribution of an album as well as managers customary 10%) as CD sales often do not cover this debt 100%. Publishers do not take a loss here if it can be avoided even if it means reducing people to destitution. Loan's aren't given to artists by banks, they are given by publishers as banks have to follow rules about how to treat the debtor.
Once again we go back to point number 1. Just because you spent x dollars on y does not entitle you to receive x dollars for y. When the costs of distribution are nil (zero cost to produce and distribute a flawless copy) all of these costs are diluted until they cant be realistically measured on the scale that money operates (I.E, each copy becomes a fraction of a cent).
You've pretty much described the Modus Operandi of the recording industry. 1. set the artist up in debt. 2. make sure the only way they can earn money for themselves is by hard touring. 3. as soon as their recording is complete disconnect the artist from their own works. Remember that Brittany Spears does not hold the rights to her own songs, her recording studio does.
As for the entity "recording-cartel" I hearby decree that the whole idea of "Independent Artist" is forever banned. You have been doomed to abusive and one sided contracts.
Nice idea but fails in implementation.
There are 12 notes in music, C, C#, D, D# E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A# and B. In 4/4 timing there can be 16 combination of these 12 notes plus pauses (essentially left blank). So 13^16 = 665416609183179841 possible combinations of notes in a single bar ignoring slides, vibrato, hammer on/pull off, bends and half bends as well as all the funky effects of other instruments (admitting guitar bias here \m/). Assuming a tempo of 60 BPM there will be 120 bars per minute. Assume an average of 4 minutes per song (480 bars) and you get 1.2160339961839677144837309996667e+8555 -1 possible permutations (because you cant patent a song made entirely of pauses). Then we have variations of song length, timing, down/up tuning, major/minor/seventh/ninth and tempo.
It is much easier to go down the software patent course and patent each source note, then you only have 12 to worry about. BTW A is mine (patent pending).
If you can make unlimited copies of my sandwich without in diminishing the original then you, by all means may.
In fact I'm particularly hungry today so could you make me a copy of said sandwich.
OK, Sudo make me a copy of the sandwich.
Dont worry, he'll be back in a kibisecond.
To be fair, Cuba is not that bad off. Yes life would be better for the Cubans if the US stopped putting up trade barriers but many US friendly caribian nations are far worse off self sufficient Cuba.
You're half right, it has nothing to do with a "welfare state" and everything to do with industry. You see Greece doesn't really have any to speak of. So they are spending without being able to collect enough money to cover those expenses. Greece has practically no income since the EU economy is down (Greece relied heavily on tourism from the EU, which has largely dissapeared). Places which Americans would refer to as socialist such as Sweden and Norway have several industries that can be relied on, thus are running balenced budgets and not getting heavily into debt.
Greece is in trouble because of piss-poor economic planning and the problems in the US have the same cause.
This is a good thing like Drivers licenses and Auto registration.
The US has had these before the UK.
I'm sorry but your poor attempt to bash the UK with inaccurate information has failed.
Is it a laden or unladen submarine? An African or European Space shuttle.
Besides this, the space shuttle said it wanted Subway.
What is the difference between an Apple fanboy and a terrorist.
You can negotiate with a terrorist.
Oh dry your eyes princess,
Here's a tissue.
This is the same thing that happens to every story about Google, Microsoft, Dell, IBM, Apple or most companies. Some of it's true and some of it's FUD. You're just upset because it's happening to your beloved Apple.
Indeed, I do not blindly trust everything that Google says. I know Google has their own motives, despite the fact Google is quite open about it I remain sceptical.
At the very least Google admits to their screwups and issue patches/fixes. They dont just come out and say "you're holding it wrong". To the GP, your logic is wrong, it's a strawman that you connect liking Android to blind fanboyism without any actual connection.
This is the great thing about SS2, I personally didn't like the gamepig and thought it was a waste of inventory (but carried it anyway like the pack rat I am). The game is so varied that almost everyone has their own best part about it.
To be fair, I was being a sarcastic bastard but you raise a very good point.
Translation is a big one, many European kings/religious elite used crafty translations to guide the people into specific beliefs. This changed from generation to generation a little but we end up with people who have had contact with each other since before Christianity even existed having completely different methods of worshipping the same god/ideals. Going to a French church and a Swedish church are quite different and this is the kind of thing I was sarcastically talking about.
Even today this continues to go on. Everyone's favourite religion, Islam is the poster child of this, want to be the religion of peace you concentrate on the nicer, forgiving parts of the Koran. Want to kill all infidels, preach from the fiery, violent parts, swords to necks and what not. The bible is the same with both forgiveness and violence and I'm willing to bet the Torah is too (never read the Torah). Even with modern Christianity, in many nations most notably the third world like Philippines and some in South America different interpretations of the bible (old or new testament) are made to give people certain perception. In the Philippines in particular (OK this is the one I know) the church cant afford to send relatively highly educated people out to the sticks so there are a lot of lay-preachers. These people are ordinary villagers with higher then average aptitude who receive advanced religious educations. In simple terms they are told what to say to their village. For the most part it's benign, god loves you, Philippines is a devout nation of good people and so forth but with this comes some indoctrination and a little altering of public opinion towards or against certain political individuals.
You see, having a game based around a minigame is OK, having a game that using minigames are an extension (most often optional) to the gameplay often makes it better. However making serious shooter or RPG where a gimmick or minigame is central to the gameplay is bad and this goes for most game types. My point is that some people like games such as Tetris or Tower Defence that are based around simple principals as a minigame is, whilst most shooters/RPG/Strategy games cannot work as simply as Tetris they can often use minigames with simple principals to break up the flow and ad atmosphere and character to the game.
If the last sentence offends you, go back to threatening to cockpunch people on Modern Warfare, this conversation is for adults.
Many games have implemented mini-games as a core yet optional part of the gameplay experience. The parent mentioned Bioshock which really is the retarded cousin of a game that was released almost 10 years before it called System Shock 2. Bioshock fails so badly at even getting close to living up to the System Shock 2 standard it's not funny but that's another story. In System Shock 2 there was a hacking minigame, based on selecting squares to illuminate and getting three illuminated squares in a row, of course certain squares would fail to illuminate and three failures resulted in an alarm going off, Which squares were failures was randomised. This was done as a side panel, so the game was going on around you as you tried to hack and there was no time limit. Bioshock, in it's many failures turned this into a skill/time based game which basically turned a fun extension of the game into a clickfest. You had to race against the water moving bits of pipe, further more this removed you from the game. So hacking in Bioshock sucked a lot of fun out of the game by changing the pace of the game and removing you from it. Mini game done wrong. Fallout 3 also removed you from the game but it made hacking and lockpicking optional and the minigames maintained the character of the game.
A well done minigame adds to the atmosphere of an immersive shooter as it did in System Shock 2 to those of you who think Modern Warfare is an immersive shooter, go back to button mashing as this conversation is for adults whilst a poorly done minigame detracts from it. This can be said of all facets of gameplay. Much like Quick Time Events, when they are overused and become a crutch to the central gameplay elements (shooting, jumping, puzzle solving, story) they detract from it and only serve to annoy the player, however a well place QTE will add to the excitement of the game, much the same as cut scenes (which should come in after an accomplishment, when the player is relaxed not when the player is in the middle of something. Valve understood this, even with cutscene-less Half Life, they didn't display pertinent information whilst the player was busy).
When chastity is a virtue, you're doing it wrong. Lets not talk about the religions where it's enforced.
Buddhist chicks FTW, no hang-ups about sex (They'll even take money/gifts for it).