In conjunction with the closed content/open code trick already mentioned, online games should be very easy to open source. You can easily charge for access to the server for the player's account, instead of for the initial disc purchase.
This flies in the face of the Guild Wars model, but for the WoW model, where you pay for both the disc and the account, it can be amended so that for example, you are forced to buy a certain minimum of months of play.
In my uninformed opinion there really is no reason for paid-account MMORPGs to be closed source. They might say that it's to prevent cheating, but I say that open sourcing would kill cheating dead.
Wow, you really have no idea how hard EA coders actually work.
For one, if it was really as simple as incrementing a year, EA could be replaced by a yearly cron job that ran a script that did a simple SELECT * FROM players, rearranged the data on the CDs accordingly, then $year++ and start printing discs.
But it's not that simple. There are many, many factors to take into account. For example, in a World Cup year, someone has to be around to press 'Make World Cup game' on the menu. If a franchise starts to die off, someone has to press 'Make advert from FMV intro', and then 'Publish advert'. Sometimes some exec decides to 'innovate', and someone has to pull an all-nighter pressing 'Add lame gimmick'. It's a hard life.
No, big companies should keep making software, but they should sell it to the market that exists, not to the one that they wish existed. It's perfectly possible to make a bucketload of money from software without your primary source of revenue being the sale of CDs. And in light of this and the fact that CDs are a dime a dozen, to make it your only source of income is insane.
The change is happening anyway, with or without you. A few examples: Red Hat, Novell, Bethesda, and Bungie. They all sell software, but they also make a load of money from stuff like services, support and extra content. Software can be profitable the moment you stop playing King Canute with piracy.
Since every business I've ever seen inside was running some form of pirated software. Since everyone I knew with a computer has had pirated mp3 on it at some point. Since people I know started watching pirated copies of new films, often before they were released. Since getting a PlayStation chipped was a £15 affair, and copied games were more conveniently available than legit ones.
It's not "fuck the rules, every man for himself", it's "fuck the rules, they aren't being enforced". It's a force you'll have seen in effect in real life. There might be a big Keep Off the Grass sign, but if the first few people in a big crowd start to cross, the rest will follow, and it'll feel pretty stupid to try to obey the sign anyway.
It might not be right, but at least accept that this is the way things are. At least then you might be able to start to do something about it. And no, the answer isn't for us to change. That crowd won't stop crossing the grass very easily. You need to change your business models and stop putting grass in our way.
Get a better analogy. Physical objects and places aren't comparable to data, no matter how much you people keep repeating the opposite to yourselves.
And I don't know what planet you do business on, but from what I've seen a 'cost' means "something we can't avoid paying", not "something we really ought to pay". And "enough money to start a business" means "enough money to pay the costs".
If the market for commercially licensed software is sour, then what the fuck are all those companies still doing trying to sell commercially licensed software? Are they just sticking it out, hoping for a miracle? Or do they expect someone to come along and lock down everyones' computers for them in order to artificially prop up their business model?
Welcome to the free market, pal. Adapt or die.
Part of adapting is adapting to your competitors. If your competitors are pirating software, they're gaining an advantage over you. With piracy in it's semi-legal state, it's bad business not to do it.
Oh, and fuck your stolen chairs and desks analogy. We both know what a pile of bullshit that is.
No shit, sherlock. The point TechDirt is making is that it's still better that they run warez than nothing at all. You can preach morality all you like, but the guys struggling to keep their businesses afloat from day to day don't give a shit about what you think is right. And their productivity is a lot more important than your indignation or the potential profit of the software industry.
This is yet another example which shows that crime never pays!
In other news, 7391 shashdotters consider acquiring illegal software.
What the fuck? I see your point, but you're just begging for Offtopic and Troll mods with something like that. If you're going to bitch about warez and insult Slashdotters, you need to be clever about it and only do it in stories about piracy.
Besides that, your comparison is so incredibly unequal that I wonder if you even thought about it beyond "Hey, this'll sound real smart, and them shashdotters sure love to talk about the morality of warez!".
Aides said Bloomberg believes his views are relevant because he has a rare perspective as a former businessman who ran a company for two decades before he became mayor
You're right, it's gold.
"Hello, I'm a former business man, and I want a big fucking database of everyone's DNA and fingerprints. Why? What the fuck do you mean, why? As if you need a reason for an idea this awesome. Oh, fine, just say illegal immigrants or something."
Reminds me of that guy from An Inspector Calls, who thought he was right just because he was "talking as a hard headed practical man of business".
I was more or less with you until your last two sentences.
When we fire up the gas-chambers and build labor camps, you can come back and scream "NAZI" all you want. But until then, STFU and get back under the cubbards where you belong.
Let's all wait until it's too late to change anything before we risk 'cheapening the horror of the Nazis'? No thanks. Let's keep some people shouting NAZI at every turn. It keeps people like you awake.
A few vague ideas of mine. The Dutch are quite liberal when it comes to peoples' personal lives, I think. Finland is quite good in lack of corruption, and Sweden has that whole thepiratebay thing going for it. But those are very vague, and I make no guarantees as to their accuracy.
The military overthrows the government all the time. The US loves it, and usually befriends the new military governments as quickly as possible. Countries whose populations are at gunpoint make profitable friends.
Ah, ok. In a similar way, I wasn't trying to be an ass to you specifically, but rather trying to grind the axe of "don't mod stuff down just because you disagree". So nobody take any offense at anything.
Awww, poor you. No mod points to mod down a point of view you disagree with. Perhaps you could do us all a favour and go uncheck the 'I am willing to help moderate' in your preferences.
Slashdot Mirror
And mine is in /opt/kde, so ner!
If your game depends on a load of exotic libraries, then you should jolly well provide them in their correct versions below the game itself on the downloads page.
This flies in the face of the Guild Wars model, but for the WoW model, where you pay for both the disc and the account, it can be amended so that for example, you are forced to buy a certain minimum of months of play.
In my uninformed opinion there really is no reason for paid-account MMORPGs to be closed source. They might say that it's to prevent cheating, but I say that open sourcing would kill cheating dead.
For one, if it was really as simple as incrementing a year, EA could be replaced by a yearly cron job that ran a script that did a simple SELECT * FROM players, rearranged the data on the CDs accordingly, then $year++ and start printing discs.
But it's not that simple. There are many, many factors to take into account. For example, in a World Cup year, someone has to be around to press 'Make World Cup game' on the menu. If a franchise starts to die off, someone has to press 'Make advert from FMV intro', and then 'Publish advert'. Sometimes some exec decides to 'innovate', and someone has to pull an all-nighter pressing 'Add lame gimmick'. It's a hard life.
The change is happening anyway, with or without you. A few examples: Red Hat, Novell, Bethesda, and Bungie. They all sell software, but they also make a load of money from stuff like services, support and extra content. Software can be profitable the moment you stop playing King Canute with piracy.
It's not "fuck the rules, every man for himself", it's "fuck the rules, they aren't being enforced". It's a force you'll have seen in effect in real life. There might be a big Keep Off the Grass sign, but if the first few people in a big crowd start to cross, the rest will follow, and it'll feel pretty stupid to try to obey the sign anyway.
It might not be right, but at least accept that this is the way things are. At least then you might be able to start to do something about it. And no, the answer isn't for us to change. That crowd won't stop crossing the grass very easily. You need to change your business models and stop putting grass in our way.
Now that's a proper proof by contradiction.
And I don't know what planet you do business on, but from what I've seen a 'cost' means "something we can't avoid paying", not "something we really ought to pay". And "enough money to start a business" means "enough money to pay the costs".
Hey, Colonel History, the tank in that photo stopped.
Only if you start a special club and make Microsoft Vice Emperor. If you manage that the IRS will pretty much be your bitch.
Worse even than choosing to live without their PC, some even turn to MSPaint.
Welcome to the free market, pal. Adapt or die.
Part of adapting is adapting to your competitors. If your competitors are pirating software, they're gaining an advantage over you. With piracy in it's semi-legal state, it's bad business not to do it.
Oh, and fuck your stolen chairs and desks analogy. We both know what a pile of bullshit that is.
No shit, sherlock. The point TechDirt is making is that it's still better that they run warez than nothing at all. You can preach morality all you like, but the guys struggling to keep their businesses afloat from day to day don't give a shit about what you think is right. And their productivity is a lot more important than your indignation or the potential profit of the software industry.
Besides that, your comparison is so incredibly unequal that I wonder if you even thought about it beyond "Hey, this'll sound real smart, and them shashdotters sure love to talk about the morality of warez!".
Go directly to jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $150,000.
A few vague ideas of mine. The Dutch are quite liberal when it comes to peoples' personal lives, I think. Finland is quite good in lack of corruption, and Sweden has that whole thepiratebay thing going for it. But those are very vague, and I make no guarantees as to their accuracy.
The military overthrows the government all the time. The US loves it, and usually befriends the new military governments as quickly as possible. Countries whose populations are at gunpoint make profitable friends.
...break into your house in the night and execute you in your bed having confused you with a leading mafia drug runner.
Ah, ok. In a similar way, I wasn't trying to be an ass to you specifically, but rather trying to grind the axe of "don't mod stuff down just because you disagree". So nobody take any offense at anything.
Oh, and you're absolutely right about the rest of his post. He made some good points, but highlighted the big problem with the moderation here.