"IMHO if you play more than 20 minutes into a game without throwing your burned disc out a window, you're being dishonest to yourself about your intentions."
Ever waste a little time playing flash games? Good enough to screw around with for a little while, but generally not so good that you'd pay anything to their creators. For me, the games I pirate are kinda like that.
I don't blame you for being skeptical- if I'm right on the fence about whether or not a game is good enough to buy, being able to pirate it might just tip the balance. The thing is, I can't think of a single example of that happening off the top of my head, whereas I could rattle off a whole list of games I abstained from buying- some of which would have been definite, first-day-in-stores purchases- because of DRM. My original post was tl;dr enough as it is, though.
...and more of my discretionary income goes towards games than anything else. There was an article here this week (http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/03/048256) about the most profligate music pirates being the biggest music *buyers* as well- same principle.
However...the industry, especially PC gaming, has lost quite a few purchases from me because of copy protection. Just a few examples:
I loved Neverwinter Nights. Would have bought the Infinite Dungeons mod, but it requires an always-on net connection while you play to verify you're not a pirate. Screw that.
Starforce? Any Starforce'd game is automatically disqualified from my consideration.
I don't buy games that use Securom or Safedisc anymore, either. As a pirate, I find it inconvenient to have to download bypasses so I can run stuff on my Daemon Tools-happy gaming box. I almost bought Civ 4 and its expansions recently, but the DRM dissuaded me- though it won't stop those who torrented it from downloading a workaround.
I import games. Over the past year or two I've imported multiple games that would never have been released in the U.S.- the Touhou series, both Ouendans... but I won't do so for any console that has to be modded, because it's too much of a pain. If it weren't for that, I would have bought SO much crap for my PS2- guess I'll never buy any of those Cave shooters.
I'm a huge Megaten fan and will gladly buy FES the day it hits stores, assuming it's released stateside, even though FES is generally considered mediocre. If it weren't for emulation, I might not even be a fan of the series. Atlus acquitted itself pretty poorly with its release of the first two Persona games in the U.S.; it was actually the fanslation/romhacking scene's English patches for SMT1 and 2 that got me into the series. (I remember a comment from another Slashdotter who wrote the same thing in another copy-protection thread, too.)
The funny thing is, if I wanted to bypass any of this copy protection, I easily could. Every time this is discussed on Slashdot there are comments from Slashdotters who legitimately purchase games and then download cracked versions because the crippled, boxed versions are too much hassle. Me, I prefer to wean myself off the companies who resort to copy protection. There are plenty of other games out there which are just as good and don't involve all the bullshit- more than I have the free time to play, in fact. I'll just buy some of those instead.
And the games that I DO pirate? Those are the ones I wouldn't have bought anyway- though you only have my word on that. Ever spend time on a forum for an Atlus game? Atlus fans know damn well that they're not dealing with automatic-trillion-sellers like Madden 200X: Same Shit, New Roster or World War 2 Shooter: The Shootening. They (we) will tell other fans to buy, and buy a *new* copy, *before* price drops, *because we want Atlus to release more games we like*.
So: can somebody explain to me why all this antipiracy stuff is necessary? Or even prove to me that it isn't outright counterproductive? Last I heard, Galciv and Stardock were doing just fine.
...considering the quality of every Sonic game for the past several years.
First one: Sonic as washed-up former A-list star who now spends his days appearing in sad attempts to recapture his past glory, or alternately lying on the couch downing Bud after Bud while wallowing in memories of his distant heyday. In this scenario, a Brawl appearance would be the big break that slingshots him back to stardom; at the very least we ought to give it to him out of pity.
Second one: Sonic as beauty pageant winner who is revealed to have posed nude for Playboy or whatever. That is, he's comported himself so shamefully (*cough cough SONIC RIDERS cough*) that he should be disqualified from the position.
So, yeah. I really hope they don't choose Sonic. Ten years ago I probably would have been cool with it, but now?
You get so many shots, I don't think I've EVER run out of them, regardless. Hell, if anything, the fact that he horribly abused the blades shows the author probably played the game.
What irked ME about the book was that the author pulls all sorts of crap out of his ass. The book starts with Dr. Light putting Mega Man in a machine that's supposed to create a duplicate of him but somehow turns him into a human instead. What the fuck?
I do like how the book has to work to explain why he'd ever use the ass-useless Bubble Lead on the final boss- he panics and just whips out the first weapon he can grab.:)
I'm no Sony partisan; I own all three of this generation's consoles, and I have a soft spot for Nintendo. Last night I thought the PS3 was going to be a fiasco for them. Half a day later, though, I've changed my mind. Consider:
Price, short term. The 360 and DS Lite launches prove that early adopters are willing to shell out twice the MSRP or more to get their grubby game-mitts on the system at launch. The h4rdc0re, Sony whores, and simply free-spending are going to be all over this thing, and the money goes to Sony rather than the secondary market. Of course, the higher price means any shortages-and-hype situation, if any, is going to be less impressive than the 360's, and time will tell whether it was a smart tradeoff, but it's not some kind of crazy gamble.
Price, long term. Anybody else expecting a price drop next spring? I wouldn't be suprised if they cut it to match whatever price the 360 is at by then. If they don't, yeah, it's probably gonna hurt them badly, but if the high price is just Sony planning around launch-day demand, then we can expect that they're not going to cede this area to Microsoft.
Crappy cheap version. For some gamers, the cheap version could actually be a good deal. In fact, I could imagine this being the case for a lot of people. No wireless IEEE? Statistically, only a tiny minority of console owners take them online in the first place- I think it was like four percent? Being limited to a 20GB hard drive probably isn't going to make a big difference for anyone- especially if you're one of the vast majority who aren't downloading any content. What's more, the hard drive thing, IMO, means the cheap PS3 is actually LESS crippled than the cheap 360.
The motion-sensor thing. I really think this is a bad move on Sony's part- but still, there are at least a couple ways this could work out for them. In the first scenario, Sony actually gets its motion-sensing shit together between now and launch. The controller still can't compete with the dedicated Wii controller that Nintendo spent so much time and money on developing, but if its basic functionality is solid, we could see ports of some Wii titles- at least, the ones that use the technology in fairly simple ways that the PS3 can emulate. The 360 would end up being the third wheel in this scenario, since everything on it that isn't exlusive (and Sony's probable exclusive properties are at least as strong as Microsoft's) is going to end up being ported to the PS3.
Second possible scenario? Sony's motion-sensing technology sucks ass but hurts Nintendo by confusing the market. Breathtakingly cynical and twisted if things do work out this way, of course, but what are you gonna do?.
The alleged purpose of the ESRB ratings is to allow parents to determine what material they want their kids to have access to.
Yeah, definitely. But the sex and violence the ESRB looks at ought to be viewed within some sort of reasonable context, or the exercise just becomes ridiculous. Take violence- the ESRB, quite rightly, doesn't harsh on exaggerated cartoon violence the way it does realistic violence. Mario's dumping Bowser into a pit of *lava* is arguably a lot crueler than one of the GTA guys putting a bullet through someone's head, but common sense tells us the latter is the bigger deal.
Especially now that 3D models are so widely used and there's real potential to see this repeated with other games that have no intention of causing offense, there has to be some sort of Miller test applied if the exercise is going to be at all meaningful. Oblivion's nude character models would clearly pass the Miller test, as they aren't intended to arouse a prurient (or ANY) reaction.
So I agree with the first part of your post- but the intention of the author, and whether a *well-informed* observer would agree that it falls in line with popular standards of decency, are a lot more important than you said they are. Without them you get reductivistic analyses that ignore common sense, and the debate devolves to the level of "OMG, a TIT. EVERYONE PANIC."
The difference between the Coffeegate and the current Breastsgate scandal was that the GTA material was clearly intended to be lewd. The Oblivion assets only exist for technical purposes and, unlike the GTA stuff, was never meant to be seen- not just locked out before release, but NEVER meant to be implemented as a visible gameplay element.
The Breastsgate scandal is akin to looking at Da Vinci's sketch of The Vitruvian Man, meant as a study of anatomical proportions, and calling it obscene. Schlong or tit alone does not obscenity make, one would hope.
Sounds like Deus Ex or System Shock to me. Is that bad...or COMPLETELY AWESOME?
That isn't to say the Shadowrun license doesn't bring anything new to the table, though. Here are a few possibilities, just off the top of my head:
Imagine getting a smartgun or smartgoggles and seeing helpful targeting info appear in the actual HUD.
Imagine this being that rare FPS that actually implements melee combat *well* and stylishly. Think of your typical razorgirl- wired reflexes could be represented by a Max Payne-ish slo-mo effect that lets you dodge enemy fire, rush in, and slash them with hand-implanted claws.
Imagine the character customization options- I'd expect something like a skill tree for Firearms, one for Melee, one for Shamans/Mages, and maybe even a Decker path. Lot of interesting options right there. Speaking of Decking, a more fleshed-out version of the hacking minigames in previous Shadowrun videogames has a lot of coolness potential.
If anything, you ought to be a happy, happy panda. Or at least a cautiously optimistic one.
Slashdot Mirror
"IMHO if you play more than 20 minutes into a game without throwing your burned disc out a window, you're being dishonest to yourself about your intentions."
Ever waste a little time playing flash games? Good enough to screw around with for a little while, but generally not so good that you'd pay anything to their creators. For me, the games I pirate are kinda like that.
I don't blame you for being skeptical- if I'm right on the fence about whether or not a game is good enough to buy, being able to pirate it might just tip the balance. The thing is, I can't think of a single example of that happening off the top of my head, whereas I could rattle off a whole list of games I abstained from buying- some of which would have been definite, first-day-in-stores purchases- because of DRM. My original post was tl;dr enough as it is, though.
...and more of my discretionary income goes towards games than anything else. There was an article here this week (http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/03/048256) about the most profligate music pirates being the biggest music *buyers* as well- same principle.
However...the industry, especially PC gaming, has lost quite a few purchases from me because of copy protection. Just a few examples:
I loved Neverwinter Nights. Would have bought the Infinite Dungeons mod, but it requires an always-on net connection while you play to verify you're not a pirate. Screw that.
Starforce? Any Starforce'd game is automatically disqualified from my consideration.
I don't buy games that use Securom or Safedisc anymore, either. As a pirate, I find it inconvenient to have to download bypasses so I can run stuff on my Daemon Tools-happy gaming box. I almost bought Civ 4 and its expansions recently, but the DRM dissuaded me- though it won't stop those who torrented it from downloading a workaround.
I import games. Over the past year or two I've imported multiple games that would never have been released in the U.S.- the Touhou series, both Ouendans... but I won't do so for any console that has to be modded, because it's too much of a pain. If it weren't for that, I would have bought SO much crap for my PS2- guess I'll never buy any of those Cave shooters.
I'm a huge Megaten fan and will gladly buy FES the day it hits stores, assuming it's released stateside, even though FES is generally considered mediocre. If it weren't for emulation, I might not even be a fan of the series. Atlus acquitted itself pretty poorly with its release of the first two Persona games in the U.S.; it was actually the fanslation/romhacking scene's English patches for SMT1 and 2 that got me into the series. (I remember a comment from another Slashdotter who wrote the same thing in another copy-protection thread, too.)
The funny thing is, if I wanted to bypass any of this copy protection, I easily could. Every time this is discussed on Slashdot there are comments from Slashdotters who legitimately purchase games and then download cracked versions because the crippled, boxed versions are too much hassle. Me, I prefer to wean myself off the companies who resort to copy protection. There are plenty of other games out there which are just as good and don't involve all the bullshit- more than I have the free time to play, in fact. I'll just buy some of those instead.
And the games that I DO pirate? Those are the ones I wouldn't have bought anyway- though you only have my word on that. Ever spend time on a forum for an Atlus game? Atlus fans know damn well that they're not dealing with automatic-trillion-sellers like Madden 200X: Same Shit, New Roster or World War 2 Shooter: The Shootening. They (we) will tell other fans to buy, and buy a *new* copy, *before* price drops, *because we want Atlus to release more games we like*.
So: can somebody explain to me why all this antipiracy stuff is necessary? Or even prove to me that it isn't outright counterproductive? Last I heard, Galciv and Stardock were doing just fine.
First one: Sonic as washed-up former A-list star who now spends his days appearing in sad attempts to recapture his past glory, or alternately lying on the couch downing Bud after Bud while wallowing in memories of his distant heyday. In this scenario, a Brawl appearance would be the big break that slingshots him back to stardom; at the very least we ought to give it to him out of pity.
Second one: Sonic as beauty pageant winner who is revealed to have posed nude for Playboy or whatever. That is, he's comported himself so shamefully (*cough cough SONIC RIDERS cough*) that he should be disqualified from the position.
So, yeah. I really hope they don't choose Sonic. Ten years ago I probably would have been cool with it, but now?
What irked ME about the book was that the author pulls all sorts of crap out of his ass. The book starts with Dr. Light putting Mega Man in a machine that's supposed to create a duplicate of him but somehow turns him into a human instead. What the fuck?
I do like how the book has to work to explain why he'd ever use the ass-useless Bubble Lead on the final boss- he panics and just whips out the first weapon he can grab.
Price, short term. The 360 and DS Lite launches prove that early adopters are willing to shell out twice the MSRP or more to get their grubby game-mitts on the system at launch. The h4rdc0re, Sony whores, and simply free-spending are going to be all over this thing, and the money goes to Sony rather than the secondary market. Of course, the higher price means any shortages-and-hype situation, if any, is going to be less impressive than the 360's, and time will tell whether it was a smart tradeoff, but it's not some kind of crazy gamble.
Price, long term. Anybody else expecting a price drop next spring? I wouldn't be suprised if they cut it to match whatever price the 360 is at by then. If they don't, yeah, it's probably gonna hurt them badly, but if the high price is just Sony planning around launch-day demand, then we can expect that they're not going to cede this area to Microsoft.
Crappy cheap version. For some gamers, the cheap version could actually be a good deal. In fact, I could imagine this being the case for a lot of people. No wireless IEEE? Statistically, only a tiny minority of console owners take them online in the first place- I think it was like four percent? Being limited to a 20GB hard drive probably isn't going to make a big difference for anyone- especially if you're one of the vast majority who aren't downloading any content. What's more, the hard drive thing, IMO, means the cheap PS3 is actually LESS crippled than the cheap 360.
The motion-sensor thing. I really think this is a bad move on Sony's part- but still, there are at least a couple ways this could work out for them. In the first scenario, Sony actually gets its motion-sensing shit together between now and launch. The controller still can't compete with the dedicated Wii controller that Nintendo spent so much time and money on developing, but if its basic functionality is solid, we could see ports of some Wii titles- at least, the ones that use the technology in fairly simple ways that the PS3 can emulate. The 360 would end up being the third wheel in this scenario, since everything on it that isn't exlusive (and Sony's probable exclusive properties are at least as strong as Microsoft's) is going to end up being ported to the PS3.
Second possible scenario? Sony's motion-sensing technology sucks ass but hurts Nintendo by confusing the market. Breathtakingly cynical and twisted if things do work out this way, of course, but what are you gonna do?.
Yeah, definitely. But the sex and violence the ESRB looks at ought to be viewed within some sort of reasonable context, or the exercise just becomes ridiculous. Take violence- the ESRB, quite rightly, doesn't harsh on exaggerated cartoon violence the way it does realistic violence. Mario's dumping Bowser into a pit of *lava* is arguably a lot crueler than one of the GTA guys putting a bullet through someone's head, but common sense tells us the latter is the bigger deal.
Especially now that 3D models are so widely used and there's real potential to see this repeated with other games that have no intention of causing offense, there has to be some sort of Miller test applied if the exercise is going to be at all meaningful. Oblivion's nude character models would clearly pass the Miller test, as they aren't intended to arouse a prurient (or ANY) reaction. So I agree with the first part of your post- but the intention of the author, and whether a *well-informed* observer would agree that it falls in line with popular standards of decency, are a lot more important than you said they are. Without them you get reductivistic analyses that ignore common sense, and the debate devolves to the level of "OMG, a TIT. EVERYONE PANIC."
The difference between the Coffeegate and the current Breastsgate scandal was that the GTA material was clearly intended to be lewd. The Oblivion assets only exist for technical purposes and, unlike the GTA stuff, was never meant to be seen- not just locked out before release, but NEVER meant to be implemented as a visible gameplay element.
The Breastsgate scandal is akin to looking at Da Vinci's sketch of The Vitruvian Man, meant as a study of anatomical proportions, and calling it obscene. Schlong or tit alone does not obscenity make, one would hope.
Sounds like Deus Ex or System Shock to me. Is that bad...or COMPLETELY AWESOME?
That isn't to say the Shadowrun license doesn't bring anything new to the table, though. Here are a few possibilities, just off the top of my head:
Imagine getting a smartgun or smartgoggles and seeing helpful targeting info appear in the actual HUD.
Imagine this being that rare FPS that actually implements melee combat *well* and stylishly. Think of your typical razorgirl- wired reflexes could be represented by a Max Payne-ish slo-mo effect that lets you dodge enemy fire, rush in, and slash them with hand-implanted claws.
Imagine the character customization options- I'd expect something like a skill tree for Firearms, one for Melee, one for Shamans/Mages, and maybe even a Decker path. Lot of interesting options right there. Speaking of Decking, a more fleshed-out version of the hacking minigames in previous Shadowrun videogames has a lot of coolness potential.
If anything, you ought to be a happy, happy panda. Or at least a cautiously optimistic one.