perhaps there wouldn't be so much angsty douchery if the company in question wasn't simultaneously refusing to make a sequel (hey, lots of games don't get sequels, it happens, people do move on) AND going out of their way to crush entirely non-profit fan driven unofficial sequels. If they don't see enough money in making a sequel anyway, then why are they wasting their time and money on shutting down what amounts to elaborate fanfic? That's why you see the rage and whining.
"No, I'm arguing that just because something was popular and still has some fans doesn't automaticly mean that it'll make money today."
Nothing automatically makes money, but this one is a pretty good bet. Alas, the only ones able to make the bet are Square enix, and for whatever reason they have apparently chosen not to. That said, as other posters already pointed out, CT has made decent money in the past couple of years despite only being released as a port.
"And P.S. chief, my younger siblings cut their teeth on Combat catridges, so save the "oh you just aren't old enough to appreciate it" crap. I've been around long enough to see this story more than once, especially in the video game arena."
Good for you. Want a cookie?
"Can you make money on a revival product for a old favorite? Hell yes. Is it a sure thing? Fuck no. And stop pretending it is simply because you want it to be."
Like above: nothing is a sure thing, nothing is guaranteed to make money. I don't know what you have against a CT sequel, and I don't much care, but maybe you should be focusing on that rather than claiming there isn't any money to be made on one. Oh, and I would much rather there not be a sequel and instead the talent were put into brand new ideas. I also don't particularly care for jRPGs in general. But I guess it's much easier to assume that I personally want it to come out than that you might be wrong.
"Jumping into a project "just because they fans demand it" is stupid thing to do. Start a project when you have something to put into it, not just to milk it for the last dregs of money you can. And a fan mod isn't "something to put into it"."
On this I agree, but really... we both know that's not how things work. If it were, they would only release Madden games every 3-5 years (if that), nobody would be making crappy movie-based games, and frankly the whole entertainment industry would go tits up with nothing but indy films with the lack of fan service dregs. Here in reality, fan demand is probably a much better reason than "because the producer's niece wants it", and lord knows we get enough of the latter. If there are enough fans out there to support multiple near-complete sequel projects (keeping in mind that only a tiny fraction of fans would even have the expertise to help create such a thing, let alone also have the time, vision or will to do so), it really does indicate that maybe there's a large fan-base out there waiting for a sequel.
Why don't we put it this way: Chrono Trigger was more popular than Fallout. The sequel to Chrono Trigger was more popular than Fallout 2. We can reasonably assume that the sequel to the sequel to Chrono Trigger would be at least as popular as Fallout 3... which was a massive release.
You're arguing that Chrono Trigger is in a niche, like Firefly. He's arguing that it is a massively popular mainstream title. As somebody who was actually alive when CT first came out (which I do not suspect you were), I assure you that it wasn't a game only your nerdy friends had heard of. A CT sequel would sell like a Pokemon sequel or a new FF, despite your assertion it would sell like Wild Arms.
Free or extremely low cost legal assistance is available here for those unable to pay (granted, there is some hit on quality and personal attention, but still), for people involved with criminal proceedings a public defender must be provided free of charge* upon request, and for most other legal procedures there are a wide variety of charities and legal associations (including many state bars) which either cover the cost or provide lawyers operating pro bono to those lacking the money to pay.
Additionally, most people are quite able to have at least a basic understanding of the law due to various efforts by many agencies to promote awareness and understanding of it. This ranges from the offices of local legislators releasing abbreviated versions of the law to news organizations reporting new and widely applicable laws in words that require no greater than an 8th grade education. you car analogy is actually quite apt, you merely underestimate the amount of knowledge it takes for a person to actually operate one far any period of time... you might not know exactly why your oil needs to be changed, or how turning the steering wheel translates to the car turning, but you at least have a rough idea of the causality behind it: failing to change your oil will result in a breakdown, and turning the wheel causes the car to move in a different direction. You might not know off-hand what the penalties for shoplifting are, but you sure as hell know that you shouldn't be doing it.
Your assertion that everybody must be able to instantly understand the law in its entirety without sufficient education (and corresponding opportunity loss, every moment spent learning one thing robs you of the chance to learn something else) in order to abide by it is absurd on its face, as demonstrated by the fact that most people can and do abide by it without such an education.
No, I see the difference, I just don't see why it matters. Unless you honestly believe that a large and extremely complex society can persist without sufficient law, it stands to reason that in such a society the law is going to be fairly large and complex.
And bravo on ignoring the programming... I wonder if you feel that trained professionals don't need to exist for this absolutely fabricated task, or if you just couldn't think of an appropriate response.
Crippy the gang-bangin' upgrade assistant says: "Best upgrade or I'll blast you bitch." Oh Crippy, what did we ever do without your charming street slang, prominent blue bandana and psychotically violent tendencies?
If I were to say that we should do the same for programming, engineering or open heart surgery, what would you think about it? If you can't see why law needs people who specialize in it, then you are a fool.
Most lawyers and attorneys are actually pretty reasonable (keep in mind that most are also not involved with trial law), and most judges get that job because of their well-tuned BS detectors. The only thing I got out of your post is that you don't actually have any idea what you're talking about, that you've probably never even been in a court, and that you honestly believe your reading a handful of blogs and news sites that just touch on law actually give you a serious capacity for it.
No, but it is a contract, and contracts are enforced by law. You don't have to like it, but it's true. I'll bet that if your employer suddenly decided to pay you less than stipulated in your contract, you'd go to the law for recourse, but your salary is no more or less law than a EULA.
Whether or not most EULAs actually can be enforced through law is a separate issue altogether, but if they are not it is because they are invalid contracts, not because they are not based in law.
Except that Time Warner didn't do this for the express purpose of preventing competitors from entering the market (that's what municipal monopoly contracts are for), they did it so that you'd be more likely to sign up for a more expensive package than you normally would and that you will come to like it so much you keep it even after the discount goes away.
If this were MS, people would be whinging that they're just trying to get sufficient lock-in to make going another route down the road infeasible once they start extorting users (and by this I mean producers, as they are really the ones using the technology licenses here) for $$$. As it is, I'm shocked to see people whine that they aren't entitled to make money on a technology for which there could be a comparable Free alternative. Wow. It's the same plan, just a different corporate overlord.
Because without that hope, we might as well curl up and die. If we do not fight to make the world a better place, to overcome the weakness and foolishness of our predecessors, and to create a future world where, perhaps for the first time, mankind can live without murdering one another for food and land and petty revenge, then we are complicit with that violence and ignorance, we continue it, and we are no better than it. It may be a hopeless fight against overwhelming odds with (virtually) no chance of winning, but it is one that must be fought and, lest we destroy ourselves completely, must be won.
If you are content to surrender to evil simply because you are not guaranteed victory by fighting it, that is your choice. If there is a deity and an afterlife, may you be judged and condemned for the spineless worm you are, and if not, then I can only hope your conscience does the job instead.
Nothing personal, but you and users like yourself make up a statistically insignificant portion of MS' target market. That means they don't give a shit what you think, want, do or say with regard to their or any other products.
I guess that means that the answer to your question is: you're just going to have to get a better VM if you need to run newer versions of Windows, because they have no interest in making it easier for you.
You'll see that in a lot of art forms... the same few big names, popular enough that you've heard of them but indie enough to still have "cred", showing up in the big anthologies. You'll also notice that these circles aren't static, or impossible to break into for a talented newcomer, but there's rarely an enormous flood of new names getting into it because, frankly, it takes a lot of talent to get in.
I guess you can look at it as a bunch of big names patting each other on the back, but the truth is that yes, they most likely are the best in their art form.
And take the airbags out of the interior. Or, even better, replace them Claymore-style pellet sheets to insure maximum soft target damage. Seriously.
Far too many people think that they are somehow "safer" in an SUV than a smaller car (this despite sedans routinely outperforming them in both government and private safety tests), and if that puts every other driver on the road in greater danger, then fuck everyone else. Maybe if we made the danger a driver's life is in directly proportional to the danger they put everyone else's in we'd see less fuckwads on the roads (and more bleeding out just next to them).
You remind me of a popular adage... any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Perhaps any sufficiently advanced technology is also indistinguishable from God.
And rebuilding your desktop at the time you purchased the laptop would have cost how much? I'd be willing to bet at least $400 less, likely more. In effect, if you'd been shooting for a kick-ass XP system, you could have spent at least $400 less than trying to do the same with Vista.
Don't be ridiculous, there are no businesses based in New Yor... I mean, Calif... erm... Massa... Connec... Rhod... Delaw... yeah, um, let me get back to you on that.
Seriously though, the US is a global population center with a huge amount of resources. There is simply no way that businesses will actually leave the US as a market, because there's just too much money to be made. I'm not sure where people get this crazy idea that we are somehow dependent on these corporations, and that if they were to suddenly vanish that they wouldn't be replaced in a minute, but it's just not true. If they want to pay taxes as if they are based in the cayman, then they can make money as if they were in the Caymans by doing business there instead. Godspeed to them.
Get your accurate memory of how things were out of my nostalgia dammit. I only miss the cute ones, not the pointlessly destructive crap. Besides, the best written ones were never that droll... only a newb would ever think that killing random file systems just to be a jerk is kewl.
I sure hope so. the old virus', despite being malicious and stupid, were at least a little bit amusing at times. Remember the virus' that didn't actually do any permanent damage, just did something annoying for a couple of hours before they self-deleted? Those were the days.
Yes, clearly, directing me to a single web page (requiring a single mouse-click to close) that displays a couple of ads (which I've never actually noticed, to be honest) once every 5-14 days as part of updating an optional extension to an optional web browser is equivalent to vandalizing my automobile and forcibly raping my female companion as part of maintaining a very expensive and critical piece of equipment that I need to properly navigate the modern world.
Bravo on an analogy that is completely valid and reasonable. You sir are a true champion of good taste and rational analysis.
Slashdot Mirror
Don't talk about your mother like that. She'd be very upset if she found out you kids know.
perhaps there wouldn't be so much angsty douchery if the company in question wasn't simultaneously refusing to make a sequel (hey, lots of games don't get sequels, it happens, people do move on) AND going out of their way to crush entirely non-profit fan driven unofficial sequels. If they don't see enough money in making a sequel anyway, then why are they wasting their time and money on shutting down what amounts to elaborate fanfic? That's why you see the rage and whining.
"No, I'm arguing that just because something was popular and still has some fans doesn't automaticly mean that it'll make money today."
Nothing automatically makes money, but this one is a pretty good bet. Alas, the only ones able to make the bet are Square enix, and for whatever reason they have apparently chosen not to. That said, as other posters already pointed out, CT has made decent money in the past couple of years despite only being released as a port.
"And P.S. chief, my younger siblings cut their teeth on Combat catridges, so save the "oh you just aren't old enough to appreciate it" crap. I've been around long enough to see this story more than once, especially in the video game arena."
Good for you. Want a cookie?
"Can you make money on a revival product for a old favorite? Hell yes. Is it a sure thing? Fuck no. And stop pretending it is simply because you want it to be."
Like above: nothing is a sure thing, nothing is guaranteed to make money. I don't know what you have against a CT sequel, and I don't much care, but maybe you should be focusing on that rather than claiming there isn't any money to be made on one. Oh, and I would much rather there not be a sequel and instead the talent were put into brand new ideas. I also don't particularly care for jRPGs in general. But I guess it's much easier to assume that I personally want it to come out than that you might be wrong.
"Jumping into a project "just because they fans demand it" is stupid thing to do. Start a project when you have something to put into it, not just to milk it for the last dregs of money you can. And a fan mod isn't "something to put into it"."
On this I agree, but really... we both know that's not how things work. If it were, they would only release Madden games every 3-5 years (if that), nobody would be making crappy movie-based games, and frankly the whole entertainment industry would go tits up with nothing but indy films with the lack of fan service dregs. Here in reality, fan demand is probably a much better reason than "because the producer's niece wants it", and lord knows we get enough of the latter. If there are enough fans out there to support multiple near-complete sequel projects (keeping in mind that only a tiny fraction of fans would even have the expertise to help create such a thing, let alone also have the time, vision or will to do so), it really does indicate that maybe there's a large fan-base out there waiting for a sequel.
Why don't we put it this way: Chrono Trigger was more popular than Fallout. The sequel to Chrono Trigger was more popular than Fallout 2. We can reasonably assume that the sequel to the sequel to Chrono Trigger would be at least as popular as Fallout 3... which was a massive release.
You're arguing that Chrono Trigger is in a niche, like Firefly. He's arguing that it is a massively popular mainstream title. As somebody who was actually alive when CT first came out (which I do not suspect you were), I assure you that it wasn't a game only your nerdy friends had heard of. A CT sequel would sell like a Pokemon sequel or a new FF, despite your assertion it would sell like Wild Arms.
Never before have two people worked so hard to be completely wrong while disagreeing on everything.
Kudos to you both, really. It's funny when people are this stupid.
Believe it or not, we do both.
Free or extremely low cost legal assistance is available here for those unable to pay (granted, there is some hit on quality and personal attention, but still), for people involved with criminal proceedings a public defender must be provided free of charge* upon request, and for most other legal procedures there are a wide variety of charities and legal associations (including many state bars) which either cover the cost or provide lawyers operating pro bono to those lacking the money to pay.
Additionally, most people are quite able to have at least a basic understanding of the law due to various efforts by many agencies to promote awareness and understanding of it. This ranges from the offices of local legislators releasing abbreviated versions of the law to news organizations reporting new and widely applicable laws in words that require no greater than an 8th grade education. you car analogy is actually quite apt, you merely underestimate the amount of knowledge it takes for a person to actually operate one far any period of time... you might not know exactly why your oil needs to be changed, or how turning the steering wheel translates to the car turning, but you at least have a rough idea of the causality behind it: failing to change your oil will result in a breakdown, and turning the wheel causes the car to move in a different direction. You might not know off-hand what the penalties for shoplifting are, but you sure as hell know that you shouldn't be doing it.
Your assertion that everybody must be able to instantly understand the law in its entirety without sufficient education (and corresponding opportunity loss, every moment spent learning one thing robs you of the chance to learn something else) in order to abide by it is absurd on its face, as demonstrated by the fact that most people can and do abide by it without such an education.
No, I see the difference, I just don't see why it matters. Unless you honestly believe that a large and extremely complex society can persist without sufficient law, it stands to reason that in such a society the law is going to be fairly large and complex.
And bravo on ignoring the programming... I wonder if you feel that trained professionals don't need to exist for this absolutely fabricated task, or if you just couldn't think of an appropriate response.
Crippy the gang-bangin' upgrade assistant says: "Best upgrade or I'll blast you bitch." Oh Crippy, what did we ever do without your charming street slang, prominent blue bandana and psychotically violent tendencies?
If I were to say that we should do the same for programming, engineering or open heart surgery, what would you think about it? If you can't see why law needs people who specialize in it, then you are a fool.
Most lawyers and attorneys are actually pretty reasonable (keep in mind that most are also not involved with trial law), and most judges get that job because of their well-tuned BS detectors. The only thing I got out of your post is that you don't actually have any idea what you're talking about, that you've probably never even been in a court, and that you honestly believe your reading a handful of blogs and news sites that just touch on law actually give you a serious capacity for it.
A license (at least this kind) IS a contract. What makes you think they aren't?
No, but it is a contract, and contracts are enforced by law. You don't have to like it, but it's true. I'll bet that if your employer suddenly decided to pay you less than stipulated in your contract, you'd go to the law for recourse, but your salary is no more or less law than a EULA.
Whether or not most EULAs actually can be enforced through law is a separate issue altogether, but if they are not it is because they are invalid contracts, not because they are not based in law.
Before people started dying of cancer, they died of other things! Shock! Outrage! How dare mortality go thus unchecked ?
Except that Time Warner didn't do this for the express purpose of preventing competitors from entering the market (that's what municipal monopoly contracts are for), they did it so that you'd be more likely to sign up for a more expensive package than you normally would and that you will come to like it so much you keep it even after the discount goes away.
If this were MS, people would be whinging that they're just trying to get sufficient lock-in to make going another route down the road infeasible once they start extorting users (and by this I mean producers, as they are really the ones using the technology licenses here) for $$$. As it is, I'm shocked to see people whine that they aren't entitled to make money on a technology for which there could be a comparable Free alternative. Wow. It's the same plan, just a different corporate overlord.
Because without that hope, we might as well curl up and die. If we do not fight to make the world a better place, to overcome the weakness and foolishness of our predecessors, and to create a future world where, perhaps for the first time, mankind can live without murdering one another for food and land and petty revenge, then we are complicit with that violence and ignorance, we continue it, and we are no better than it. It may be a hopeless fight against overwhelming odds with (virtually) no chance of winning, but it is one that must be fought and, lest we destroy ourselves completely, must be won.
If you are content to surrender to evil simply because you are not guaranteed victory by fighting it, that is your choice. If there is a deity and an afterlife, may you be judged and condemned for the spineless worm you are, and if not, then I can only hope your conscience does the job instead.
Nothing personal, but you and users like yourself make up a statistically insignificant portion of MS' target market. That means they don't give a shit what you think, want, do or say with regard to their or any other products.
I guess that means that the answer to your question is: you're just going to have to get a better VM if you need to run newer versions of Windows, because they have no interest in making it easier for you.
You'll see that in a lot of art forms... the same few big names, popular enough that you've heard of them but indie enough to still have "cred", showing up in the big anthologies. You'll also notice that these circles aren't static, or impossible to break into for a talented newcomer, but there's rarely an enormous flood of new names getting into it because, frankly, it takes a lot of talent to get in.
I guess you can look at it as a bunch of big names patting each other on the back, but the truth is that yes, they most likely are the best in their art form.
And take the airbags out of the interior. Or, even better, replace them Claymore-style pellet sheets to insure maximum soft target damage. Seriously.
Far too many people think that they are somehow "safer" in an SUV than a smaller car (this despite sedans routinely outperforming them in both government and private safety tests), and if that puts every other driver on the road in greater danger, then fuck everyone else. Maybe if we made the danger a driver's life is in directly proportional to the danger they put everyone else's in we'd see less fuckwads on the roads (and more bleeding out just next to them).
You remind me of a popular adage... any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Perhaps any sufficiently advanced technology is also indistinguishable from God.
I love a good concerto as much as anyone... but what the hell has a viola got to do with this?
Or did you mean the female protagonist from Twelfth Night? I'M SO CONFUSED.
And rebuilding your desktop at the time you purchased the laptop would have cost how much? I'd be willing to bet at least $400 less, likely more. In effect, if you'd been shooting for a kick-ass XP system, you could have spent at least $400 less than trying to do the same with Vista.
Don't be ridiculous, there are no businesses based in New Yor... I mean, Calif... erm... Massa... Connec... Rhod... Delaw... yeah, um, let me get back to you on that.
Seriously though, the US is a global population center with a huge amount of resources. There is simply no way that businesses will actually leave the US as a market, because there's just too much money to be made. I'm not sure where people get this crazy idea that we are somehow dependent on these corporations, and that if they were to suddenly vanish that they wouldn't be replaced in a minute, but it's just not true. If they want to pay taxes as if they are based in the cayman, then they can make money as if they were in the Caymans by doing business there instead. Godspeed to them.
Get your accurate memory of how things were out of my nostalgia dammit. I only miss the cute ones, not the pointlessly destructive crap. Besides, the best written ones were never that droll... only a newb would ever think that killing random file systems just to be a jerk is kewl.
No, he just recognizes that Spain is part of a separate plane of existence from ours.
I sure hope so. the old virus', despite being malicious and stupid, were at least a little bit amusing at times. Remember the virus' that didn't actually do any permanent damage, just did something annoying for a couple of hours before they self-deleted? Those were the days.
Yes, clearly, directing me to a single web page (requiring a single mouse-click to close) that displays a couple of ads (which I've never actually noticed, to be honest) once every 5-14 days as part of updating an optional extension to an optional web browser is equivalent to vandalizing my automobile and forcibly raping my female companion as part of maintaining a very expensive and critical piece of equipment that I need to properly navigate the modern world.
Bravo on an analogy that is completely valid and reasonable. You sir are a true champion of good taste and rational analysis.