You know, I have GH3 & World Tour - a friend bought GH2 just so he could get the guitar to play FoF (And gave me GH2)... and then I picked up Rock Band 2 for $15.
And yet, I play FoF gladly over the others - there's something to be said about having the ability to play any song over a series somewhat instantly... None of this "Swapping Discs" to play a series of songs that span a few series.
Let's see: GH1, GH2, GH3, GH WT, GH: Rock the 80's, GH: Aerosmith, GH: Smash Hits, RB1, RB2... did I miss any
And that's not counting the DLC that's specific to the game (For the GH series)
At least Rock Band did things *somewhat* right in that they're songs, playable through either version (1 or 2) once you've downloaded the disc to your system (on the 360, you had to pay about $5 for the rights to do so... not sure if you can on the PS/3 ?). The GH series would shine if they let you pay $10 or so to allow you to download the songs from previous versions (all... 7 of them?) from one game, and it would probably be very popular (Although you'd need the larger hard drive to do so - the 20, and maybe the 60, would be too small).
If you can get all of your music in one place, you'd probably enjoy the games a lot more. Oh look, FoF! And it's all there! Wow... (I'm not sure the legalities of using the songs from the GH / RB series if you've already purchased the game - can anyone enlighten me?)
So, another article on Apple rejecting an iPhone app without real cause, or via a rule / regulation that contradicts another application. The solution I see it is one of several:
1 - Apple allowing the new app through, gaining additional income and being named as "the good guy" in this situation. Except some yackass will start complaining about not getting royalties for their software being in use and someone else profiting from the potential to use it.
2 - Apple will continue block the new app, not really caring about consumer backlash (as per usual)
3 - Apple will block similar apps and go with the "Good spotting! We didn't realize this OTHER app conflicted with our policies! We'll remove it too!"
And in all situations, some people will be up in arms, some people will applaud apple, someone will scream about why jailbreaking is required to have (more) control over their phone, many will say "Well, if you had a blackberry/ palm pre / g-phone, you wouldn't have this problem".... and no one will think of the children.
So what's to stop something from being an "app" instead of a "game" ?
"It's an application designed to train reflexes through context-sensitive touching" and the like?
BUT... step back for a second. Forget the fact that they're a mega-conglomerate. Forget the fact that it's some giant company who you think might be out for world domination, one PC at a time.
Instead, I think of it like this:
You create a piece of software (Those of you who say what about "Sourceforge" or "freshmeat", back off for a few minutes... we're not talking OSS right now, we're talking commercial). You want some level of appreciation. You want to make sure that when people pay the $XXX for the software you made (And let's face it, we're talking a BUSINESS here, not a charity - you'll charge however much is possible, to keep it selling and get as much profit as possible).
You also are not a bumbling idiot, you've used emule, bittorrent, google, and astalavista. You are, or know, that "Guy who has everything" for software. You've needed some minor piece of software, and could find / engineer a crack / keygen for it. You get it for free. If you DO have scruples, you know too many who don't.
So you want to protect your software from the evils of "Oh, I can get it for free". Without protection, a couple days and it's spread around the net. You protect it, congratulations, you've bought yourself a week before a serial / crack is released. SO you lock it down good and tight. And hey, if there's something people without scruples love, it's the idea that "They say we can't, so we'll prove them wrong!". Besides, according to crackers / OSS fanatics / the immoral, ALL software should be free, you should be doing this in your spare time, and hoping that you'll get enough donations to live off of if we don't pay for it! (Wait.... they stole the software, but expect the owner to live off of donations, while they're not paying for it anyways?!).
Solution: You use pre-packaged solutions to lock down your software, good and tight. It runs various checks against files for alteration. It might even dial home when run to make sure it's legit, disabling if not. Hell, I'd do it if I wrote still. Does that make you evil? NO! It means you want to protect your investment (Time, effort, energy, money, employees). But somewhere, somebody out there will find a way to defeat it. You've not bought "infinite protection", instead you've bought another month to come up with a better way of protecting your money (Goal here is to delay it as long as possible. Outright prevention is impossible, but delaying is entirely doable).
So you use software to dial home and verify authenticity, check itself and other files to make sure that they're running and not tampered with, restore each other if necessary, and quite possibly re-confirm that they're authentic from the dial home. Does that make you an evil beast who deserves to die? Hell no.
But wait, it's Microsoft. Oh, SCREW THIS! They're too big, make too much money, they're evil! Need to die. Who the hell do they think they are, trying to protect their stuff? They don't need the extra money, I feel good sticking it to them! Imagine, trying to make people pay for their stuff or make people feel bad for having stolen it.
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There is no such thing as an enterprise-level fart app. There, I've said it, there's no unsaying it. You were thinking it, mouthing the words, hov
Damn... my 9-year old daughter would LOVE that game! Anybody know where I can get a bootleg copy?
I'm waiting for my local library to get a copy....
If you go back in time and prevent Microsoft... then we'll all be using Apples, Amigas, or worse: OS/2 will have caught on... Jebus save us!
You know, I have GH3 & World Tour - a friend bought GH2 just so he could get the guitar to play FoF (And gave me GH2)... and then I picked up Rock Band 2 for $15.
And yet, I play FoF gladly over the others - there's something to be said about having the ability to play any song over a series somewhat instantly... None of this "Swapping Discs" to play a series of songs that span a few series.
Let's see: GH1, GH2, GH3, GH WT, GH: Rock the 80's, GH: Aerosmith, GH: Smash Hits, RB1, RB2... did I miss any
And that's not counting the DLC that's specific to the game (For the GH series)
At least Rock Band did things *somewhat* right in that they're songs, playable through either version (1 or 2) once you've downloaded the disc to your system (on the 360, you had to pay about $5 for the rights to do so... not sure if you can on the PS/3 ?). The GH series would shine if they let you pay $10 or so to allow you to download the songs from previous versions (all... 7 of them?) from one game, and it would probably be very popular (Although you'd need the larger hard drive to do so - the 20, and maybe the 60, would be too small).
If you can get all of your music in one place, you'd probably enjoy the games a lot more. Oh look, FoF! And it's all there! Wow... (I'm not sure the legalities of using the songs from the GH / RB series if you've already purchased the game - can anyone enlighten me?)
So, another article on Apple rejecting an iPhone app without real cause, or via a rule / regulation that contradicts another application. The solution I see it is one of several: 1 - Apple allowing the new app through, gaining additional income and being named as "the good guy" in this situation. Except some yackass will start complaining about not getting royalties for their software being in use and someone else profiting from the potential to use it. 2 - Apple will continue block the new app, not really caring about consumer backlash (as per usual) 3 - Apple will block similar apps and go with the "Good spotting! We didn't realize this OTHER app conflicted with our policies! We'll remove it too!" And in all situations, some people will be up in arms, some people will applaud apple, someone will scream about why jailbreaking is required to have (more) control over their phone, many will say "Well, if you had a blackberry/ palm pre / g-phone, you wouldn't have this problem".... and no one will think of the children.
So what's to stop something from being an "app" instead of a "game" ? "It's an application designed to train reflexes through context-sensitive touching" and the like?
BUT... step back for a second. Forget the fact that they're a mega-conglomerate. Forget the fact that it's some giant company who you think might be out for world domination, one PC at a time.
Instead, I think of it like this:
You create a piece of software (Those of you who say what about "Sourceforge" or "freshmeat", back off for a few minutes... we're not talking OSS right now, we're talking commercial). You want some level of appreciation. You want to make sure that when people pay the $XXX for the software you made (And let's face it, we're talking a BUSINESS here, not a charity - you'll charge however much is possible, to keep it selling and get as much profit as possible).
You also are not a bumbling idiot, you've used emule, bittorrent, google, and astalavista. You are, or know, that "Guy who has everything" for software. You've needed some minor piece of software, and could find / engineer a crack / keygen for it. You get it for free. If you DO have scruples, you know too many who don't.
So you want to protect your software from the evils of "Oh, I can get it for free". Without protection, a couple days and it's spread around the net. You protect it, congratulations, you've bought yourself a week before a serial / crack is released. SO you lock it down good and tight. And hey, if there's something people without scruples love, it's the idea that "They say we can't, so we'll prove them wrong!". Besides, according to crackers / OSS fanatics / the immoral, ALL software should be free, you should be doing this in your spare time, and hoping that you'll get enough donations to live off of if we don't pay for it! (Wait.... they stole the software, but expect the owner to live off of donations, while they're not paying for it anyways?!).
Solution: You use pre-packaged solutions to lock down your software, good and tight. It runs various checks against files for alteration. It might even dial home when run to make sure it's legit, disabling if not. Hell, I'd do it if I wrote still. Does that make you evil? NO! It means you want to protect your investment (Time, effort, energy, money, employees). But somewhere, somebody out there will find a way to defeat it. You've not bought "infinite protection", instead you've bought another month to come up with a better way of protecting your money (Goal here is to delay it as long as possible. Outright prevention is impossible, but delaying is entirely doable).
So you use software to dial home and verify authenticity, check itself and other files to make sure that they're running and not tampered with, restore each other if necessary, and quite possibly re-confirm that they're authentic from the dial home. Does that make you an evil beast who deserves to die? Hell no.
But wait, it's Microsoft. Oh, SCREW THIS! They're too big, make too much money, they're evil! Need to die. Who the hell do they think they are, trying to protect their stuff? They don't need the extra money, I feel good sticking it to them! Imagine, trying to make people pay for their stuff or make people feel bad for having stolen it.
THE NERVE.