I'm not talking about the video game retailers, I'm talking about the retailers that normally sell CCGs and other games. Those are the stores that stocked the cards, and are also the stores that are dropping them as fast as they can after learning how easy it is to trick the game into reading the same card multiple times.
For people who actually play the game it may or may not be the end, but for the people who sell the cards it's a disaster. Depending on how many cards were printed, there could end up being a huge unsold stock for ages.
While a good many gamers might care less about the problems of retailers, this also means that a game using the same sort of mechanics as Eye of Judgment is unlikely to be made in the future as it would be very difficult to sell the idea to retailers after getting burned. Especially if they can look in their stock room or on their shelves and still see unsold Eye of Judgment cards.
Having worked as an hourly worker at the Wal-Mart home offices in the mid-90s I can't speak for today, but back then the OP's experiences matched the situation at the majority of the stores I had contact with. The home office did not enforce any of the stated company policies. It was entirely up to the store manager to run his store the way he or she saw fit, regardless of official company policy, as long as he met the bottom line. Company policy existed primarily to cover corporate ass if a manager should get caught breaking local labor laws in order to meet the goals set by the home office.
Wal-mart was also a master at giving these kind of conflicting directives and letting you figure out what you had to do to keep your job without ever explicitly ordering you to do something that broke labor requirements. For example, as an hourly worker we had this trio of directives:
1) No overtime allowed, or we'll fire you.
2) No work done off the clock, or we'll fire you.
3) You must complete your workload, which is currently at 150% to 200% of what we consider to be a full 40 hour a week workload, or we'll fire you.
It was quickly apparent that they meant 1 and 3, but that 2 was simply to cover their ass if you got caught working off the clock.
Remember, this wasn't some rogue store manager, it was a division of the home office!
Nothing I've heard since I left has indicated that there's been any change in the way things work since I left the company.
1) The Philippines hasn't been an American protectorate since WWII, so you're well over half a century out of date.
2) Despite no longer being officially linked with America, most Filipinos are still somewhat aware of American pop-culture, more so than the average Indian at least. I'm not sure what that has to do with providing tech support in any case.
3) Filipinos set off fireworks for July 4th, because it just happens to be the date that the Philippines became independent of the United States of America, and Filipinos like to set off fireworks for every major holiday.
4) You're right on the Thanksgiving part though. The average Filipino has probably never tasted Turkey.
I agree that Japanese-American internment during WWII is not brought up enough, but I can't ever recall it being dismissed as leftist propaganda when it is brought up. Usually it's admitted that it's one of the darkest points of 20th Century American history. Occasionally someone argues that it was justified by the circumstances, but that opinion is very much in the minority today.
Also, I think that discussion of the event is becoming more common, at least it is in forums dedicated to the study of the period. As an amateur student of WWII I see the issue come up quite a bit.
For lots of fan cons this is true, but GenCon is mostly about tabletop gaming, not meeting other fans of the games, but actually playing the games! Games like that either can only be played face to face or lose something when played over the internet. Even people that have a regular gaming group go to these cons to play with different people for a change.
I think you have to blame something other than the internet for the failure of GenCon SoCal.
I have a friend who bought a computer in the Philippines recently, got it home and immediately got the "advantage" warning. They went back to the store and were told to just not update unless they wanted to pay for the "upgrade" that got them a legitimate license for Windows.
EA has absorbed Maxis completely. They shut down the Maxis offices a couple of years ago and moved everyone but Will over to the other side of the bay onto their main campus. Several Maxis employees decided that changing from a twenty minute to a two hour commute wasn't for them and left shortly after. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Will is the only one left from pre-EA Maxis.
Why, are members of a frat/sorority prohibited from making friends with non members?
In my experience, yes.
Back in my college days I met new people whom I traditionally would not have met. I did so by living in a dorm. Many of those people are still among my best friends today, over a decade later. No fraternity required.
One of those people did join a fraternity a year or two after starting college. He did so due to the insistent urging of his parents. After joining said fraternity we rarely heard from him. If we saw him his frat "brothers" would do their best to keep us from actually communicating. On those occasions when we did see him he related how he wanted to talk to us and do things with us, but that his fraternity discouraged doing things with non-frat members.
Eventually, he decided that the only thing he really got out of being in a fraternity was a lot of aggravation and started hanging out with us again despite the wishes of his frat-brothers.
I realize that not all fraternities are like this, but it's been my experience that those that aren't are more of the exception than the rule.
Promptu's focus is more on using voice to navigate menus and features than on sending text messages. I don't know how useful or necessary either ability really is, but here's their website if you're interested:
http://www.promptu.com/
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Given the prevalence of scanners, color printers and color copy machines I'd say it's pretty simple.
I'm not talking about the video game retailers, I'm talking about the retailers that normally sell CCGs and other games. Those are the stores that stocked the cards, and are also the stores that are dropping them as fast as they can after learning how easy it is to trick the game into reading the same card multiple times.
For people who actually play the game it may or may not be the end, but for the people who sell the cards it's a disaster. Depending on how many cards were printed, there could end up being a huge unsold stock for ages.
While a good many gamers might care less about the problems of retailers, this also means that a game using the same sort of mechanics as Eye of Judgment is unlikely to be made in the future as it would be very difficult to sell the idea to retailers after getting burned. Especially if they can look in their stock room or on their shelves and still see unsold Eye of Judgment cards.
Having worked as an hourly worker at the Wal-Mart home offices in the mid-90s I can't speak for today, but back then the OP's experiences matched the situation at the majority of the stores I had contact with. The home office did not enforce any of the stated company policies. It was entirely up to the store manager to run his store the way he or she saw fit, regardless of official company policy, as long as he met the bottom line. Company policy existed primarily to cover corporate ass if a manager should get caught breaking local labor laws in order to meet the goals set by the home office.
Wal-mart was also a master at giving these kind of conflicting directives and letting you figure out what you had to do to keep your job without ever explicitly ordering you to do something that broke labor requirements. For example, as an hourly worker we had this trio of directives:
1) No overtime allowed, or we'll fire you.
2) No work done off the clock, or we'll fire you.
3) You must complete your workload, which is currently at 150% to 200% of what we consider to be a full 40 hour a week workload, or we'll fire you.
It was quickly apparent that they meant 1 and 3, but that 2 was simply to cover their ass if you got caught working off the clock. Remember, this wasn't some rogue store manager, it was a division of the home office!
Nothing I've heard since I left has indicated that there's been any change in the way things work since I left the company.
1) The Philippines hasn't been an American protectorate since WWII, so you're well over half a century out of date.
2) Despite no longer being officially linked with America, most Filipinos are still somewhat aware of American pop-culture, more so than the average Indian at least. I'm not sure what that has to do with providing tech support in any case.
3) Filipinos set off fireworks for July 4th, because it just happens to be the date that the Philippines became independent of the United States of America, and Filipinos like to set off fireworks for every major holiday.
4) You're right on the Thanksgiving part though. The average Filipino has probably never tasted Turkey.
I'd say that after years of abuse, they should have to show more than a "few months" of good behavior before people stop bringing it up.
I agree that Japanese-American internment during WWII is not brought up enough, but I can't ever recall it being dismissed as leftist propaganda when it is brought up. Usually it's admitted that it's one of the darkest points of 20th Century American history. Occasionally someone argues that it was justified by the circumstances, but that opinion is very much in the minority today.
Also, I think that discussion of the event is becoming more common, at least it is in forums dedicated to the study of the period. As an amateur student of WWII I see the issue come up quite a bit.
For lots of fan cons this is true, but GenCon is mostly about tabletop gaming, not meeting other fans of the games, but actually playing the games! Games like that either can only be played face to face or lose something when played over the internet. Even people that have a regular gaming group go to these cons to play with different people for a change. I think you have to blame something other than the internet for the failure of GenCon SoCal.
I have a friend who bought a computer in the Philippines recently, got it home and immediately got the "advantage" warning. They went back to the store and were told to just not update unless they wanted to pay for the "upgrade" that got them a legitimate license for Windows.
EA has absorbed Maxis completely. They shut down the Maxis offices a couple of years ago and moved everyone but Will over to the other side of the bay onto their main campus. Several Maxis employees decided that changing from a twenty minute to a two hour commute wasn't for them and left shortly after. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Will is the only one left from pre-EA Maxis.
Why, are members of a frat/sorority prohibited from making friends with non members?
In my experience, yes.
Back in my college days I met new people whom I traditionally would not have met. I did so by living in a dorm. Many of those people are still among my best friends today, over a decade later. No fraternity required.
One of those people did join a fraternity a year or two after starting college. He did so due to the insistent urging of his parents. After joining said fraternity we rarely heard from him. If we saw him his frat "brothers" would do their best to keep us from actually communicating. On those occasions when we did see him he related how he wanted to talk to us and do things with us, but that his fraternity discouraged doing things with non-frat members.
Eventually, he decided that the only thing he really got out of being in a fraternity was a lot of aggravation and started hanging out with us again despite the wishes of his frat-brothers.
I realize that not all fraternities are like this, but it's been my experience that those that aren't are more of the exception than the rule.
Promptu's focus is more on using voice to navigate menus and features than on sending text messages. I don't know how useful or necessary either ability really is, but here's their website if you're interested: http://www.promptu.com/