In deffense of RS (god I hate having to do this), SSN is only asked for times when a credit check is required (opening a store credit card or starting a cellphone contract).
At a standard sale the most you will be asked for is zip (and only if the associate is a good one and doesn't just clear the screen like most do).
Returns/service plans(yes, I know, garbage)/instalations/etc do require name/addy, and the only one where there is a question about giving it out is for returns, and for that? you will find more and more stores getting tired of return fraud and requiring it (that and directed marketting:P).
There are countless reasons to hate RS, don't get hung up on one that doesnot exist.
Walk in, ask for prepaid phone, give false info (no ID checked), pay with cash, walk out. I have sold phones to people I am relativly sure were ussing them for illicit goals, however I can't simply not sell them the phone as that is illegal:D
On top of that msot prepaid phones can have their phone numbers changed with little or no hastle!
the cellphone thing is a one time entry, it is just so they can send you a text message with your name/pw. and $30 a month for (I am assuming) broadband speeds is not all that bad....
from TFA
# Enter your mobile phone number in the space provided.
# You will instantly receive a text message containing your username and password.
# Enter your username and password.
# Start surfing.
# Your username and password will remain valid for free service until March 2007
Your cell number is not your ID, they are just ussing a cell number much like you would use an E-Mail for registering for a forum or some such, Kinda like how GMail is giving out accounts (or was, I don't remember if it is still up).
This is not designed as a counter to the 4 horsemen scare, infact it would be horribly easy for any one to obtain as many anon logins as they wanted via use of prepaid phones and changing the hpone numbers (something even prepaid accounts let you do).
the PSP only has a single analog stick and fewer control buttons than the PS1
this is honestly a big deal, the lack of R2 and L2, as well as no right hand stick is going to flat out cut out a number of games from being played this way.
Meh, if they do this right (charge VERY little per game, and have some reliable way of backing them up), then more power to them!
If they are going to be charging horrible prices and including some horribly crippling DRM (I only say this as it is Sony), then there is another money sink for them.
And let us not forget that Nintendo anounced the VC a decent time ago. Now I am not saying that Sony copied Nintendo, but this is the second time they are anouncing a concept very simmilar to something Nintendo already did (the motion sensetive controllers being the first).
Oh well, it all comes down to how they pull it off, if it is done correctly, then I can see this realy boosting PSP sales (there are some GOOD PS1 games out there).
I have had my connection get dropped then brought back up because of my wireless LAN connection (thus making a download fail). Possibly degrade was not the best word, but you get the idea. What happens if my connection gets interupted? Is there some sorta caching mechanism? will the picture look exactly like if I use my HDMI Cable? Will the connection never get interupted (or at least no mroe then the cable will be?)
Again, I am not an engineer, and simply speaking from personal experiance. I have yet to see an instance where wireless was a better answer then wired where performance is one of the key issues (As an HD set should be!). I am guessing the point of this is for those people that mount their TV's on the wall and then do not want to have "an ugly cable" on the wall.
Solution? Instead of dropping the cash on a wireless set up that will probably drop your signal qualety, just run it behind the wall (or pay a contracter).
Isn't the point of HDMI to have the highest qualety possible?
Send this over a wireless connection (even if you could do it with out compressing it), and you are more likely to start seeing a degraded signal. Now if you compress this (As you have to I assume), then you end up with with loss by default.
Now we have taken our thousand dollar TV, our thousand dollar DVD player, and stuck another expensive piece between em, that lowers the final picture.
If you are going to spend that much $$ can't you just higher a contracter to run the cables for you?
as we tend to buy more of the Loco Rocos and Katamaris rather than the generic First Person Shooters.
Have any data to back that up?
I am not trolling here, but honestly just curious about our friends on the other side of the pond. As what could be called a "hardcore gammer" (I play just about anything and everything, but primarily FPS games, though I also love things like Katamari) my self, I would honestly be interested in seeing some sorta data about this type of trend.
this is the key to it all
I live in NYC, the movie prices are ABOVE $10 now, then factor in about $4 for my metrocard, the price of eating out (or god forbid buying movie theater priced stuff, though I have SERIOUSLY missed the buttery buttery joy that is movie theater popcorn), etc etc etc.
And look, there is a month of WoW!
I ussed to be dead against monthly fees, and then I graduated from HS and started working regularly and realized that $10-15 is NOT much.
At one of my old jobs I had a coworker who was still in HS, he sat there anr just couldln't get the concept of paying a monthly fee. One day I decided to point out that the shakes he was so fond of, and drank atleast 3 a week, cost about $5 a pop (Hagendaz), and were contributing to him being over weight. He, being the easily impressionable type, instantly stoped drinking his shakes and picked up WoW and got horribly addicted:P/pro-monthly-fee
OTOH, any one that tells you "well, they need the $$ to keep the servers running/pay for BWidth/pay for updates" is a sucker and/or a fanboy.
it does NOT take $15*subscribers/month to keep those tihngs rolling, the $$ is there because it is a GREAT way to make proffit.
Basicly Steam replaced WON a few years back. WON was Valve's old server for listing servers.
Steam does these things:
1) List servers for Valve Games
2) Chat system (the friends system worked, then stoped, and is now aparently back, think kinda like XBL system)
3) Content distribution platform (be it automaticly pushing out patches, making demos/videos avaliable at good speeds, or downloading a new game)
4) Store
5) Anti pirac
1 and 2 are non enteties as far as the Steam love/hate goes
number 3 is a good thing as far as I can see in any way shape or form (they provide a quick and easy way to auto update, update in the background, preload, and all other things at good rates, that seem to auto throttle when you are doing other things). If you are woried about them loading stuff just disable that.
4 and 5 are the problems. (Disclaimer: I LIKE STEAM!)
4 you see people going off on it b/c you buy stuff at full retail price with out getting a CD/book/what ever(not ture on HL2 actualy, you could but differnt verssions, and the one with the comprable retail price came with extra goodies, and you could also buy a striped down version). Personaly I jsut say, if you odn't like it don't buy it, get it from the store.
5 you see the big problems with. You buy a game and it is now locked to an account (way aroudn this), you can't trade it to a friend/sell it on EBay. If steam goes away, you are SOL (not ture). If you bought the hard copy you still had to activate on Steam (I can only see this being a problem to some poor shmoe on 56K).
Once you have registered a product, you can then make back ups, you can set steam to play off line (google it).
If you think you might want to trade/ebay then I suggest you start a new accoutn for each steam game you buy (not that hard).
All in all, Steam is a decent system.
I am a loyal valve fanboy and thus don't try t opirate their stuff, and thus have never had any problems.
Simple answer?
ease.
I live in NYC, in are middle-of-no-where-Queens, and it is a pain to get out on release day to buy a new game, so I generaly have to roder it online. Now give me that chance to order it online and have it as soon as I download it (or instantly if it is preloaded) then sign me up!
Yes, I bought HL2 and HL2 Ep1 via steam.
And if you honestly think you are going to want to sell the game to some one else then create a new steam account and purchase it there!
I personaly have 2 steam accounts, my old one that has my original WON version of HL/OpFor/etc etc activated on it, and my new one with HL2/HL2Ep1 on it (I could have even made a 3rd for Ep1 if I wanted to).
Slashdot Mirror
make the games look like there were much more graphically superior then they really were
so, the graphics only looked better, they were not actualy better looking?
I see said the blind man.
That is because it is a back massager you PERVERT!
Horrible, perverted people, taing a wonderful novelty backmassager from Sanrio and PERVERTING IT!
(this is the point when you all chime in and wonder why he (I) knows about said "back massager" in the firstplace)
In deffense of RS (god I hate having to do this), SSN is only asked for times when a credit check is required (opening a store credit card or starting a cellphone contract).
:P).
At a standard sale the most you will be asked for is zip (and only if the associate is a good one and doesn't just clear the screen like most do).
Returns/service plans(yes, I know, garbage)/instalations/etc do require name/addy, and the only one where there is a question about giving it out is for returns, and for that? you will find more and more stores getting tired of return fraud and requiring it (that and directed marketting
There are countless reasons to hate RS, don't get hung up on one that doesnot exist.
I worked in RS for a year or so.
:D
Walk in, ask for prepaid phone, give false info (no ID checked), pay with cash, walk out. I have sold phones to people I am relativly sure were ussing them for illicit goals, however I can't simply not sell them the phone as that is illegal
On top of that msot prepaid phones can have their phone numbers changed with little or no hastle!
If that isn't disposable, I don't know what is.
the cellphone thing is a one time entry, it is just so they can send you a text message with your name/pw. and $30 a month for (I am assuming) broadband speeds is not all that bad....
from TFA # Enter your mobile phone number in the space provided. # You will instantly receive a text message containing your username and password. # Enter your username and password. # Start surfing. # Your username and password will remain valid for free service until March 2007 Your cell number is not your ID, they are just ussing a cell number much like you would use an E-Mail for registering for a forum or some such, Kinda like how GMail is giving out accounts (or was, I don't remember if it is still up). This is not designed as a counter to the 4 horsemen scare, infact it would be horribly easy for any one to obtain as many anon logins as they wanted via use of prepaid phones and changing the hpone numbers (something even prepaid accounts let you do).
the PSP only has a single analog stick and fewer control buttons than the PS1
this is honestly a big deal, the lack of R2 and L2, as well as no right hand stick is going to flat out cut out a number of games from being played this way.
Meh, if they do this right (charge VERY little per game, and have some reliable way of backing them up), then more power to them!
If they are going to be charging horrible prices and including some horribly crippling DRM (I only say this as it is Sony), then there is another money sink for them.
And let us not forget that Nintendo anounced the VC a decent time ago. Now I am not saying that Sony copied Nintendo, but this is the second time they are anouncing a concept very simmilar to something Nintendo already did (the motion sensetive controllers being the first).
Oh well, it all comes down to how they pull it off, if it is done correctly, then I can see this realy boosting PSP sales (there are some GOOD PS1 games out there).
I have had my connection get dropped then brought back up because of my wireless LAN connection (thus making a download fail). Possibly degrade was not the best word, but you get the idea. What happens if my connection gets interupted? Is there some sorta caching mechanism? will the picture look exactly like if I use my HDMI Cable? Will the connection never get interupted (or at least no mroe then the cable will be?)
Again, I am not an engineer, and simply speaking from personal experiance. I have yet to see an instance where wireless was a better answer then wired where performance is one of the key issues (As an HD set should be!). I am guessing the point of this is for those people that mount their TV's on the wall and then do not want to have "an ugly cable" on the wall.
Solution? Instead of dropping the cash on a wireless set up that will probably drop your signal qualety, just run it behind the wall (or pay a contracter).
IANAE (I am not an engineer)
Isn't the point of HDMI to have the highest qualety possible?
Send this over a wireless connection (even if you could do it with out compressing it), and you are more likely to start seeing a degraded signal. Now if you compress this (As you have to I assume), then you end up with with loss by default.
Now we have taken our thousand dollar TV, our thousand dollar DVD player, and stuck another expensive piece between em, that lowers the final picture.
If you are going to spend that much $$ can't you just higher a contracter to run the cables for you?
It is some one who spends more time infront of HLDM then infront of a WP, as you can obviously tell from my horrible spelling and grammar.
as we tend to buy more of the Loco Rocos and Katamaris rather than the generic First Person Shooters.
Have any data to back that up?
I am not trolling here, but honestly just curious about our friends on the other side of the pond. As what could be called a "hardcore gammer" (I play just about anything and everything, but primarily FPS games, though I also love things like Katamari) my self, I would honestly be interested in seeing some sorta data about this type of trend.
this is the key to it all I live in NYC, the movie prices are ABOVE $10 now, then factor in about $4 for my metrocard, the price of eating out (or god forbid buying movie theater priced stuff, though I have SERIOUSLY missed the buttery buttery joy that is movie theater popcorn), etc etc etc. And look, there is a month of WoW! I ussed to be dead against monthly fees, and then I graduated from HS and started working regularly and realized that $10-15 is NOT much. At one of my old jobs I had a coworker who was still in HS, he sat there anr just couldln't get the concept of paying a monthly fee. One day I decided to point out that the shakes he was so fond of, and drank atleast 3 a week, cost about $5 a pop (Hagendaz), and were contributing to him being over weight. He, being the easily impressionable type, instantly stoped drinking his shakes and picked up WoW and got horribly addicted :P /pro-monthly-fee
OTOH, any one that tells you "well, they need the $$ to keep the servers running/pay for BWidth/pay for updates" is a sucker and/or a fanboy.
it does NOT take $15*subscribers/month to keep those tihngs rolling, the $$ is there because it is a GREAT way to make proffit.
Basicly Steam replaced WON a few years back. WON was Valve's old server for listing servers. Steam does these things: 1) List servers for Valve Games 2) Chat system (the friends system worked, then stoped, and is now aparently back, think kinda like XBL system) 3) Content distribution platform (be it automaticly pushing out patches, making demos/videos avaliable at good speeds, or downloading a new game) 4) Store 5) Anti pirac 1 and 2 are non enteties as far as the Steam love/hate goes number 3 is a good thing as far as I can see in any way shape or form (they provide a quick and easy way to auto update, update in the background, preload, and all other things at good rates, that seem to auto throttle when you are doing other things). If you are woried about them loading stuff just disable that. 4 and 5 are the problems. (Disclaimer: I LIKE STEAM!) 4 you see people going off on it b/c you buy stuff at full retail price with out getting a CD/book/what ever(not ture on HL2 actualy, you could but differnt verssions, and the one with the comprable retail price came with extra goodies, and you could also buy a striped down version). Personaly I jsut say, if you odn't like it don't buy it, get it from the store. 5 you see the big problems with. You buy a game and it is now locked to an account (way aroudn this), you can't trade it to a friend/sell it on EBay. If steam goes away, you are SOL (not ture). If you bought the hard copy you still had to activate on Steam (I can only see this being a problem to some poor shmoe on 56K). Once you have registered a product, you can then make back ups, you can set steam to play off line (google it). If you think you might want to trade/ebay then I suggest you start a new accoutn for each steam game you buy (not that hard). All in all, Steam is a decent system. I am a loyal valve fanboy and thus don't try t opirate their stuff, and thus have never had any problems.
Simple answer? ease. I live in NYC, in are middle-of-no-where-Queens, and it is a pain to get out on release day to buy a new game, so I generaly have to roder it online. Now give me that chance to order it online and have it as soon as I download it (or instantly if it is preloaded) then sign me up! Yes, I bought HL2 and HL2 Ep1 via steam. And if you honestly think you are going to want to sell the game to some one else then create a new steam account and purchase it there! I personaly have 2 steam accounts, my old one that has my original WON version of HL/OpFor/etc etc activated on it, and my new one with HL2/HL2Ep1 on it (I could have even made a 3rd for Ep1 if I wanted to).