"We want to keep pirates from messing with this system as badly as they did the PSP"
*refuse to give legal way to migrate PSP games to Vita without having to rebuy them outright like has been provided to Japanese customers*
Brilliant! This certainly won't motivate anyone to crack the system so they can play their PSP games without having to buy them anew!
Which is a perfectly valid point, and not at all what I was addressing. I was addressing the completely unnecessary "Old news!" statement that these have been around for years, when he outright says he knew but ignored until some were forced on him.
Wow. The sheer amount of people that didn't follow what this does is kind of surprising. No, you can't cancel your cable or DSL or whatever internet and use these instead and they aren't a wireless router. You plug one of these into an outlet AND your router, and the other one into another outlet AND the device you want to connect. It's still a wired connection, but instead of having to run ethernet cable from your living room down to a basement office, or run CAT5 through all your walls, it'll send the connection over your existing power lines to the same basement office. This way, it only requires a connection between the router + Powerline Unit A and your internet-requiring device + Powerline Unit B rather than a whole mess of cable running all that way or specifically having to run wiring through your wall.
"I'd heard of devices similar to the Powerline Internet AV Kit, but I never paid them much heed. Their function was exactly why I invested in all of this fancy-shmancy wireless technology after all. Why spend the extra cash when my wireless connection is as reliable as any wired gadget?"
It was even bolded, in an extra attempt to prevent useless "These already exist" comments, but lo and behold, even that wasn't enough.
There's a difference between incentivizing new purchases and punishing used purchases. Rewarding customers for purchasing new is great. Most of the online pass complainers actually agree with that. Dragon Age 2 and Saints Row 3 incentivized new purchases by offering upgrades like the DA2 Signature Edition or the Genki pre-order pack or free Season Pass if you ordered it from THQ. I got all three Saints Row 3 DLC packs (two of which haven't even been released yet, so none of that on-disc bullshit) for free just for purchasing a game I was going to purchase anyway new. Rewarding customers for buying new is great.
The problem comes from punishing used buyers by stripping away on-disc, expected features of the game. Madden's had online multiplayer for years now? Not if you buy used because... fuck you! Catwoman advertised as an important aspect of the game (while never mentioning it'd be an online pass or paid dlc, which would have then allowed them to call the Catwoman pass a reward to new buyers) at least as far back as last year's E3? Not if you buy used and don't want to spend an addition $10 to purchase the content that was continually marketed as part of the game.
It's frankly kind of stupid to make this argument, as people aren't particularly making the "Companies shouldn't incentivize buying their games new!" argument. You're fighting against an argument that largely isn't being made. People's problem is with publishers removing function from their games to PUNISH those that buy used. It's like if you were buying a car... a company is perfectly within its rights, and damn well is providing a nice incentive if they do, to provide you with things like free floormats or oil changes or other perks to get you to buy a new car instead of used. But if they remove the otherwise perfectly functional brakes from their used cars unless you pay for an Onroad Pass to try and make you buy new, that is bullshit and would probably result in some quick legislation to prevent it, were car makers ever to try it.
Point three is precisely why this rant, and the company arguments for online passes, are bullshit. If Gamestop pushing used games hurts the industry so fucking bad that devs are starving and modes like multiplayer must be ripped out and put behind an online pass so badly, then WHY IN THE BLUE FUCK ARE THEY PROVIDING GAMESTOP WITH EXCLUSIVE STUFF TO BRING IN MORE CUSTOMERS?! Some used games are even being given WITH online pass content codes from Gamestop. If Gamestop's not paying them for that privilege, then what the hell's the point of the whole online pass thing? To fuck the tiny handful of people that buy used from places whose entire business model is something other than "Only push used copies"? If Gamestop is paying them for those, then what the hell's the problem? They're getting paid on it. They're getting money off of used game sales that they're not actually entitled to. There is no problem. Either they're being paid by Gamestop to provide online pass codes and are making money off used sales (something they're not entitled to and most other industries don't), or they're giving Gamestop all this for free and are fucking themselves worse, making them idiots who don't deserve saving. Either way there's no problem.
There's a difference between incentivizing new purchases and punishing used purchases. Rewarding customers for purchasing new is great. Most of the online pass complainers actually agree with that. Dragon Age 2 and Saints Row 3 incentivized new purchases by offering upgrades like the DA2 Signature Edition or the Genki pre-order pack or free Season Pass if you ordered it from THQ. I got all three Saints Row 3 DLC packs (two of which haven't even been released yet, so none of that on-disc bullshit) for free just for purchasing a game I was going to purchase anyway new. Rewarding customers for buying new is great.
The problem comes from punishing used buyers by stripping away on-disc, expected features of the game. Madden's had online multiplayer for years now? Not if you buy used because... fuck you! Catwoman advertised as an important aspect of the game (while never mentioning it'd be an online pass or paid dlc, which would have then allowed them to call the Catwoman pass a reward to new buyers) at least as far back as last year's E3? Not if you buy used and don't want to spend an addition $10 to purchase the content that was continually marketed as part of the game.
It's frankly kind of stupid to make this argument or say you agree with it 100%, as people aren't particularly making the "Companies shouldn't incentivize buying their games new!" argument. You're fighting against an argument that largely isn't being made. People's problem is with publishers removing function from their games to PUNISH those that buy used. It's like if you were buying a car... a company is perfectly within its rights, and damn well is providing a nice incentive if they do, to provide you with things like free floormats or oil changes or other perks to get you to buy a new car instead of used. But if they remove the otherwise perfectly functional brakes from their used cars unless you pay for an Onroad Pass to try and make you buy new, that is bullshit.
No. Not at all. This is the stupidest statement from the "Don't buy used" club. Yes, with physical products like cars or bikes or clothes, buying used results in a diminished experience. But that's due to physical wear. It's due to the fact that shit breaks down. It just does. It's not due to some built-in failsafe that prevents full use, like with gaming. With a console, there is, which is why you can make that type of statement and not be completely moronic, unlike when you make it about the games themselves. If you buy a console, there actually is wear and tear on the parts, and thus buying used actually does come with an expectation of not getting the same experience as new. Game information though, is purely digital. If the disc isn't damaged and the machine can read it, you will have the same experience as any previous owner. There's no degradation of parts.
To make this an actual analogy that makes sense, when you buy a new car instead of a used car, you're getting a product in newer, less degraded quality due to the limitations of physical products that simply wear out. This is like purchasing a console new instead of used. However, buying a used game, where the contents are exactly the same as long as the disc isn't destroyed, is more akin to a new car being marked for sale as used solely because someone touched it and got fingerprints on it a few times or rubbed their balls over it. It still works and is in the exact same condition as the new vehicle, with none of the wear a used vehicle would. Once you ignore the fact someone touched it before or clean off the ball prints, it provides the exact experience of a new product.
6. 4 is really good, but if you only play one, 6 is the one to go with. It gives you a lot more of a customizable playing experience, rather than just being locked into the party it gives you for the entire game, along with accessories, equips, and espers that can vastly change a character's build. Plus it's got the opera scene, which is one of my favorite things in Final Fantasy history. It's also got some of the best characters of the series (granted, 4's are almost all great, too).
Replying to promote. And to agree with the rare "8 was good" sentiment. It's not my favorite of the series, but it's definitely top 5. I never got all the hate it gets.
That's because 6 is the best. 4's ridiculously close in my book, but the opera scene ensures that 6 will always come out on top. I love 5's job system (which is why unlike most, I liked X-2. It was basically utilizing a similar, well done job system if you could get past the Barbie dress-up fluff), but the story and characters (aside from Faris and Gilgamesh) were pretty forgettable, which keep it from being up near the top.
And everyone else is also missing that in addition to all of those, it only affects you if you're actually one of, what I assume must be a really small percentage, of the Minecraft users that plays using Afrikaans. Even if Minecraft is somehow huge in South Africa and Namibia, the amount of them using the dev build snapshots has gotta be miniscule. The only people likely to be too "affected" by this are idiots specifically seeking it out due to these stories just so they can be outraged that it's like that.
That's coming as future DLC.
What's with all the doom and gloom naysayers here? What makes any of you think doing away with MS Points means they're forcing you to use a credit card? Where does it say anything of the sort? It only says points are being done away with. As in, no more bullshit 400 points = $5 conversion. If you're in the US, a $5 game with be displayed as $5 and cost that much. They can still sell prepaid cards without any change. Just instead of buying a 1600 point card, you'd go to the store and buy a $20 card. There's nothing at all to imply they're doing away with anything more than the arbitrary point values.
Where does it say anything of the sort? It only says points are being done away with. As in, no more bullshit 400 points = $5 conversion. If you're in the US, a $5 game with be displayed as $5 and cost that much. They can still sell prepaid cards without any change. Just instead of buying a 1600 point card, you'd go to the store and buy a $20 card. There's nothing at all to imply they're doing away with anything more than the arbitrary point values.
It's even less than that. If they'd pulled support after the protests, that'd have been kinda ok, as it'd have shown they're at least somewhat listening to us. Instead, they've waited until the bill was pretty much killed and has no chance of even making it to vote where it can be bought back into law when people aren't looking and then finally said they don't support it.
Nah. After the massive gamer backlash would have been fine, as it'd have shown they were listening to us. But that's not the case. They've waited until the bill's basically dead to finally drop support. That's actually a slap in the face.
No. It's got nothing to do with the protests. If it had, why would they wait so long, when many were dropping their support during the protests? This is a response to the fact SOPA's been shelved and is effectively dead. Now that there's nothing to support, they're changing their stance and trying to act like it's meaningful.
Exactly. If it was a response to the protests, they'd have done so within the last two days, like everyone else that backpedaled. This is solely because they bill is effectively dead. Screw the self-serving assholes at the ESA. They still deserve e3 to be boycotted.
Not really. At this point, it's not even a hollow gesture. It's nothing. The bill's effectively dead. It would be insane to not oppose it now. They needed to drop their support long ago. Hell, even if they'd have dropped support once the shitstorm started and it became clear the internet was fighting back and wouldn't let this happen, they'd have been praised for finally seeing the light. At this point though, it's an empty gesture and almost a slap in the face. They still deserve to have e3 boycotted.
