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[Choc]

so Tony didn't say no to R18

that means it should fly through the Senate if the Coalition supports it

wow

 

[codswallop]

Also FYI EA are taking down the server for The Saboteur so if people want the extra hiding spots and boobs make sure to download the unlock key before April.

God damnit, EA. How hard would it be to release a patch that just unlocks this stuff, since it's not like they'll be making any money from it. Not that EA would ever show any good will at all; we should be thankful that they deign to let us play the games they publish in the first place!

 

[Choc]

Binary Domain coming to steam!

 

[Yagharek]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=36168651#post36168651

Found this post in the capcpcpcpmom characters on the disc thread.

And people using this as a defense ASSUME this as well. No evidence that those characters would never exist just like Javik from ME3. In fact early designs and planning on both cases point the other way. Hell Cody and Guy were in that Poison reveal trailer way back at SDCC.

The mental gymnastics people play to justify their favorite companies is getting ridiculous. Look, you want to buy the DLC, go ahead but the defenses used for this are weak thats why this argument is ongoing and never ending. And people are going to continue to bitch and call companies out on this as consumers fighting for what rights we have left. I mean FFS at this point

1) we don't own that actual disc we bought
2) we don't really own the console we bought
3) we shouldn't rent or trade in or buy used those games we don't really own
4) on top of xbox live you pay for an online pass, either by getting said game new or paying $10 because they can shut those online servers down at anytime
5) you don't get to play everything on that disc you bought
6) anything else they forgot to limit or take away from us they can just by inserting words in the EULA agreement
7) If you bring up or try to question any of this you are a whiny entitled prick

Look at the EA online pass shutting down servers thread. Here is a hint GAME COMPANIES ARE NOT YOUR FRIENDS. They don't require your defense, they are not your buddies, they are not going to come to the hospital when you are sick and they are not going to reward you for your patronage and fighting for them. Their "community managers" are not there out of the kindness of their hearts and by the grace of the company. Ono does not have a twitter account out of pure love for you and the fans. They may have some fun doing it but IT IS THEIR JOB!

They want your money, they are a business, and they want your money. End of story, no bromance or hidden agenda. PR people are there saying whatever they need to say to diffuse a situation. This is the biggest problem with gaming communities so close to gaming companies and I think it the only industry out there capable of it, maybe to an extent the music industry. They use it to gauge what the hell they can get away with and this generation they have found they can pretty much get away with most anything. I'm honest to goodness terrified of what next gen is going to end up being.

And this doucebag has the audacity to call the gamers who unlocked these on-disc characters "ballsy" Look at your damn selves Capcom.

Amazing insight. Best description of this generation's scams I've read to date.

 

[Choc]

There's a point to turning servers off if they are not being used, it costs mony. BUT

EA should release patches to unlock everything

 

[Omikron]

There's a point to turning servers off if they are not being used, it costs mony. BUT

EA should release patches to unlock everything

I doubt you find anyone that would have a problem with that.

PS> I am still raging at ME2 PC bullshit from last night. lol.

Edit: New Humble Bundle for Android is also kinda nice.

 

[senahorse]

Anyone here use linkedin? What do you do on it? Is it useful or do you just create a thing and forget about it?

I think all the people in my team at work have a profile. I've also been getting emails telling me to join every now and then for the past couple of years:/

It can be very helpful in the IT world. I have had a large number of job offers from it.

 

[Jezabel]

Shaneus and/or Jezabel, Half Price Tickets to Adventure Park Geelong.

cheers man, Adventure Park is always a Laugh.

 

[reptilescorpio]

There's a point to turning servers off if they are not being used, it costs mony. BUT

EA should release patches to unlock everything

Couple thousand dollars that patch would cost since Microsoft charge for patches.

Which is a failed experiment to stop games being released buggy.

IT IS HURTING THE CONSUMER MICROSOFT REMOVE THE FUCKING CHARGE YOU ARSEHOLES

 

[codswallop]

IT IS HURTING THE CONSUMER MICROSOFT REMOVE THE FUCKING CHARGE YOU ARSEHOLES

I presume they charge because they have in-house staff to certify the patch isn't doing anything dodgy.

However, I agree that they should not charge.

 

[senahorse]

While I agree the charge Microsoft imposes is silly I still think the onus is on the developers to release games that have been properly tested. Too many times this generation games have been released with inexcusable bugs on consoles. Remember last generation, without a patching mechanism, buggy games were rather uncommon (especially game breaking bugs). I am glad that there is the ability to patch games on consoles now but it seems to be increasingly common to get day/week 1 patches to fix things that should have resolved during the testing process. I am used to it on PC, but a console is a closed system, not one with thousands of hardware configurations.

 

[Choc]

Sony charges for patches...

 

[Yagharek]

There's a point to turning servers off if they are not being used, it costs mony. BUT

EA should release patches to unlock everything

No, you've got it backwards. What EA should do is stop hiding any content behind an online pass or DLC fee.

The problem is that single player content now is tied to authentication servers. Once they are turned off (citing bullshit excuses from EA as an example why), no more Catwoman, no more Midnight Show, and it will only get worse.

People are having their games or significant parts therein stolen with their consent. And eventually it will extend to full games as well.

 

[Choc]

EA made 20 million from online passes last year



thats 20 million they wouldn't have got from Preowneds if it didnt exist

gamestop need to start paying royalties on used if the codes are to stop.

This is a very specific problem to EA because they are the only people that want to run tehir own servers off live

everyone else uses MS infrastructure so its MS call when Catwomen etc disappear

 

[jambo]

So used book stores should pay royalties to authors and publishers?

 

[Yagharek]

While I agree the charge Microsoft imposes is silly I still think the onus is on the developers to release games that have been properly tested. Too many times this generation games have been released with inexcusable bugs on consoles. Remember last generation, without a patching mechanism, buggy games were rather uncommon (especially game breaking bugs). I am glad that there is the ability to patch games on consoles now but it seems to be increasingly common to get day/week 1 patches to fix things that should have resolved during the testing process. I am used to it on PC, but a console is a closed system, not one with thousands of hardware configurations.

Last generation all the Bethesda ball-lickers would have been telling people off for complaining about Driver 3 being a buggy piece of shit and that we should be thankful for Atari making such an ambitious game in the first place.

 

[Omikron]

EA made 20 million from online passes last year



thats 20 million they wouldn't have got from Preowneds if it didnt exist

gamestop need to start paying royalties on used if the codes are to stop.

This is a very specific problem to EA because they are the only people that want to run tehir own servers off live

everyone else uses MS infrastructure so its MS call when Catwomen etc disappear

EA made the decision to run their own servers, why should consumers be punished for that?

 

[Choc]

So used book stores should pay royalties to authors and publishers?

possibly

i've been through this argument before, it does not extend to single player. Single player DLC codes are just gouging

BUT

as i have said before publishers allocate network hardware based on anticipated demand. Over time that demand is supposed to diminish

So lets say that on day one, EA has servers ready for 5 million player capacity for battlefield 3. THIS COSTS MONEY

You would think after 3 months there would be a drop off, so you can reduce that capacity to 2 million players and still be ok. Thus reducing your costs and thus reducing your infrastructure requirements. You can move that to a new game.

But of course there is the preowned games and before the DLC code era, you were supporting preowneds for no money. So lets say 500,000 people buy BF3 preowned worldwide. You are having to pay for the infrastructure to deal with those 500,000 people WITHOUT GETTING ANY MONEY FROM THEM. You are basically losing out in a big way.

This is the real world. This is business.

Basically without DLC codes you need to keep capacity higher for longer, incur the higher cost, while receiving no revenue from those additional players.

IT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE

a book publisher has to do FUCK ALL for a person with a second hand book.

A car manufacturer gains money from parts and servicing. If cars didnt need parts you can guarantee car manufacturers would be all over this as well.

 

[Yagharek]

EA made 20 million from online passes last year

thats 20 million they wouldn't have got from Preowneds if it didnt exist

Thankfully EA are losing money every single year. Maybe one day Activision will buy them out.

gamestop need to start paying royalties on used if the codes are to stop.

No.

everyone else uses MS infrastructure so its MS call when Catwomen etc disappear

So pretty much when XBox 3 comes out, they will make you pay for it again and then delete all 360 content from their servers within a couple of years.

 

[codswallop]

For games where online using an official dedicated server is the major component, I personally don't see online passes as a problem since you need to make sure you can afford to run the servers.

If it's single player or multiplayer using locally-hosted servers (like the majority of 360 games), then fuck that shit.

 

[Choc]

ok guys

go into business. Setup something that requires network infrastructure, sell your product, allow people to resell preowned copies @ will that require that infrastructure


and maintain costs and make a profit

GOOD LUCK, YOU WILL NEED IT

 

[Omikron]

This whole EA affair just makes me believe that Steam were even more justified in telling EA to fuck off and sort their shit out.

 

[Yagharek]

ok guys

go into business. Setup something that requires network infrastructure, sell your product, allow people to resell preowned copies @ will that require that infrastructure


and maintain costs and make a profit

GOOD LUCK, YOU WILL NEED IT

Here's a plan:

1. EA complained to MS that they wouldnt let them run their own servers
2. MS relents
3. EA runs own servers
4. Complain that it costs money
5. charge the customer for something they had already paid for with XBL

Go figure that one out choc, because it seems to me that no-one in EA has "gone into business" and thought about it.

And thats without spiting customers.

Bad word of mouth and pissed off buyers will hurt them in the long run.

 

[FallbackPants]

This whole EA affair just makes me believe that Steam were even more justified in telling EA to fuck off and sort their shit out.

As much as GAF worships Valve, Steam having this almost monopoly on digital distribution can't be a good thing.

More importantly Michael Bay, in his wisdom has decided the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were in fact aliens. I will find you Bay. I fill hunt you down.

 

[Omikron]

As much as GAF worships Valve, Steam having this almost monopoly on digital distribution can't be a good thing.

Agree to a point, they haven't done anything as yet that points to them fucking over the consumer. Until that time they have my support.

 

[Choc]

you do realise Microsoft charges ongoing fees for access to Live and for MS to host the live applications and patches right?

 

[Yagharek]

EA: "It's all Gamestop's/the customer's fault"

you do realise Microsoft charges ongoing fees for access to Live and for MS to host the live applications and patches right?

You do realise that all the bandwidth of the online gameplay is handled by the players at their own end right?

 

[jambo]

you do realise Microsoft charges ongoing fees for access to Live and for MS to host the live applications and patches right?

MS charge those fees because they can.

 

[Choc]

MS charge those fees because they can.

no shit

what im saying is despite the fact MS hosts everything, they charge publishers a retainer to have their games accessible on Live.

 

[Bernbaum]

Sounds like something secreted from the musk glands of an alien creature from Star Wars.

@Jintor - Told you so. I like my games to run smooth.

Obviously, you're not a golfer.

Spoiler

Laphroaig is very nice single malt whisky.

 

[jambo]

no shit

what im saying is despite the fact MS hosts everything, they charge publishers a retainer to have their games accessible on Live.

I thought you meant xbox live subs

 

[midonnay]

45 billion dollar share buyback bah!!!

apple could have bought nintendo and sony

 

[Yagharek]

no shit

what im saying is despite the fact MS hosts everything, they charge publishers a retainer to have their games accessible on Live.

Look choc, I know youre coming at it from a different angle, but sympathy for the situation of the publisher doesnt cut it.

What about a bit of empathy for the customer's perspective. They buy a game at a premium and get shafted on the resale value. Or they buy it cheap or used and get shafted with the online pass as a hidden extra cost if they want to play online. This isnt explained on the box at point of sale (it only says online pass required, it doesnt say anything about paying more money). And then, when EA have had enough, the component of the game they paid extra money for whether bought new or used is made redundant.

But no, POOR LITTLE EA.

 

[Choc]

i agree that the boxes aren't good

ive noticed JB HiFi have put up huge posters in the preowned section recently around it

I am not necessarily saying that online passes are good, i am saying there is a reason for them and unfortunately the publishers can justify online passes pretty easily (except for Single Player content...)


also if apple keeps buying its shares back its going to reach 1000USD a share :|

 

[Yagharek]

i agree that the boxes aren't good

ive noticed JB HiFi have put up huge posters in the preowned section recently around it

I am not necessarily saying that online passes are good, i am saying there is a reason for them and unfortunately the publishers can justify online passes pretty easily (except for Single Player content...)

There is a reason, but its unjustifiable. Where is the $10 discount for the people who dont take their copy online at all and have no interest in doing so? Where is the refund for people who pay for the online pass and then have their service cut off a month later (minimum turnaround)?

Not only is it deceptive but it also has two negative side effects:

1. People chose a competitor's product instead assuming it lacks online pass (see CoD vs BF)
2. People realise the game is being devalued by the publisher so they either wait longer and buy cheaper, or not at all.

There are plenty of other publishers (diminishing numbers sadly) who dont do this online pass stuff. But the two biggest publishers dont do it and they are the most profitable (Activision and Nintendo).

 

[Choc]

Vince that sounds FUCKING BANANAS sorry.


Where's the 50% refund for those who only use 50% of windows features?


The feature is there to use, if they choose not to thats their issue

 

[Salazar]

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/opi...r-for-childrens-education-20120319-1vfni.html

Fuck off, Gerard.

 

[jambo]

Jim Stynes died =[

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/afl/mor...t-for-jim-stynes/story-e6frf9jf-1226304556464

PRAYERS have flooded in for Jim Stynes after AFL boss Andrew Demetriou sent an emotional message of support to the Melbourne football legend and his family.


On Fox Footy's On the Couch last night, Mike Sheahan raised the issue of Stynes's health battle with Demetriou saying: "We hear reports that Jim Stynes is gravely ill, can you update us as to the situation?''

Demetriou replied: "I can't say much other than Jim isn't well as we all know.

"I think at this point in time our thoughts are with Jim and his family.''

Send your message of support to Jim and his family below.

The news led to an outpouring of prayers and wishes online for the former Melbourne Football Club president who has been battling cancer for two-and-a-half years.

"So sad,'' said one. "Jim Stynes you have been nothing more than amazing.''

It comes only days after the 45-year-old made an extraordinary appearance at a Melbourne Football Club function where Ron Barassi presented him with a blazer.

Melbourne president Don McLardy told more than 500 people at Melbourne's Crown Palladium room of his shock at Stynes' attendance at the gala event.

"As you all know Jim continues to amaze and inspire us with his iron will and no one was more surprised than me today to get a phone call to say Jim wanted to arrive here tonight,'' he said.

"Unbelievably he is here down on the front table with his wife Sam who has got an iron will as well.

"While Jim was here we thought it was only appropriate that we recognised this great champion of our football club.''

 

[Bernbaum]

It's kinda specific, but there should be a Star Wars Episode I Pod Racer HD remake with local multiplayer suppor on iOS Kickstarter.

That game was fucking rad on 64.

 

[Ydahs]

Not the news I wanted to wake up to. RIP Jimmy

 

[Yagharek]

Vince that sounds FUCKING BANANAS sorry.


Where's the 50% refund for those who only use 50% of windows features?


The feature is there to use, if they choose not to thats their issue

Then they cant claim server load costs for X million people if x% of them dont use online functions. Theyre getting freed up server load right there which should enable them to support non-paying (used) connections.

Look at Activision - Modern Warfare series has been free to play and insanely popular. You would think if it wasnt profitable they would be charging an online pass fee? Oh, hang on, theyre making money? Maybe Activision is just good at business and EA isnt.

EA has Fifa license - surely in itself a routinely popular game that should be profitable to run with guaranteed 10 million sales + each year. If they feel the need to gouge customers and get a second payment for each second hand game sold, then they really need to trim the fat and look at how to make money and not piss off paying customers. Activision manage it year after year.

With any luck though EA will keep bleeding money. I'd love to see them go the way of Midway or atari.

 

[Danoss]

New board game arrivals. Thanks to Unhalfbricking Games for delivering my order on the same day that Milsims Games looked at my order with them. Both were ordered within minutes of each-other. That speaks volumes to me.

 

[Shaneus]

Couple thousand dollars that patch would cost since Microsoft charge for patches.

Which is a failed experiment to stop games being released buggy.

IT IS HURTING THE CONSUMER MICROSOFT REMOVE THE FUCKING CHARGE YOU ARSEHOLES

Codemasters released F1 2011 with bugs they fully knew about and intended to patch with their first of three patches. They didn't count on the fact that they had a buggy piece of shit and would basically have run out of patches to fix things that were broken with their game. So fucking pissed off about that, despite having not played it for months.

 

[jambo]

It's kinda specific, but there should be a Star Wars Episode I Pod Racer HD remake with local multiplayer suppor on iOS Kickstarter.

That game was fucking rad on 64.

I have a PC copy somewhere, I wonder if it has online mp...

lol just looked this up randomly on wiki

The game currently holds the record for the best-selling sci-fi racing game having worldwide sales of 3.12 million

 

[Bernbaum]

Ahead of any F-Zero or Wipeout? Damn.

 

[Yagharek]

3 million iPads sold in 3 days.

Really puts console launches in perspective hey.

 

[Choc]

usually there isnt 3 million consoles available to sell



but yes it does vince


also, each sale has the capacity to go online. You need to cater for it

 

[midonnay]

it won't be too long until you can stream bluray quality video within the living room wirelessly (as in gigabit connections)

add a controller and its a console

thats why the big three should be worried.

 

[Fredescu]

But the two biggest publishers dont do it and they are the most profitable (Activision and Nintendo).

Activision are the most profitable because of the Blizzard side of the business for whom second hand sales are impossible.

 

[codswallop]

Except that the iPad isn't (yet) designed for AAA-style games. Where would you store the 5GB of data for each game?

Jobs didn't care about gaming at all which is why gaming on iOS is not terribly mature.