alanschu

Based on the link it definitely seems like they were hoping for more total sales. Though I'm confused, as they talk about discrepancy between Eidos reporting 1.5 million units of Tomb Raider, but NPD reporting much smaller numbers. Are we comparing units shipped to units sold at retail? EDIT: The 400k number is US sales only. I'd need to see a breakdown of where PC and Console sales were going.

If Prince of Persia was an unmitigated sales success, do you think that publishers would take notice? Contrary to popular belief, publishers do NOT like flushing money down the drain for DRM.

... :remembers the gnashing of teeth that occured in WoW once he hit Redridge Mountains and beyond: I'm still scared, I guess scarred by WoW pvp server, where for kicks hordes at max level would go into alliance leveling zones and kick the crap out of alliance newbies. Um for those who don't know, PVP server means that world pvp is active for any territory that's designated "Contested" (which usually is everything except the first two zones for newbies). On a PVE realm you can't be killed unless you flag yourself for PVP combat. I played the 14 day trial of Eve. If you end up in 0.0 space, you likely were ambitious in where you wanted to go.

One would think so, right? Yet Google is being sued every whichway by Hollywood and the RIAA because their stuff is on YouTube. Hurlshoot: it helps to understand the mindset of the people implementing DRM before you go defending it. Ah, so because it works for Monty Python, with the permission of the Monty Python cast, that has a long history of supporters and so forth, it's obvious that if every thing was available for free on Youtube, sales would skyrocket 23000% and the economic crisis would be over!!!111oneone Nice work! I'm sure sales would have gone up even more had the Monty Python crew just given everyone in the world a DVD of each of their movies and their TV show.

I'm sure they were just flying off the shelf before that. Besides, its like saying "advertising works!!!"

In the 14 days you'll hardly enter the type of unsecure space that has those super powered pirates.

Actually it serves as a counterpoint because otherwise, people are mislead to think that EVERYONE cares, since the people most likely to voice their concerns are those that are outspoken by it.

What investment? Exactly, he gets something for nothing, which is always optimal. Why pay money for it when he didn't have to?

I think that this is a myth. No, I think it sounds just right amount of stupid to actually be true. Nah, those people use DRM as an excuse to pirate, and if there was no DRM, they would just find another excuse. "I want to make sure it runs on my PC" "I'm just trying it out and the demo isn't available/isn't long enough" "It might be buggy" Anything to make them feel better about themselves. I agree with the chap in the article that said he respects people that say they pirate games because they'd rather not pay for them. At least they have a measure of honesty about them. My roommate was the same way, who pirated games because it maximized his return on investment.

He completely ignored the online activation issue with the possibility (eventual likelihood I would say) that the servers will be shut down. Besides, if online activation-type DDRM is there to prevent 0th day piracy (and I agree that that is part of the reason), than online activation can be patched out a week or two after it's cracked - but this does not happen. This leads many to the conclusion that DDRM has an ulterior motive - to prevent second hand sales, rather than to fight piracy. If online activation DDRM is there to prevent second hand sales, then publishers wouldn't be restoring activations upon uninstalls. I do agree with his notion that people that blame the developers and publishers for DRM are themselves misguided. There is no way that developers and publishers WANT to spend additional money that otherwise wouldn't be necessary if piracy wasn't as rampant. It's a bit of a pissoff also to learn that many torrent websites make millions of dollars "championing our right to software blahblahblahblahblah." How convenient. Sounds like there are big bux there too. I agree with his notion that people tend to pirate, simply because it means they can get free games. It's why I pirated when I was younger. The only reason why I stopped was due to the ethical concerns I had, and the cognitive dissonance because I myself want to be a game developer. The other piss off is that I definitely agree with him that these leechers most definitely are hurting the PC industry, no matter how much they lie to themselves and others that they are doing it for more than getting games for free. Why wouldn't developers prefer to ignore the PC as a platform if they don't stand to make much (if any) money on it?

I think that this is a myth.

I enjoyed this: http://www.tweakguides.com/Piracy_1.html It's biased in one direction of course, but I appreciated that he tried to substantiate his points with evidence. A good chunk of it is anecdotal unfortunately. He also has an interesting perspective on StarForce.

Haha it's fading in and out.

So Hemsky is like good and stuff.

Dude had lots to drink!!!

Wasn't someone making a JA3 some time? With me loving the XCOM right now, some JA2 might be good times too haha. Is there a Steam version? I suspect I'll not be able to find my disc around here

Well, you can certainly logistically strike naval ports with shore bombardments and airplanes. I did some looking around and while there were some instances of submarines getting into harbors to cause a ruckus, it was usually early war and as a result, harbors tended to have subnets and whatnot to prevent submarines from entering harbors. You can do strategic attacks on airfields, ports, as well as industry and whatnot.

Same. Lets be best friends forever! I thought we already were!!! Anyone that at one time sports a Viconia pic is a friend in my book!!

I don't know how common that was historically though. Are you aware of (m)any examples?

It was a night engagement and the ships engaged directly. There was no aircraft involved at all. It was a combination of poor night experience (plagues all US Naval forces to start the war) vs. good night experience, and Destroyers versus armored Cruisers. The Carriers didn't engage, unless they had ship guns of their own. If I had some bigger ships it would have likely spelled death for those carriers. My interdiction abilities are pretty good it seems. But my estimation of the Japanese fleet was not. It's too bad because there were in fact cruisers at nearby Soerabaja that could have joined the fight, and perhaps tipped the scales of the battle. I do have subs along the coastline of the Home Islands (Home Islands = Japanese islands). There is a fair bit of merchant traffic there, and one of the subs fired off all of her torpedoes except 4 in about 2 days. The problem there is that the traffic comes in surges (they all seem to be leaving at once, and returning at once). It's also a bit harder to narrow things down. I have some subs right outside Osaka since there is only one way in there, but much of that merchant traffic I find ends up traveling through the Luzon strait, just north of the Philippines (which I do have subs infesting), and they seem to encounter ships a bit more frequently. There's also a problem that the US Mk 14 Torpedo has a high dude rate to start the war. The Dutch and British subs have had a bit more success with torpedoes it seems.

Jan 8, 1942. In the past week things have been give and take. The submarines have started to really pick things up. Two british submarines recently arrived from Colombo, and are currently engaging forces near Malaya and Borneo. The US subs have scored numerous hits off the coast of Indochina, and a few hits between Philippines and the Home Islands. While a submarine isn't going to stop an amphibious force, all hits lead help contribute to attrition. Even if the transport doesn't sink (and if it's not close to port, it often seems to), incapacitating it hurts Japan's logistics. As for regions, starting with Burma region, Rangoon is blockaded and cut off. Planes from Thailand prevent British ships from extracting the troops. The American AVG P-40 wing has unfortunately be grounded several days in a row due to bad weather as well. Rangoon can probably hold out another week tops, but it's not looking good there. In Malaya Japanese forces have finally pushed everyone into Singapore, where the fighting is just about to begin. The Philippines has continued to slip from Allied control. While the Japanese haven't gained any new territory, they have inflicted heavy losses south of Manila. Manila itself was hit hard by an airstrike, wiping out most of its CAP fighters. On the plus side, Japanese forces attacking Clark Field where stopped dead in their tracks, and even pushed to retreat on a counter attack. This small breather has allowed Clark Field to beef up its fortifications, and prepare for the Japanese troops to return. Borneo continues to be attacked, with air support from two Japanese CVLs. The Southwestern coast was attacked, and in an aggressive move, two CLs moved to interdict the landing fleet: The landing fleet was forced to retreat. Unfortunately, a significant number of troops had already been landed, and the naval base in the region was taken in the following day. The carriers proceeded through the Java Sea, where American destroyers hoped to intercept her. Unfortunately that did not go very well: The John D. Edwards was sunk the following day. This was about 120 nm off the coast of Soerabaja, which has dispatched the few Dutch Submarines at harbor, and a few torpedo boats, to patrol the nearby waters. On the plus side for the whole theater there, planes have started to more consistently hit the transport ships, including the B-17s out of Clark Field with their 500 lb bombs. Australia remains quiet. They have sent additional base forces and infantry to Port Moresby, which has started to be attacked by Bettys from Truk. The CA Canberra has come under attack, though no hits have been recorded. Currently a fleet is there dropping off supplies. In a worrisome observation, submarines have started to be spotted in that region. Further reinforcements to Port Moresby could be difficult. On the American front, for the most part not much as happened. Some ASW attacks on submarines near Midway occurred, but mostly Pearl Harbor has been reinforced and resupplied. Further convoys have been dispatched to Anchorage, Dutch Harbor, and most of the island chains south and west of Hawaii, for early detection of any fleets. CV Lexington has returned to Pearl Harbor, and replaced her F2A Buffalo fighters with F3F-4 Wildcats. She also topped up her torpedo bomber wing, which was not quite at full strength to start the war. CV Enterprise continues to patrol near Wake Island, with no incident. She is about to return to Hawaii to replenish her air wings as well. Wake Island has a wing of Wildcats for Escort and CAP duties, a wing of PBY Catalinas, and a wing of SBD Dauntless dive bombers en route. She was just resupplied with supplies and fuel, and her waters have been mined with 500 mines as well (in addition to the few mines laid there by the submarine USS Argonaut). With no contact from the Catalinas, we believe the Japanese feel that Wake Island is a lost cause, and will not attempt to attack her again. Even then, aircraft carriers from Pearl are only a few days away, to support the airforces already present. Expansions to the port and airfield there are already well underway, and another Base force is present providing additional coastal guns for defense. In 5 days the first large reinforcement deployment will arrive on the west coast. In the meantime, shipyards have begun repairs on the capital ships that arrived from Pearl Harbor. San Francisco having the largest one, has taken on the bulk of the ships, with Seattle and Los Angeles taking a battleship each, and San Diego taking a group of smaller cruisers and destroyers. ETA is still several months away. CV Yorktown will be arriving in 5 days, complimenting the carrier fleet. They are the best we can do while our primary battleships are out of commission.

My Children need bread!!!

Diablo could be damn hard at times. Just sayin'

Being sold a lot over time qualifies as good, though, since hype cannot sustain sales over time. Credibility destroyed. **** you...I'm looking forward to Deus Ex 3 too. The same way I was looking forward to Fallout 3. I tend to hope that ALL games are good (since you know, I like good games), but since I enjoyed one of the previous Deus Ex games (to the point of it being one of my favourite games of all time), it'd be cool if another game in the universe can deliver on its awesomeness. But hey, if it's not it's not. But I'm looking forward to it too because I want it to be good as well!

Close Combat 2? I looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove that game! And thanks Pidesco! and yes, thanks for signaling the start of this game. I realized that if Admiral Edition comes out soon, I'll be restarting the war again, but oh well hahaha.