alanschu

That's not shock and awe. Those bombs were dropped very strategically with the intent the cause casualities!

I missed the Oilers game. I seriously think we're undefeated when I don't watch the game

Otherwise known as a Barrett M82 isn't it?

I wouldn't say it's sexy. Quite brutish IMO.

Hopefully you sent it to the Edmonton Igloo!

Copyright is a statutory or common law right of authors, artists, and developers (or other holders of a copyright) to publish their works, and to prevent others from copying their works. Infringement includes the unauthorized or unlicensed copying of a work subject to copyright. For example, Title 17 of the U.S. Code (which pertains to copyrights) defines the exclusive rights of copyright holders. There are also several provisions which create crimes for copyright infringement. http://www.techlawjournal.com/glossary/leg...nfringement.asp

Send me yon digital camera then I thought so too!

. Financially hurting someone does not equal theft? If I post slanderous information about a company, it financially hurts them. But it's not theft. When using the term "stealing" it actually does matter if it's physical. Copyright infringement is a 1000000% better term. And you should count it differently than the theft of physical items because it is different. You're just being obtuse about it. Stealing from the government is not treason. Unauthorized access of sensitive information and distributing that information and compromising national security is treason. And I never said that doing it against commercial companies is totally free (which it's not). Thanks for the straw man! <sigh> Yes, I'm totally rationalizing crime For the record I'm exceptionally adamant against software piracy. My first posts on this forum was in a piracy thread. I even [erroneously] used the term stealing much like you are now. The fact of the matter is, you state straight up that it "financially hurts" the company. And then you use examples involving tangible objects as support. If a person had zero intention of legally purchasing the game, then how does a pirated copy "financially hurt" the company. The same does go for the person that cannot afford it. Is it still a lost sale if it was never going to be purchased? Again, this is why you cannot compare it to a physical object. When someone steals a physical object, that physical object is no longer there for the owner to do anything with. And when on Earth did I say that a gamer is free to pirate software? Please show a little respect by not putting words into my mouth and passing judgement on me. It still doesn't work. Theft of physical objects cannot be rationalized as a "victimless crime." It's why many people have no problems downloading music or pirating software, yet not everyone is going off to their Ferrari dealership and taking the cars. Stealing a physical object creates an undeniable loss to the owner of the object. Stealing intellectual property is not an undeniable loss. Widespread Piracy does financially hurt companies. But it's virtually impossible to predict how much. The computer companies consider every pirated piece of software when determining their losses due to piracy (which I probably would too). But it shouldn't take much to realize that those values do not reflect the actual loss of revenue. I'd still use those numbers because people have used the software without properly acquiring the license. But it's easy to see (or so I thought) that those numbers, if piracy did not exist in any way, would not have been purely translated into capital for the owner of the IP.

It was more based on the "Can't pay but must play" that some have... But, you say if they DL a copy they can still sell that copy makes it any different I have to object. Alright, it might not be the same copy, but you still take away cash from the developers. You steal it without any "physical appearance", but it is still stealing. . Playing the semantic game, it actually is not "stealing." However, many people (myself included probably) do consider it to be a loose form of "theft." But it's still exceptionally different than stealing a specific, tangible object such as a Ferrari. . Well, what exactly are you "stealing?" You're certainly getting access to unauthorized information. Would it still be stealing if you found a way into the CIA offices and read the information off a piece of paper without taking it? Copyright Infringement. Assuming the information was copyrighted. The crime most likely committed in this situation is probably treason though. This is where the shady ground comes in and why pirates are able to rationalize their actions. There is some merit to their assertions that if they had to pay for it, then they probably wouldn't play it (my roommate is living proof of this). If you were to build a Ferrari-like car with the exact same parts with legally acquired goods, you could do whatever you want with it and would not be breaking the law. It's why people can make facsimilies of famous paintings and not get in trouble. The second they start claiming it IS a Ferrari though, and selling it (or giving it away) as a Ferrari. At least from a copyright perspective. It's possible they have patents, but that is different than a copyright. Ferrari also doesn't lose money in this situation, since they still have the material good to sell to someone else. If you insist on using Ferrari's (or material goods in general) as a comparison, then you are basically claiming that what we buy is the CD. However, what we are really paying for is the ideas stored on that CD. When we buy a Ferrari, we're buying a car made of tangible materials.

What? No Tobey: I do have a quite the similarity to him.

Oooh hahahahahha We came into this world as a muppet Look into these eyes, you'll see that they are googly. Big bird in his nest, and Oscar in his can, Ernie is a guy, that lives with another man HEY Kermit's on the scene; You know it isn't easy being green! But, I did it all for the Cookie! MMmm The Cookie! Mmmm The Cookie! Mmmm And we can took our cookie, And stick it in my Yum! Stick it in my Yum! Stick it in my Yum! Did it take so long? Why did we wait so long, to give me cookie? Hmmm? Me got me cookie in my fur! It is blue, make me purr! Me so hungry, Does Elmo have me cookie? Does Gordon have me cookie? Who has got me cookie? Me just a sucker, with chocolate chip in my throat Made a mistake, I should give them a break, My heart'll ache! Eat a cookie! Cuz I did it all for the cookie MMM The Cookie! MMM The Cookie! MMM The Cookie! MMM And I can take that cookie, And stick it in my yum! Stick it in my yum! Stick it in my yum! Bramblem afmvme scld On a side note, apparently that Cookie Monster picture came from the very Department I'm enrolled in at my University. http://www.cs.ualberta.ca What are the odds?

Hehehe.

I don't mind "puzzles" per se. But I don't like puzzles that are just puzzles for the sake of being puzzles. I would much rather have a game with no puzzles than a game with many thought provoking, challenging puzzles when the puzzles are completely out of context with the rest of the game setting.

I know the point that people like to get across with respect to the ferrari example. Even though I'm against software piracy, this example does not hold for software piracy (or any kind of copyright infringment). This is because "stealing" software isn't really "stealing" at all. It's actually copyright infringement. The problem with the ferrari example is that if I steal a ferrari from you that you are trying to sell, then you are no longer able to sell that ferrari. If I burn a copy of a CD that you are trying to sell, you are still able to sell that CD to someone else and still make money off of it. To reiterate, you cannot do that with a Ferrari. Having said that, I do agree with your assessment regarding the "try and buy" perspective on piracy. This only works if the person does buy it. However, I don't think it's a stretch of the imagination to assume that it would be unusual for someone to buy a game that they have already beaten, even if they really liked it. Especially if there were no other benefits liks a MP component or something. It's tough to justify something that you literally will not gain from, as you've already received the experience. I still think it's convenient to just ignore probably the largest source of software piracy in the world. I suspect that the fact that these people make money off of other people's hard work is much more infuriating than the guy that downloads his free copy. Furthermore, downloading and cracking software is still a niche thing even in North America. But the main reason why "burn and sell" isn't as effective in North America is because it's waaaaaay easier to enforce. Walmart can't just throw up the $5.95 bootleg copy of KOTOR 2 without getting in legal troubles. This is not the case in Asia. It's tough to say how what hurts more. I'd imagine that if even 1% of the people that pirate games in Asia could no longer (i.e. not possible at all) buy the bootleg copies, a huge influx of capital would come in for game developers (well, publishers). 1% might be too optimistic. I'd still say that even 1/100000 would result in larger income streams than removing all the "free" downloads in North America.

Though I found the lip-synching to be subpar compared to the earliest HL2 videos. I have a feeling the range of motion of the mouths of the characters was just more limited.

I think this is easy to say. But in practice I wonder how you would do if you realized that the overall outcome of your story was dictated to you because of an action taken 10 hours earlier. Furthermore, such branching tends to duplicate work, especially if the branching means that you have to go elsewhere in the gameworld. I think it might be neat as well, but I'm not so sure people (including myself) would ultimately be happy with a game that had something seemingly innocuous at the time actually force you down a specific path many hours later. A situation I can think of is when my friend got pissed off because he lost an item in PS:T that was needed for the foundry to retreive an item. He messed around for a bit and couldn't find an alternative, so he ended up having to pretty much restart the game. The bad thing is, he lost interest replaying the same stuff so he never actually finished PS:T.

Isn't that more Freeware or Public Domain? The Shareware model that I'm familiar with is usually either trial based, or with limited functionality. Doom for instance, only had the first episode available as Shareware. If you wanted to play the other levels, you had to buy the game. It wasn't "please contribute if you like it." It was "please contribute if you want to play more." Alternative styles are the 30 day trial periods that offer full functionality (well, usually), but disable themselves after the trial period is over. It's the predominant model for video games. And it's actually becoming a predominant model for many other things as well, including books. This also includes music. The publishers acquire the copyright in exchange for mass distribution. And I am talking from a North American perspective.

Yeah, hot damn. Because that's usually the way these things go. For every million or so sold copy of, say, Diablo, there's A BILLION of people just clicking said god-forsaken wishy-washy pinko commie link, depriving Blizzard of their hard-earned bucks. Lol, did you write what I think you did? I wasn't talking about per copy 1000 illegal copies get downloaded. I was talking about why DL'ing was more of a problem than "burn and sellers", that spread illegal software ALOT slower... Read before posting... Don't just start ripping things FAR out of their context <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Actually I'd wager that the "burn and sellers" distribute way more pirated games than simply getting free copies from the Internet. It's the predominant form of piracy in Asia, which is generally referred to as the place with the most rampant piracy. The thing about the "burn and sell" methodology is that it appeals to average, computer illiterate joe blow. Believe it or not, but downloading stuff with torrents and cracking it is reserved purely for those with ample computer literacy. As an anecdote, my best friend has no idea about any of those things. But if he was to go into a store or to a street vendor (both of which are things that happen in the large "burn and sell" markets in Asia), he'd have no problems buying that copy at 95% off. Anyone with the ability to put a CD in the drive and let the autorun do its thing can do that. I mean, to be honest I am not even that aware of how to torrent (I haven't used it as I haven't had the need). I bet I could do a quick look around for some BitTorrent download managers and figure it out pretty quickly. But the fact that even I would need to do some research on the topic likely puts it out of scope for the vast, vast majority of people out there. We as computer geeks are not an accurate sample of the computer user population.

OMG LOL I found that genuinely laugh-out-loud funny

Fixed!

As a funny aside, I remember when many people were reporting bizarre problems about the Half-Life expansion Opposing Forces. They were all up in a rage, and many were contacting tech support and whatnot. It turns out though, that the problem only existed in the pirated version. I heard there were many bannings on the gearbox forums I'd be too distracted watching the lip-synching....assuming they did it as well as Valve (I was less impressed with Bloodlines' lip-synching).

Again, I'm talking about where the manufacturers of said consoles have stated where they want their consoles to go. Yes there's stupid people out there that buy the $500 brand new video card. But they're also the same type of people that go out and buy the HDTV just for their XBOX. They are also in a rather large minority when it comes to dealing with the entire PC gamer population (talking from my experiences selling the cards, in addition to discussions with the suppliers about fast moving cards). Their numbers are even LESS when considering the console gamer population. Odo, they have less influence. Graphics is becoming way too much of a focus all around, and I find the statements made by console manufacturers about focusing on graphics to also be worrisome. It's not anti-console perse. I understand the dominance that the console market has and every generation I see an increasing focus on graphics. Specifically when the Microsoft Keynote at the GDC focused so much on photorealism and the HD era. Teams consisting of hundreds of people skyrocketting development costs and curtailing innovation. Yes, it is a problem with the PC and those people that buy the high end video card every time don't help the situation. But now the console people are so heavily stressing it that I see it as major problem for the video game industry as a whole. LOL. That would sure explain those MP games like Battlefield 2, Doom 3, Half-Life 2. If you were to have at least said "because the possibility of having a ton of graphic assets on the screen" then I'd give you a bit more credibility. I'd also wager that all 3 of those games I mentioned will be played online much more the NwN 2. I imagine it will probably go the way as NWN 1, and be overwhelmingly a single player game before it's a multiplayer game.

I find information on some old league basketball player (I don't think it's even NBA, but it's from the 50s), as well as a ton of references to certain F1 racing drivers.

I agree. My first playthrough I always playthrough with a strict roleplaying perspective, and it usually results in an exceptionally satisfying game experience. My KOTOR 1 was probably the best, where I always tried to do the right thing. My trip to Korriban had me convinced that I needed to buy into the Sith ways to protect myself and my allies. Turns out I was seduced by the power of the darkside. When I found myself all alone under the waters of Manaan, I was also more willing to be evil since I had no one around to judge me. When I returned to the surface, my journey to the darkside was well underway. Appropriately enough, I reached full darkside mastery right at the end of the unknown planet

Man....this game sounds really fun I'm eagerly anticipating it. Probably a good thing I don't have it for school reasons.