Spider

I've been thinking about that one actually. And I admit that's one problem I don't have an immediate solution to. As far as X-box live is concerned that's not an issue though. For PCs it's different and depends a lot on how distribution is solved. The article in The Escapist that has been linked on these fora (at east I think that's where it was) mentions a central point to get games from, sort of a portal site. If that is the solution it takes care of gaming companies going down and the risk goes down. After that it depends on how the portal is set up. Then again, this is no different from replacing lost discs. Getting a new copy of a scratched disc from a company that is out of business is also quite difficult.

Sounds about right.

Really? I haven't heard it used outside of that context in a very long time if at all. Except in sporting events when there is no Swedish (or Scandinavian) presence. I'm not saying your wrongor anything, just recounting my own experiences.

The reason BIS lost the BG liscence was because they couldn't pay for it. The had to chose to keep BG for consoles or BG for PC. At least that's my understanding of it.

I'm not even sure it will be an option during the 360's lifetime. Like you said yourself, if this is the way of the future (which I think it is) why is the 360 shipping without a harddrive? Although direct downloads could appear on the 360 for those who do have a harddrive (but it's going to have to be larger than 20 gb). Aren't Nintendo doing something like that for the Revolution btw? I seem to recall that you'll be able to download older games (ie for 8-bit and SNES). Payment will be a non-issue at first. It's obviously going to be credit cards and it's a non-issue since those who don't want to use CCs that way will still be able to go to the store. Downloading won't replace physical copies overnight. Retail is the main concern of course. But that's a reason why Microsoft should be the ones experiment with something like this. What are the retailers going to do, boycott everything Microsoft? Hardly. I'm not overly familiar with Steam or X-box live either, but as far as I understand Steam you sign up for an account and then you buy games into that account. I believe those can be downloaded to whatever computer you're using. Steam requires you to be on-line when you play (at least when you start the game) so that's how control is maintained. I think, information on the website is a little vague. Steam has other issues though, but I admire the effort. X-box Live I know even less about (I don't even have an X-box) but from what I gather you connect to a server maintained by Microsoft. Given that MS makes the software and has control of the servers, implementing some sort of control feature to make sure only authorized downloads take place should be fairly easy. If they want to that is.

I have already said that I believe a lifetime pass for each game you buy is needed for it to become a viable solution, exactly for the types of concerns mentioned. For the PC isn't that exactly what Steam does? And if we're talking for the X-box specifically (which this thread is about) X-box live is a manufacturer controlled system that should easily be modifiable for such purposes. I'm not saying there aren't kinks to work out, but I still believe this will happen not too far off into the future.

From your perspective, yes. My perspective is different though. Games I'm not currently playing are uninstalled from my harddrive. So for me, a broken disc is much more of a hazzle than a download. Besides, what if I've lost a disc? Then I'd pretty much have to buy tha game again, wouldn't I? And even if a lost disc could be easily fixed, it would still take at least a week. A week is a lot longer than a couple of hours. And I'd much rather not having games I currently have no interest in playing taking up space in my apartment (or on my harddrive if that was the case). The lack of a manual is more of an issue. But it can be solved through more intelligent design (and not the kind some wants in science classes). Look at games like Civilization. It has all the documentation you need in the game, easily accesible. That combined with a decent tutorial really should take care of that problem. I personally hate manuals anyway and rarely even look at them.

Think what you will of WotC, but that's not true. When WotC bought TSR, TSR was on the brink of going under. There was no money left in the company. Then they turned the company around, partially by renegotiating with the creative people that were at odds with TSR (there is a reason AD&D is called ADVANCED D&D instead of second edition). I'm not saying WotC is the best thing to happen to gaming, but they did save TSR and 3E D&D was definitely a step in the right direction. WotC took a turn for the worse when they got bought up by Hasbro though.

Sucks to be you then I've got over 50 PS2 games (for example) and each one is still mint. Learn to take care of your discs. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Not to be rude, but what has taking care of my discs got to do with anything I wrote in the post you replied to? I've had exactly one game be rendered unplayable due to a scratch and I have no idea how that happened. As far as I know it got scratched while I was playing it. I had been playing it for 4-5 hours when suddenly it would start acting funny (crashing and such) and when I took it out it had a huge scratch and ever since it can't be played without it crashing after about 2 minutes. Regardless, it's still beside the point. I said that backing up for an unmodded PS2 is very difficult and in the case of the PS3 it's going to be virtually impossible.

I'll do two: First off is Michael Moorcoock (there is supposed to be one less o in the name, but that makes the language filter upset, so misspelt it is), this from the Elric Saga (if you like Fantasy at all and haven't read this then go do so immediately). Specifically this is taken from the book Stormbringer. Its not very telling to how the books read, but its very significant for those who have read the books: Then something from William Gibson, this from Pattern Recognition: Edit: the name thing.

Is a denser population better or worse? Personally I prefer to have parts of the country not overrun with cities, but maybe that's just me.

You're partially right, I don't have extensive knowledge in the area. I'm a little out of date with what different options provide since where I live access to good options is plentiful. I said sattelite because theoretically to me that seems like the best option since it doesn't require actual digging. But if you say I'm wrong I'll take your word for it, I'm sure you've done your research (especially given that it effects you a lot more than it does me).

Backing up a disc is not always feasible. Backing up a PS3 game for instance is going to be kinda difficult, and the same is true for an unmodded PS2 (or any other console). There is also an environmental aspect to all of this although I'm not entirely sure how that falls. In my eyes, putting everything on pieces of plastic seems more wasteful than just keeping it on a harddrive, but more powerful harddrives and internet connections call for a higher consumption of electricity which is also a bad thing.

Just like record companies offered both vinyl and CDs in the latter's childhood. No one is suggesting that downloads will replace physical purchases overnight. It's very unfortunate for rural US citizen's that technological evolution is largely passing them by, but as technology improves even those areas should be able to have access to high speed internet. And we're definitely not talking 30 years here. There should be several high speed solutions that work in isolated areas as well, the one that seems best suited being sattelite sattelite connection. In a way, rural areas should be a priority since they are the ones that could stand to benefit the most from downloading content instead of physical downloads.

For unlimited downloads to work, there needs to be a controlled system in place which can enforce all kinds of DRM in it's very structure. Sort of like Valve did with Steam (I'm not sure Steam allows unlimited downloads since I haven't tried it and can't find any reference to it, but that is not really the point). The X-box is ideal for this since it already has that system in place with X-box Live. I'm not saying this is something that can be applied today, although it's a process that can definitely be started within the next 5 years.

To clarify, I didn't suggest that downloading would replace buying physical discs during the 360's lifetime. I just said with a large harddrive it would probably be a feasible option. The two complementing eachother. It already is a feasible option on the PC, Half-Life 2 was sold in this manner if I recall correctly. In order for downloads to become accepted by the mianstream I do believe the games need to be cheaper than their physical counterparts. I don not, however, believe it needs to be as low as the price of a rental. The price should reflect that the costs for packaging and distribution have been considerably lessened though. Edit: Discs can be scratched. I've had this happen with a PS2 game of mine, so Discs are in no way eternal. Depending on how a downloading service is implemented, it can even be safer than discs. If you can re-download the game again without any additional costs, then you have a very large number of back-ups.

Actually, for once I think Bill is right. His track record of predicting the future is sketchy at best. I currently have my computer hooked up to my TV and home theatre system and vastly prefer digital media over anything that comes on a disc. It's not a feasible alternative to most people yet, but once 100mbit internet connections become the standard I think it could very well be. This I do agree on though. If downloading is the future, of course a harddrive is essential. If the X-box shipped with a 300GB harddrive, then selling games to it over X-box live could actually become a feasible option within it's life span.

Which is one reason why Ultimate X-men were needed. There was too much baggage to draw in new readers in the core books.

Me or Revan?

Didn't that happen after the Mutant Massacre? My memory is a bit fuzzy, I'll admit, but didn't that happen when Apocalypse turned Angel into Archangel giving him his wings back? Or rather new wings.

Spiritual sequel to System Shock 2. Made by the same developer even, but I think the SS2 liscence belongs to someone else, hence spiritual sequel.

I disagree. I think the Ultimate versions are excellent. I grew up with these characters and love the originals, but the Ultimate versions was a fresh view. And if you don't like the Ultimate versions, then just don't read them. They don't affect the core mythology in anyway. Either way, the Marvel way with Ultimates has got to be better than how DC does things. How many times have they restarted their mythology by now?

Yep. Or I probably saw it, just didn't reflect on what it actualy meant. English not my first language and all (although I usually don't slip up like that it's just that eg isn't as commonly used as, for instance, ie)

No, Age of Apocalypse gives you +100% offense. I suppose the team bonus applies if you create a team from specific eras. Another could be Storm, Wolverine, Colossus and Nightcrawler (the second generation of X-men if you will. Haven't tried it though and the game is uninstalled so I can't check).