Mamoulian War

it's called sarcasm... but yes, it's all my fault, just to be sure, the next time i will post something like that, i will make <sarcasm> and </sarcasm> tag so even the less perceptive readers will take a notice of it...

If they purchase it on loan, they have to pay the money back and it is substracted from your income... i do not know how it is correctly calculated aswell so i rather shut up but seeing in same day, that company spends 300 millions and cuts off 1500 employees is very rare sight even in "high" bussiness... to be honest up to this day i have never seen such an announcement from any other companies...

I don't know where people are getting the idea of profit from. Also from GamaSutra. "EA Announces Increased Net Loss, Confirms 1,500 Layoffs" Electronic Arts saw a decline in GAAP revenue, but they did post a record high for non-GAAP revenue (which it seems most people latched onto here, assuming that EA was rolling around in profits). Maybe if they did not buy a company here for 800 millions and company there for 300 millions they would not be now in net loss

i dont think america really has unions in the same capacity or power as europe does. I don't know what unions are like in Europe (or in America for that matter) but we do have them though they aren't prevalent in every industry, which from what I hear is a good thing. Unions had a purpose at one time and there's still a few places where they can be used but for the most part they (unjustly) inflate salary, benefits, etc exponentially increasing the cost of labor for companies. This was one of the bigger issues with Ford. Yeah Ford sucks either way but its pretty tough to compete when your paying out labor costs that are higher than your competitors. Oh noes, what an outrageous idea, to actualy pay employees the money they deserve... and giving them benefits... 2 dollars a hour and 80 hours a week should be enough rewards, no other benefits needed...

now cry me a river please

Have you ever though, that with more and more people getting layed off left and right, there will be soon very few people who will still be able to afford any nonessential things? What then? Making even more layoffs? Basic Action - Reaction thing is in play... The more unemployed people in a country, the lower chance to actualy sell your product, unless you are food, alcohol or condom maker... But yes, that would be Longterm Thinking... and that does not fit into this fiscal year's bottom line, presented to shareholders, so why they would care...

there are many companies with much much different culture than EA, they rather sacrifice some profits, than ruining lives of some of their employees, or they rather sack 1.5 exec with million per month salary than to sack 1000 people with 1500 per month salary... people love to work for these companies, nothing saves as much money as stable and satisfied working crew, which does not search all day for new job... most of these companies are not publicly traded companies though... Name one company that would rather sack an exec than a few hundred regular employees. Sure some companies are more ruthless when it comes to being cost-effective, but believe me none that are the size of EA have the luxury of being humane, at least not without a goverment bailout. Naturally smaller firms are a completely different matter, but at the large scale when 1500 is around 10% of the workforce even bigger lay outs are not unheard of. If the company is struggling with profits, it's more of a fail of the executive than the common workforce... i would say it would be logical step to kick them out 1st...

there are many companies with much much different culture than EA, they rather sacrifice some profits, than ruining lives of some of their employees, or they rather sack 1.5 exec with million per month salary than to sack 1000 people with 1500 per month salary... people love to work for these companies, nothing saves as much money as stable and satisfied working crew, which does not search all day for new job... most of these companies are not publicly traded companies though...

The game comes with a disk check. You're free to omit purchasing DLC if you have concerns about it's future accessibility. Though The Stone Prisoner is free if you buy the game new. i know that, but as i said, it was 3 reasons why i did not preordered this game, with all the experience with EA games released last year, it is very logical decision to wait for the confirmation of the DRM included... at least for people who are concerned about mandatory online activations...

because i had interest in buying it... and was getting more info about the game before i made a purchase... and now i am happy that i did some research, because it saved me 60 bucks

i wonder if you had the same words about it if you got the boot from your job... kicking out 1500 people and then purchasing something for 300 millions... says a lot about the culture of the company...

I am wondering how long until they remove the authentification from them and the DLCs become unplayable

for you it might be effective marketing, for me it is dealbreaking issue... there is reason why i never watch TV stations, which do have commercials in middle of movies... they do break the immersion for me as much as stuff for real money NPCs in computer games... But yes it is effective marketing in a way... it effectively saved me 60 EUR It must be hard for you to find interesting things in life if one little annoyance can deprive you of the entire game experience, such an extreme reaction. I am enjoying my life a lot, because, i do not need to purchase everything shoved down my throat, i have a lot of other things to do. Even in gaming there is so much to purchase, that i do not care if i will miss a game or two i'd like to purchase, i have made a lot of principles during my life and i stand fully behind them, one game will not change that... As Alan mantioned, the NPCs are not only things that did convince me not to buy the game, I was thinking a lot about buying it, but 3 things had put me into dont buy at release date 1) it's EA game 2) marketing campaing 3) the possibility of draconian DRM The built in game advertisement (or however you wanna calll it), is just the final info on the game, which convinced me that i have made right decision of not buying it... And i am not regret this decision at all. My wallet has voted.

same for me... i purchased all expansion packs for all games that i own and have released it... the difference between DLC and Exp pack is in most cases very big... you usualy get more fun for same money from exp packs for you it might be effective marketing, for me it is dealbreaking issue... there is reason why i never watch TV stations, which do have commercials in middle of movies... they do break the immersion for me as much as stuff for real money NPCs in computer games... But yes it is effective marketing in a way... it effectively saved me 60 EUR

I was going to express my mild dismay and surprise that the short-term narrow-minded 'dont like it dont buy it dont care' view is still tanking ahead (and that's not an insult to HK or anyone, because 'narrow-minded' isn't slander if it's true for a particular argument), but I think I posted my point on this a couple of weeks ago. So: prevalent business models and industry practices effect every potential consumer. Also, major changes in a way the game is sold and developed will eventually have an impact on way games are planned, made, priced, etc, and thus is a relevant topic of debate and concern to potential and real customers. Awoo-ga. Amen! Not to mention that NPC in medieval roleplaying game, asking for your credit card number is one of the most retarded immersion breaking features to any game, that i ever heard about... I am now happier that i decided not to buy DA even more...

yes, yes, that's because piracy and 2nd hand market is killing the industry...

this was actualy meant for people who enjoy multiplayer over single palyer in FPS

for anyone who is still thinking about buying MW2 for PC, i recommend you to read whole article!!! http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/11...you-thought.ars

and another interesting article on Ars Technica about the issue of P2P and copyright holders with very interesting citation, from people in music bussiness and the European Commissioner for Information Society and Media - Viviane Reding. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/20...a-hard-sell.ars

Disclaimer: This is my personal oppinion and might not be correct, if you agree or dont' i will not go further into the discussion, because i do not want to turn this into flame war and do not want to get the thread closed. The reason why i think China is so fast pacing is that they do not care about any sort of patens, they take an idea which is successful and most of the time they innovate and they offer it that way. This is very helpful to the nation and their industrial growth as a whole (this works better for centralized government like China has, than for a country with "lobbycracy" and "free market"), but not very helpful to the people who spent initial time to develop the original idea... No copyright/patents at all is imo not very good idea, the people who are working hard on inventing the stuff should be able to get the money invested back and make some profits. But the way how the system works now is completely ridiculous, 12 year patent protection for pharmaceuticals, which can save lives, versus 100+ years copyright protection to everyone who just gets a blowjob and puts it on a DVD...

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/20...pyright-law.ars very interesting read and look from different perspective on purpose of current copyright laws, written by a copyright lawyer who is in this bussiness for 27 years...

Now i found that they even offer Digital Download Collector's Edition... This is extremely ridiculous... yeah this sort of collector's edition will realy shine in my shelf near my Night Vision Goggles, PIP-Boy and Yo****aka Amano's artwork... EDIT: And please make something with your bad word filtering thingie... if it filter's out the name of one of the best japanese game artists, there is something wrong

yes that's what we realy need... monthly subcription to be able to play single player games... The only thing we need now, is the introduction of downloadable End Boss fights!!! "Did you enjoy the game, now we offer to you, the possibility to beat it for only 10$ Buy now the End Boss DLC, from our online store!!!" </sarcasm off>

looks like you never met real ex-USSR or ex-yugo mafia... be happy about it... i would say the chance of some of them killing you, me or any other western world inhabitant is about 100x higher than any terrorist killing you or me... Not much, in CS for example you had Airport level, where you could as a terrorist kill innocent hostages...

Never heard of Counter-Strike and Command and Conquer Generals?