Zoraptor

I presume this is in comparison with SecuROM? If so, SecuROM does not install spyware and installs at exactly the same level as other standard programs, including the Steam client. Steam dials the mothership every time you log in, verify or download games, and is as likely to be 'spyware' as SecuROM is- ie you have no idea what information is being sent in either case, the difference being that while Steam's is persistent monitoring SecuROM does it once. Like having a video camera in the room (Steam) vs having someone take a picture once (SecuROM). OK. But how is this better than other digital distributions (yes, Purkake's point about range can be conceded, Steam has more titles available)- you can do the same with GamersGate/ Impulse/ D2D and with GG at least you can do without even installing a client. Is it functionally better than a physical copy (unless strict portability is the prime issue) or other digital distribution systems? On the activation issue, I think it's a stupid system. It generates a lot of tech support overhead and just plain doesn't work. Having said that, for most people it isn't a problem.

Look at the ping on that baby!

I can (and have) do(ne) that with Gamersgate, without having to worry about the vagaries of external clients. Some of which are potentially very nasty- as an example, if I was struck by the bug with Empire: Total War where verifying the DVD install resulted in downloading the entire game off Steam it would have theoretically (as I didn't buy ETW, and I've got my connection set up to stop well before reaching 12GB) cost me $450 (!!) in usage fees. It may seem that I'm ragging on Valve- though I actually have no animosity towards them at all- but that's just because I've yet to see an argument from Steam fans which didn't ultimately boil down to "well, it's Valve isn't it?" as to why it's better than [alternative].

If Steam actually did that (it doesn't) it would be, well, exactly what people rant about SecuROM for. Steam doesn't get criticised as much because of the built in Valve fanbo^H^H^H^H fanbase but don't kid yourself, in every substantive measure it's as bad if not worse than activation SecuROM. Offline mode doesn't work by design, as it "spontaneously" reverts to online mode at various times, and won't let you reactivate offline mode until you've redialed the mothership.

There is a version which is confirmed as not having SecuROM- the Steam one (maybe the Gamersgate or D2D versions too, though I've never seen it confirmed for them) Yeah, if you hate intrusive DRM then logically you loathe Steam. Amazing how many people seem to think just because it's Valve and they made omghalflifebestgameeverexcepthalflife2!!!! it somehow isn't intrusive though.

Yes. E: TW has some, at least.

It most definitely will be Games for Windows, it's there on the box. Games for Windows Live on the other hand seems unlikely (and I second, third.. googleplexth, the "I ****ing hope not" sentiment) since it isn't on the box. Whether no Live means no achievements at all or whether it just means they cannot be tied to a profile I have no idea.

Yes, mitigating in the sense that given the aggravating internal ethnic and external political factors, and lack of external support pretty much anything better than a Bosnia style disintegration is an achievement, and their elections are at least reasonably fair. I saw the DPRK thread. The start was quite good, the problem was with not knowing when to stop, remaining consistent and picking an inherently hard sell. If I were trying to 'defend' communism I would have picked something inherently more palatable like 'what would have happened if Trotsky rather than Stalin had succeeded Lenin?' and immediately shoved Stalin, Mao etc into the monomaniac-taking-advantage-of-communism basket. Then again, I'm no great fan of communism- though it'd be a great idea if people were robots or termites. Overall f I were looking for an alternative I'd far rather defend one of the anarcho-socialist/ syndicalist systems as in Kibbutz or Catalunya 1936.

Nepal and many states of India are far better examples of non-totalitarian communist ruled areas. Moldova perhaps too, especially since it has a number of significant mitigating factors for its problems like overt Russian and Romanian interference. Cuba and, especially, Byelorus not so much. One of the biggest problems of democratic communism, or even Chavez style socialism, is that it's far easier and quicker for a right wing government once elected to reverse 'socialist' or 'communist' reforms than it to make those reforms in the first place. LoF really isn't doing this very well, s/he isn't even being consistent in attitude to the Spanish Civil War.

I guess they thought that a scheduled civilian aircraft maintaining all normal civilian patterns shouldn't be in danger. Which it really shouldn't have, as the shoot down did require the Vincennes to get pretty much everything possible wrong. I don't doubt it was a mistake, but I'd put it into the 'drunk driver' type category where- sure- it's a mistake, but not one where it simply being a mistake is grounds for exoneration, nor indeed much mitigation. Of course, the thing which really annoyed me was the obfuscation and outright lies flung about in at attempt to muddle responsibility, some of which are apparently believed to this day, and the utter contempt shown by giving the air controller a medal. To bring it back somewhat to the original topic, despite being of the opinion al-Megrahi's conviction was unsound I wasn't best pleased with how al-Megrahi was greeted in Libya either. It was unnecessarily insulting to those who lost loved ones and honestly believe he was responsible, but I kind of expect that sort of thing from Gaddafi.

[le sigh] (1) The Vincennes was not protecting tankers, it had finished that duty some time previous and was simply proceeding through the Straits of Hormuz. It chased speedboats 50 miles to get some action, a task it was manifestly unsuitable for having only 2 (iirc) depressible deck guns, was ordered away and decided to ignore that order and all the relevant standing orders. (2) The IFF was a complete fabrication and quietly withdrawn very early in the piece, ex wiki, and from the official US report: "The data from USS Vincennes tapes, information from USS Sides and reliable intelligence information, corroborate the fact that [iran Air Flight 655] was on a normal commercial air flight plan profile, in the assigned airway, squawking Mode III 6760, on a continuous ascent in altitude from take-off at Bandar Abbas to shoot-down." The IFF lie was post facto slander in an egregious attempt to escape responsibility by besmirching a perfectly innocent party. (3) Its flight in no way matched an attack run from an F14- the self same Sides with its rinky dink bog standard radar correctly identified it as traveling slowly and climbing at the same time as the Vincennes (with AEGIS) identified it as diving and increasing speed. ie, simply monitoring the correct transponder channel or identifying its altitude and speed correctly would tell anyone with even vestigial competence that it was not an F14. Together with (2) that's gross incompetence [edit: On reflection the last bit was unnecessarily confrontational, so I've removed it]

vgchartz is not infallible when it comes to numbers, they do down revisions on occasion and in at least one case (Bioshock) the logical conclusion is that at least one of their sources is/was supplying combined 360/PC sales instead of separated 360 ones. (potted history/evidence: 2k- the publisher- claimed, officially, Bioshock had shipped 2.2 million copies in its quarterly report, at that stage vgchartz had it as selling ~1.8 million on 360 alone, almost at the same time nVidia said BSPC had sold 1 million copies and there were sources for BSPC selling more in Europe than the 360 version). As for Bioware, they haven't bothered to update ME's figures at all in the best part of two years, nor as you point out, to add SWTOR to that page. Keeping them up to date is clearly not very important to them.

It will very likely not be released on PS3- MS published/ funded ME360 and I think we can fairly safely assume one of the conditions of that was no PS3 version... To the main point, theoretically yes. However, as previously stated, ME would have cost multiple times more to produce. So a profit would have been made on BG once it passed [figure in low 100ks] rather than once it reached ~1 million sales. Significant, yes? PC sales also generate more revenue per equivalent price point (due to console licencing fees) and that money would be heavily weighted to ten years ago, so add ~20% due to ten years of inflation and I can go on all day. You're also assuming that Bioware's figures for their older games are up to date. The vgchartz ones are theoretically accurate to the week. Bioware has been using the same rounded figure for BG series sales since at least 2005 and the 3 million figures for NWN since at least pre May 2006 (and to answer alanschu, several 3rd party sources cite 3 million baseline sales for NWN, rather than baseline + expansions which is why I though NWN sold better than it apparently did). The vgchartz figures may already include MEPC sales, vgchartz is specifically unreliable (that's why you cannot go to Wikipedia and update/ add game sales based on their figures). As an example, the figure there for Bioshock360 was revised down last year because some of the figures supplied had PC numbers included and hence contradicted figures from 2k and other sources. All evidence (eg EA's SecuROM defence article) is that MEPC sold poorly in any case. On the issue of 'tail' and longevity of sales (1) Going by vgchartz' figures and the MS press release trumpeting ME (and Halo 3) sales ME360 either shipped 80% of total sales in its first six weeks (MS figure, theoretically the only really solid figure available) or sold 75% in its first ten weeks (vgchartz) and (2) console titles have built in obsolescence. You can just about guarantee that ME won't be still selling, as Baldur's Gate is, a decade post release if for no other reason than all the 360s in the world will have rrod by then. [edit: This issue is very much Your Mileage May Vary as there's no way to independently evaluate the evidence until such time as Bioware updates their figures. I'd still be confident that ME is Bioware's second worst selling RPG at present, I'll happily concede that it may overtake other titles in the future. The initial (and intended as throwaway) point I was initially making was that it didn't sell quite as well as is often implied, especially considering the amount the game market has grown over the past decade]

Sources The Bioware site has some sales figures, used for the PC versions as they were never accurately collated by 3rd parties. ME360 figures comes from vgchartz (ultimately from NPD (US)/ ESA(? not sure of the acronym; Euro)). I won't give the link for K2's sales (~1.75M) as I'm not sure if its disclosure was strictly authorised- the US sales figures however were in the initial publicity for SW: TOR- and the same source (iirc) gave sales of 5 million total for Ob's titles. Let's just say that if you find it difficult to play Anachronox because you expect Boots to be a font of, er, banal negativity you probably know where the info is. Figures for NWN2 aren't publically available otherwise so far as I am aware- except for some German language stuff from the investment group that actually bankrolled the project (IIRC two relevant documents (1) they expected to sell ~2million copies, (2) it performed significantly better than expected) which meshes pretty well with the 5 million total sales. A final (hopefully) note on ME: The thing to bare in mind is that while it sold its copies quickly, it won't have much of a tail (ie won't sell many more copies) and most significantly it cost many times more than either BG to make. A current AAA title costs $20 million+ to produce- why the break even mark has moved from roughly 100k copies back when BG1 came out, to around 1 million now. Which was more profitable in absolute terms we'll never know for all sorts of reasons (licensing costs, publisher cuts, 360 exclusivity payments etc) but the point stands, despite its much heralded sales ME is almost certainly Bioware's second worst selling RPG.

As someone who has dial up and capped 'broadband' if there has to be DRM then I far prefer disk checks, especially over something like Steam. An Empire:TW type situation where verifying your game caused some people to download the whole thing off Steam would potentially cost me around $300US (ie about five times the game's cost) in broadband bandwidth. While more suited for the DRM thread, I think it should be noted that SecuROM does not have a rootkit (when Bioshock came out I personally ran the checks necessary to prove it) and the current version performs only static checks, not dynamic ones. The current 'bad offenders' are FADE and nuTAGES, SecuROM- especially the disk check version- is relatively benign.

To clarify: I'm not saying Mass Effect sold poorly in an absolute sense- 2 million is only failure if you're something like GTA- just that it was hardly as much of an OMG blockbuster!!!11! title as is often implied. It is however probably Bioware's second poorest selling RPG (depending a bit on definitions- going by sku ME360 probably beats the separated xbox/pc figures of kotor; if you add in MEPC it probably beats both bg vanillas but not with xps counted, etc) ahead of only Jade Empire.

Fun fact: Mass Effect didn't actually sell all that well. ~2 million sales on 360, less than either Baldur's Gate, less than KOTOR, a lot less than NWN. A lot better than JE. Take as accepted that for various reasons the sales numbers aren't directly comparable as a measure of profitability. I'd imagine Obsidian would be disappointed if AP performed to RF: Guerrilla levels, frankly. K2 sold near to 2 million copies, and NWN2 (from memory) a fair bit more.

I agree, in principle. The problem is in invisaging a situation in which an intelligence agent, knowing that he was going to be partaking in a bomb plot, would find it either necessary or advantageous to use his own passport and then go and personally purchase items to be used in a bombing, establishing a chain of evidence. We know he had a spare passport, so why take the risk? I'd posit that while it is possible that al-Megrahi's id was accurate and he bought the clothes, the strong possibility exists, even if you accept the id, that he simply bought some clothes and had no idea to what purpose they would be put. Basically, I discount it because it would be trivially easy to avoid (any of: don't buy unique clothing, purchase in a third party country, steal the clothing, use fake passport, use a blind to purchase) and it is reasonable to expect a trained intelligence operative to take reasonable care if planning on blowing up an airliner. No, we should not be lowering burdens of proof just on the say so of intelligence agencies- that opens up an enormous can of worms because while it may be well intentioned it is open to abuse deliberate and accidental. It inevitably leads to 'prove your innocence' type situations where a falsely accused person cannot reasonably be expected to prevail. To illustrate, in a fairly famous refugee case here the fact that the refugee's camera's photos had "symbols of western capitalism" in some of them was used as evidence he was a terrorist scout. In any sane system that simply indicates that it is impossible to take pictures in most cities without getting McDonalds or Starbucks in the background of some. In a system where the burden of proof is effectively reversed, however...

There are also a couple of good documentaries which were the main reason I knew much about it apart from the trial basics. @aristes, primarily. Walsh's article is poor because it is wholly assertional- it works back from a known 'certainty' (Megrahi = guilty) presenting only evidence that supports that assertion and without considering alternatives, or flaws, or being even slightly critical in its analysis. It simply states the prosecution case, as presented at trial, as fact. People are still pursuing the case- many of the UK victims' families want a public inquiry- Jim Swires is probably the most famous. That's also why the release decision was not universally panned by the families in the UK as opposed to those in the US- many of the UK families believe that the wrong man had been convicted. Most of the evidence (and counter evidence) presented for the trial and leave to appeal hearing is Matter of Record- it can probably be requested (some of it at least) from the Scottish courts, allowing anyone to make their own mind up. For the record, I actually have no opinion on Megrahi's- or Libyan- guilt as such, it is plausible that they were either directly or indirectly responsible. But with the tarnishing of the only two direct pieces of evidence there isn't and wasn't enough evidence to convict him, and his appeal would almost certainly succeed. And when it comes to conspiracy theories I have a simple rule: 95% of the time a conspiracy theory can be explained by incompetence or bad luck, rather than malice. Bush didn't do 9/11, the US fully expected to find WMDs in Iraq, Waco was a sadly logical end to an apocalyptic cult, Diana died because her driver was drunk.

Probably ship to figures. Sell through is around 860k (540k 360, 320k PS3), if only a mid budget game that should be profitable.

Aristes- Megrahi's appeal was due just prior to his release and suspended due to his ill health and eventually canceled just prior to his release, hence my initial comment that if you were looking for a conspiracy theory avoiding an embarrassing appeal which would inevitably be lost and make your country's judiciary look silly is far more likely than the Scottish National Party helping out their good buds (not) of the Labour Party. That Stratfor article is, to be blunt, feeble apologia rife with argument by assertion and I'd advise the poor electrons who worked tirelessly bringing it here to sue for recompense. FTR Mebo also sold circuitboards to dozens, hundreds of other entities including the German Police, as they had perfectly legitimate uses. As for that matter, did Toshiba with their radios. Irrelevant anyway, as the only evidence directly implicating mebo is from someone who now admits being a suborned perjurer (not mentioned by Stratfor) and they never bothered to actually test it for bomb residue (!!??), so evidence dismissed. The PFLP-GC had another bombmaker- not a Jordanian intel stooge- who obtained at least one of Khreesat's devices, devices which were almost diagnostic in their similarity to the one used at Lockerbie- note also that while the detonators he used were duds, the bombs weren't- a German bomb disposal expert actually died defusing one. And "He denies it, so it must be true" is one of the weakest and most feeble pieces of 'evidence' which can ever be presented, 'proving' as it does that indisputably innocent people (eg the various 'IRA' pub bombers, Guildford 7 etc) were toughened, trained terrorists/ spys when it's now known and accepted that they were effectively framed. Worse, it also relies on the old "this guy is an awesome spy, except for when he was planning on blowing up an aircraft yet used his own passport for the critical travel in his plan despite having at least one fake available", a mistake which would beggar credulity coming from a raw recruit let alone a supposedly seasoned veteran. And, as previous, Megrahi's identification as buying the clothing was indisputably tainted. In summary, repeating the accusations made at trial while failing to mention- let alone even try to refute- any of the problems which have come to light since? Unconvincing, to say the least. There was no doubt he was going to get his conviction quashed.

The air warfare coordinator was, it's in the wiki entry, specifically "..the other [award] for his actions relating to the surface engagement with Iranian gunboats" which occurred concurrent with shooting down the airliner. Note: AIR coordinator, not surface coordinator. The whole thing was due to the horrendously gung-ho attitude of Rogers, where he deliberately ignored rules of engagement, Naval standing orders and directly issued orders so as to to "get some action". Accidents happen in war and I don't actually think he deliberately shot down an airliner knowing what it was, but the negligence/ incompetence involved (eg continually misidentifying speed and altitude, when in an AEGIS cruiser?) was so gross that it should have been punished, not rewarded. Note also, while the IranAir victims did get $61 million the Lockerbie victims got $2.7 billion, or roughly 45 times the amount. For the circuitboard and second For the tainted identification at the bottom of the first page. IIRC one of those articles mentions an investigator saying they wouldn't even have got an indictment, let alone a conviction, without either of those bits of evidence.

Same deal if you pre-order on GamersGate, too. One local store (er, which I'm in no way affiliated with apart from buying from them on occasion) is offering a guide book. So there are some pre order bonuses around.

Guys, he wasn't tried by a jury, but by a panel of judges. His conviction was iffy at the time (the UN observer called it manifestly unsound) and it has only got less sound as one key witness has admitted to being bribed into giving false evidence- with respect to the circuitboard- while the key identity witness was both paid and had already seen and read articles with pictures linking Megrahi to the bombing, a fact that the prosecutors kept from the defence and the judges. If you want a conspiracy theory for the release consider that his appeal was imminent, was not going to be a limited appeal (ie he could bring in everything including things like the covert CIA drug operation which saw the bomb bag not being searched) and he dropped it prior to being released. There was no way the conviction was going to stand, and that would mean all those lovely compensatory millions would revert back to Gaddafi. Since we're getting all aerated and morally outraged itt , perhaps we could spare some small thoughts for the US Government- in the form of Capt. Will Rogers III- who shot down an Iranian airliner broadcasting a civilian IFF and on a standard civilian flightplan (killing 290), from inside Iranian territorial borders, while partaking in an unauthorised incursion from which he had already been ordered to withdraw but which order he was ignoring, blatantly and repeatedly lied about it, for which they were awarded medals and to this day hasn't even been apologised for, let alone anyone prosecuted.

Practically though, anarchist groups do (almost all) believe in some form of government, much as almost all capitalists do believe in some form(s) of regulation despite a tight definition of capitalism predicating free markets. Somalia is at least as much an indictment on Capitalism as on Anarchism, as is DRCongo and various other places. Both places are, after all, eminently capitalist too. The CNT, which LoF was referring to is Anarcho-Syndicalist. Basically their belief is in local rather than national administration (as they don't really believe in nations) so far as possible and 'workers' running their own businesses as syndicates/ co-ops, organised people's militias as armed forces etc ie nothing like your definition of 'anarchy'. They sent politicians to Madrid and participated in national elections, participated fully in the struggle against Francoist fascism and found time to fight against the communists too. They actually have a lot in common with many small government states' rights US libertarians. Probably their only fault, if you can call it that, is that they didn't smash the communists when they had the chance- as technically they were on the same side and Uncle Joe was the only foreign leader (apart from Mexico, who couldn't do much) to actually get off his chuff and send the legitimately elected government supplies.