greylord

Yes.

I made a similar transition where a majority of my gaming these days is done via the PS3 instead of the PC simply because of draconian DRM. It's funny because publishers want to blame piracy for fallen Retail sales when in truth that's not it at all in most of the West (though with how rampant piracy is in the East, I could completely see that point of view). In truth, they shot themselves in the foot with their sales by their DRM schemes. Blizzard would disagree however...they've sold what...10 million copies of D3 at this point?

Well, I've always found Irenicus's dungeon not so bad as long as you know where to go and where all the traps and such are. Other areas are not...quite so nice.

First note: I loved the ewoks. The empire only sent a battalion of his best troops. That should have taken care of the Rebel strike squad. They didn't count on a PLANET of ewoks attacking them. Even then, the ewoks were basically getting crushed. It was Chewie who turned the tide. No one expected one of their own walkers to start blasting them in the back. It's like that guy in the back of the line that takes out his entire squad because he shoots them all in the back. Chewie was so full of awesome that he took down an entire Imperial battalion!!!! Not the ewoks...Chewie. On another note: There were three colors. Sure, they were good red, bad red, and who knows red...but it all was still red, blue, and green. In the EC, there are still three colors...though they do all have nicely glowing green eyes in one...

Glad I have a copy already

Yes...We probably agree overall. Patent law and what happens with it currently is absolutely crazy!

He may be counting on fact asking for jury for them. Sway opinion rather than relying on prior evidence, he may also be hoping some evidence comes up during the course of each case maybe making a claim like he has reason to believe x or y has used z but x or y would not let him check to find out so wants them to hand over the code for all their game engines have used in past decade during cases for examination. There is simply no way for him to have proof that over 100+ developers or publishers have done what he claims. There is also no evidence supplied in the filings themselves and no reference to any that I could see. I believe the judge still has the perogative whether to allow or disallow a case to come to trial. If the judge sees there's no evidence and nothing to indicate anything he can throw it out en masse. They can appeal that judge's ruling of course and another higher judge will then look at it...and without anything to back up the filing...that judge will probably also throw it out for lack of evidence. Those aren't really judgements on whether it occurred or not, it's merely to try to get rid of frivolous cases so the courts don't get clogged with cases (and believe it or not, that's only if there's not any evidence...if there's evidence, even if it's a frivolous case...they'll let it through many times with the most ridiculous charges...but without anything backing the case....). Of course, it does depend on the judge...but without any evidence at all I expect most judges worth their while would toss it out for the case having no legal bearing.

It's not on the talking heads, it's about the actual process of how those talking heads work. There are different methods of lip synching and talking heads out there. This one addresses a particular form of branching which determines how those talking heads work. The claim is that instead of another branching tree or different process...the determination of the lip synching utilized the particular creation of the rights holder rather than other forms created by others, This could be easy to show, though it's going to be interesting to see how they discovered which process was used by the companies without having violated the rights of the companies they are accusing in the process (they'd have to open and look at the code, then analyze it in order to do that, and this is where Blue could have violated the rights of whoever owns THOSE). He has no proof any developer or publisher has done what he claimed, what he is doing is fishing in the sense he is filing against every single one in the hopes that can prove any of them did do it. He is not filing against specific ones has proof against, filing against everyone just incase and this is what fishing refers to. He is a chancer, he is taking them all to court every single publisher and developer he can find (with individual cases) because has no evidence any did anything wrong. Hoping on random chance one of them might have done what claims but no proof any have done so prior to filing his claims. He has not discovered any evidence of developers or publishers doing it. He is abusing the system and reason why filing separate cases is so when court see's that one after another has not broken any patents they won't throw all his claims out of court. If on individual basis the worst might do is throw that specific case out not all of them. It's like if I had drawn a map, then taken every single store or library in the world that might have a map on the wall to court incase any of them had used / made copy of one of mine without my permission. So yeh he deserves to be cleaned out financially. Well, if there's no evidence, he just committed economic suicide. Everyone of the cases will be thrown out without evidence. It won't just be one, it won't just be maybe, it's open and closed before it gets off the ground. Haven't seen anything indicating there is or isn't any evidence, just the filings. Filing with no evidence would be the tantamount of epic stupidity though.

It's not on the talking heads, it's about the actual process of how those talking heads work. There are different methods of lip synching and talking heads out there. This one addresses a particular form of branching which determines how those talking heads work. The claim is that instead of another branching tree or different process...the determination of the lip synching utilized the particular creation of the rights holder rather than other forms created by others, This could be easy to show, though it's going to be interesting to see how they discovered which process was used by the companies without having violated the rights of the companies they are accusing in the process (they'd have to open and look at the code, then analyze it in order to do that, and this is where Blue could have violated the rights of whoever owns THOSE).

Reading the paperwork it appears that it's off a programming branching tree. Patent looks like it was filed 2001, though the research and paperwork to resolve infringement wasn't actually finished until 2011/2012. I don't think OE will be the main culprits in this... Others may be though if they are guilty. With patent buying, it's similar to Disney buying Lucasfilm. Simply because Disney buys it and then pursues copyright more vigorously than Lucasfilm did against independants does NOT mean Disney suddenly does not own any rights to Star Wars. That's a strawman that many toss around simply to justify piracy. The same applies to patents. My personal thoughts are that Blue won't win the lawsuit, but that's because I looked over the court papers. It has nothing to do with fishing or anything else. It doesn't matter if they are fishing anymore than it would if Disney started suing over Star Wars rights. Disney now owns Star Wars, end of story. Rights don't end becuase they are purchased by someone else. At least depending on your view of piracy. According to the majority views in the Piracy thread...if Blue actually holds the rights, and others are using those without those rights...it's piracy. Same as if you used gamecode that you didn't purchase (aka...playing a pirated game). Funny how quickly people shift their attitudes towards piracy when the shoe is on the other foot. I don't think Blue will win the lawsuit overall, but for completely different reasons than what some are looking at. The entire reasonings that have been tossed up so far on why Blue should lose besides me have dealt with trying to justify piracy. That's ironic. Blue I think will lose, but it has nothing to do with piracy or anything similar to that. If you read the case files you might be able to figure why I think they will lose. That said, if it turns out that they are justified it doesn't matter if they purchased the rights or not, according to the feelings on the piracy thread expressed by the majority that are NOT I (in fact that's why I point it out, I think I'm more lenient on the entire piracy thing than most on the OE forums, hence why I figured there would be hypocrisy with statements here), the owners of the rights should be paid....period. Taking their creation without paying for it is stealing (once again, according to majority statements on the piracy thread). I've often said the biggest pirates are not individuals typically, but businesses and corporations. If it turns out that the infringement is justified in court, it's simply par for the course. Nothing truly new. Truthfully this is more common than piracy of movies, games, and music. Obsidian isn't the big fish though...they aren't getting anything from OE really, even if they win. There are bigger fish in this entire thing, that's where the money is. As always, follow the money, it will bring you to the true origins behind the entire thing. I just hope it doesn't cost the small fry (I know OE seems large, and they may be to some, but really, they are small in relation to many...hence yes, they are the small fry here) that much. Court costs can get expensive at times. Once again, in case you missed it though, Blue may lose the case (I expect it) but it has nothing of whether they are fishing, own the rights, or anything to that matter. I think they probably DO own the rights...that's not why they are going to lose.

Napster is the prime example of two kinds of piracy. MPAA and RIAA did NOT hold patent rights for what they used to ferret out the filesharing... Solution... Though Napster was already dead in the water...get someone to buy Napster...hence preventing the inevitable lawsuit of their own piracy. Copyright piracy was made the big cat...but the bigger one that could actually have bought everyone down on that one was the other piracy. These guys are smart though...it didn't make sense for anyone to actually buy Napster when they did as it was completely dead by that point and all the PtoP players moved to other things at that point (ebear, emule, etc). However, the bigger animal was lose and they did a smart side step. On the disney idea...Your idea of is applicable to both processes. Piracy isn't knowingly stealing these days. Do a movie search on Youtube...you'll see what I mean. If you think all those are legal...you can buy your own bridge in the middle of the Sahara. There are many "legit" appearances in the copyright piracy...and can to many seem to be just as legal as any patent piracy. The thing is, I'm not accusing Obsidian of anything (If you noticed), but I DO know that patent piracy is rampant. Patent infringement is rampant. It happens more often then copyright piracy. Which is what makes this interesting. My point is if this guy/corporation has a legit point...WHY it is possible. It doesn't matter if you don't want it to be true or disagree, if it is a legit case of patent infringement or piracy, the question is how hypocritical are people going to be? They get all righteous in the Piracy thread...but when faced with the fact that it could be patent piracy involving a large number of game companies...suddenly they all turn to hypocrits. We don't know all the specifics of the case to tell the truth...and I've been more then open in hoping that it's just what you stated, someone fishing and it isn't going to do anything (as I pointed out above, you can read it as well). HOWEVER...I also know how easy it is to have a patent and then have someone rogue it, use it, and then it spreads out as others use it. The others aren't using it to purposefully steal someone else's theory/invention/branching subroutne...BUT it happens. ALL THE TIME. It's far more common than copyright piracy...the copyright piracy only gets the majority of attention because the MPAA and RIAA have your ear. The Patent piracy actually is the one that is costing the US and the West FAR MORE money. Sure...it's not going to flash a Bioware game or Hollywood movie on your screen...but a simple thing such as a video idea pertinent to LCD copied by the Chinese, manufactured in their plants, and then sold for a fifth of what it costs in the West to make forces Western businesses into bankruptcy...OR going to China themselves to make the same item costing jobs. This in turn hurts the economies of the US and Europe. It hurts FAR more than any movie can even imagine making. it's not just the Chinese, they just happen to benefit the most. Shoving your head in the sand and singing to oneself to ignore the problem doesn't cause it to go away however. I'm not here to justify the lawsuit. When I looked at the papers it actually seemed like it could go either way...which means that the filers could be on shaky ground. This is sneaky business. Imagine you made a wrench. it was a unique wrench that was adaptable. I sell your wrench in my store. Then I decide to kill your contract and you see I'm selling a wrench that does the same thing as yours. However, I modified it because I put a little hook on the handle...hence I say it's not patent infringment. Would you think I stole your idea? Or would you say as you have been saying now, it's all okay? And then, after I did that you see it popping up in Walmart, Kmart, and everywhere else. They do it because I did it but did not have a patent (and never filed one either), so they think it's actually open source. How do you feel then? Is that piracy? Is that stealling? And yes, it can be that simple...and yes...this is based off of a true story... http://news.google.c...pg=7138,4472004 bought a socket wrench recently?? and others http://abcnews.go.co...ory?id=17720122 http://www.nytimes.c...wanted=all&_r=0 http://www.tampabay....icle1260852.ece And that's just wrenches. I'm actually not as stringent into the piracy as many on that thread...but I'm not going to rule out that this could be a legit thing. If so, I hope the guy get's his money somehow. If it's just someone fishing for money, well hopefully that turns up soon also. I shared both those thoughts already...basically until I know more of the story though, I don't have the information to determine WHO is right and WHO is wrong on this yet. To blindly assume that somone is innocent though... What's more interesting is how some in that thread that were excessively extreme in their thoughts against piracy would excuse this sight unseen before knowing all the facts, regardless of whether there is innocence or not. Which is why I feel if they started posting here could show the huge hypocrisy of some of those from that thread.

Not really. Ripping somebody off deliberately and knowingly for the purpose of greed and being fooled by companies or individuals into buying their services and products in good faith, likely paying good money in the process, isn't quite the same. If you can't see that, then nobody can help you. Besides, there are companies who never invented a thing, but has turned it into an industry searching patent office records, trying to catch companies off-guard with "Gotcha's" because somebody may have patented something in the past, that is similar enough to a common practice. Strange the "inventors" only discovered more than a decade later that video games exists? If they had actually provided any proof or specifics, they may have been worth listening to, but when using the shotgun method against any and all video game companies listed in the yellow pages in the same week (and only US ones, they probably didn't have access to overseas phone books), it comes across as gold diggers, not trying to "protect their investment", but trying to extort money from an industry. Did anybody ever claim that abusing the patent system is better than piracy? Nope, just as pathetic. With patents it's not that clear cut many times. An accepted process may be patented, but many times the patent office takes time. You can notify people that this is your process, but it still gets out. In many cases patents won't be done until they are outdated in technology. This is why many electronics will list the patents on them, but will say...patents pending... This is because ten years down the line when the patent is finally approved...it will already be outdated. So what happens in instances is sometimes a particularly useful idea is used, even if someone has already filed for patent. They do this because the patent has't already been approved. Later, when it finally is, that's when lawsuits start. Sometimes a technology is so widespread by then it's impossible to reign the cat in. Some ironic examples in this entire piracy thing would deal with movies and file sharing. Early on, companies went after filesharing on peer to peer networks. HOWEVER...they did not own the patents on the same peer to peer networks they were accusing of copyright sharing. They illegally used the technology to find the filesharing networks information, utilizng processes they did not own. They were successful in the prosecution...and were not sued back because the patents were not complete as of yet. HOWEVER...the patent infringment could actually be a stronger suite and cost them more then they made in the copyright cases when the patent was finally resolved. The solution, in order not to get sued to timbuktu and back...get one of their companies to buy out the company using the technology they used and in some ways...buy off the very people they had previously prosecuted. Patents can take time...a LOT of time. Most of piracy talks about copyright issues because that's the quickest turn arounds and the fastest and noisiest industry on it. However, it's also the least money lost or made. Patent piracy is FAR more hard hitting. The Chinese have larger warchest in the patent front, and are the most ruthless in their piracy of it. That said, it's also pretty big industry wide. The problem comes in when one or two companies steal ideas, creations, or technology that's already been submitted for patent. One devious usage is to take the tech (or in this case the binary tree of process) and give it a slight tweak to try to argue that it doesn't fall under the other company's patent. Other's then think it's common usage and free to use, even if it's not. A copyright patent idea on this is on filesharing. Some person states they are Warner Bros. but are not, and they are distributing a Warner bros. film for free. Or you go to YouTube and see a movie there and watch it. You may assume it is legit...but in many cases it is not. Patent infringment is even worse then that though. Normally it's for hard money, it's not simply using it for personal use for free. Companies use the patent on their own items and sell them for money...knowingly or not. This is actually a HOTTER topic in idustry than copyright piracy because with China it's been a bigger issue than anything else. That chinese TV you bought, made by a Chinese company, probably is using something already submitted for patent in Europe or the US...and being rogued and robbed already by the Chinese. So, I'm not certain whether it's simply people don't understand just how bad patent infringment is and how it's piracy or they are just being hypocrits. As for your example above...I already stated the equivalent in copyright piracy with someone claiming legit use and you simply accepting it, when in many instances it is not. However, for your example Gorth...when Disney buys out Lucasfilm, does that mean downloading Star Wars from a Peer to peer site or elsewise, or watching it on youtube or some other site like that, is now less of a piracy action then it was prior to Disney buying Lucasfilm? I have my own take on piracy and it's industry, but I think there will be many who stated some pretty strong opinions in the Piracy thread that will turn out to be hypocrites on an issue like this. PS: And as I already stated, hopefully it turns out to be nothing...or someone just fishing for money. BUT, and as I stated before..if it REALLY IS a result of Piracy or infringment...I can understand the case and the situation. I also think Obsidian would never do somethng like it on purpose, and that it probably would end up as one or two leakers making it into an industry wide accepted practice.

So there's a thread about piracy. IF this was something the person patented and actually has algorithms, lines of code, and other things and can be shown to be specific...would you still hope they get taken to the cleaners? If they actually have a patent and their invention of that sort is being used, I don't think Obsidian is necessarily at fault, I think one group started using it, and then others, it spread as a common way to do something, and when that happened everyone was using it, inclusive of Obsidian. Bringing this back to my first sentence...some have expressed some rather strict interpretations of piracy there...enough that it would condemn not just the original takers of the method, but everyone who has used that method. In light of what people have said in that thread, or what each poster has said...are people being hypocritical here or not? PS: I support Obsidian, hope that they don't lose anything on this lawsuit, or that it's frivolous, but if it does have bearing, and this really is a result of someone taking the method originally created by someone else...I think that could be something reflected upon by others. Personally I think if Blue is charging that many, the judge should just lump it all together into a solitary case, perhaps class action or general pursuit so if there is a conviction maybe there is a lead company (original company that utilized the process and let it spread into commonality for the industry) that pays the bulk with the rest being spread out to ease the load on everyone else.

Nintendo has been practicing a different approach to the market than Sony and MS. If I recall correctly, Nintendo normally tries to make a profit on the hardware it sales, as opposed to using it as a loss leader and making up the money in software (games) and licensing like it's competitors.

Torchlight 2 Agarest War 2 Torchlight 2 uncharted III...er no...that came out in 2011 Torchlight 2 Heh...hey...did I mention Torchlight II???

Ah...so I would imagine... Is there anything unholy anymore!!!

Well, recently started FFX-2. Gosh I had forgotten how they screwed up some of the dynamics of that game. I can still find the charm (I know many hated it though) but playing it currently, I can definately see where they made some mis-steps.

They dumbed down their games for bigger audience. Bigger audience = more money. Morrowind is considered one of the greatest RPG of all time for many, so I interested in why you think it is a terrible game? It's a FACT in world of Volournia, r00fles. NWN OC is also a good game in the same bizarro world. And Dragon Age 2 is the most perfect and greatest game ever...well almost in that world.

OMG...NIER...that is one hell of a depressing game. You have to beat it three times to find out the actual story though...twice only gets you half the way there...

someone's trying to disguise what the cutscenes in FFX look like. there's a difference between an ingame rendered cutscene and the ACTUAL CGI cutscenes... Here's one on Youtube of an actual cutscene as opposed to the ingameplay graphics you've been posting.... in poor resolution even...and it kicks the crud out of anything you've been saying. http://youtu.be/TyxDVVNyXYs The guy has been posting in game play graphics, and you tried to disguise the in gameplay cutscenes using the same graphics as are used to play the game as CGI (which they are not...that's akin to stating that when you have the BG2 in game cutscenes using the same views as when you play the game as a CGI cutscene...which they obviously aren't). I'm not a hardcore on either PC or console side... But people lying about things to try to make themselves look good is annoying... The video shows the obvious differences between the in game cutscenes and gameplay. FFX still looks good to this day. And that's even on the POOR resolution that this youtube video has. However, true gamers play because of gameplay, not graphics... (though I think FFX rocks to tell the truth)

no it isn't from a cutscene. The cutscenes in PSX were a LOT more detailed than what I'm seeing no his screen. Your emulator stinks by the way for that last picture there. Heck, even on my HDTV via a PS3 (fat) I have better resolution. I have better resolution on my old tv that's a tube with a PS2 than what that is showing up on your computer with whatever emulator you are using. Either that or you tuned the emulator wrong. As others have already said, Morrowind always looked like #$%^#, even in it's heyday. People didn't play Morrowind because they felt it was the best graphics, they played it for other reasons. As all gamers should do with games they enjoy playing. Anyways, more onto news.... Extract : 'Microsoft Kinect 2 will have the ability to intelligently scan a room and pick up on the audience (creepy right?), they’ve even included the ability for age detection. The technology will also be used to enforce ESRB ratings, something no console to date has been able to enforce.' Is it for real ? I mean, are they seriously considering selling this ? Wow, I'm amazed people could buy such Big Brother system. Also it's doomed to be cracked in the first month. If this happens that's one console I will NEVER get if I can avoid it (and I should be able to). That's going waaaaay overboard on the CRM nonsense. This entire security skillthrill that MS has been doing is one reason they've been the best advertising for Linux since WinXP!

Mugen Souls was released on PS3. How is gungnir? I can't seem to find the FFIII on the PSP...that's an absolute buy if I could find it. Didn't even know they put it on the PSP. As far as I know FFIII was released on PSP only in Japan, but I heard it is with english and japanese voiceover. I do not know if it is true though :/ EDIT: AAAnd you have to tell me more about Mugen Souls!!! I liked few other Compile Heart games, so I am thinking about getting this one, but still would like more info... THX The closest I can come is a more coherent and serious Trinity Universe type game. It's way over the top with much of what it does, more scandalous, and still with that wierd Japanese humor type thing. However, it feels to have a more coherent (though still very odd and no where near normal) storyline than the aforementioned Trinity Universe. It has a great take on a turnbased combat system however, different but a unique take. If only developers looked at existing systems and evolved and created unique ideas with them rather than thinking everyone wants and action slash slash type thing we could end up with extremely unique takes on them like in this game. Basically you have turnbased combat, but you can also woo enemies to be your slaves. I guess that's the closest I can come to how that works in a very short summary.

FFX was awesome. I think some PC gamers REALLY enjoy the freedom to wander and explore (think the original FFI which you could get killed quick by wandering to the wrong part of the map type explore, or BG where you could go anywhere)and FFX IS extremely linear. That said it's a totally awesome JRPG!!!

That says all about you. Maybe me as well? I play games on PC, a few new, but definately retro on my part (labeling retro on PC as anything older then 5 years at this point), which is where a majority of my PC gaming is done these days. I am onsidering a new PC soon though, depending on how compatible Win8 turns out to be. However, I also am a massive Console gamer at this point. Love my console. That said, I absolutely loathe trying to play FPS on consoles. I can hook up a mouse and keyboard supposedly to the PS3, but the response time I get with a PC and the ability to adjust my look and turn speed is vital to me. Mouse sensitivity and responsiveness gives me a control in FPS that I simply can't get on the console (for me at least). it feels like I'm missing a leg and an arm when I try to play FPS games on console. I DO like some of the TPS games on console though. For some reason they seem to have made them more suited to console playing in the recent generation then they have with FPS. Uncharted series is golden on the Console...and ME is pretty good as well in relation to other games. Still not as quick turn times as I have on a PC, but with the buttons right there I don't do the finger dance on the keyboard I do with TPS on PC. So, I like both, I play both, if I had to go with one I'd probably choose PC (since I can use emulators on the PC as well as all the PC games, can't do that on a console), but I definately like Console games to. There are some console games that simply just aren't presented on the PC. (and vice versa).

With PC's, I'd say it used to be that you had to have at least a thousand dollars to buy a really good one. My current gaming rig however was gotten almost three years ago. It had 6 RAM at the time, and a nice Vid Card. With a simple upgrade on the Vidcard it still out strips anything with a console easily with higher resolution. The thing is, PC gaming has been dying on the tech front. Nothing is really coming out that pushes tech bounderies like it used to, so one can actually get away with getting a PC rig and letting it be the sole gaming rig for a while. Everyone is making games for consoles and then porting it over to PC, and those are the games "pushing" the tech bounderies...when in reality they aren't really so much pushing the tech bounderies as much as they are optimized for consoles and because they aren't optimized for PC's...end up taking up a lot of memory and other items. The other games that are for download are typically more indie type games...and I don't think I've gotten a one that couldn't run on a 5 year old PC thus far. However, there are still games coming out for PC's...just not like they used to on the AAAA front. I think the last one's I really invested anytime into would be the Diablo III and the Torchlight II items in NEW games (still play old games, recently did all the Win 7 hacks in order to make the old Lucasarts games like X-wing playable on 64 bit win7). I hate playing FPS games on consoles...the same goes for flight sims (and in truth the only hardcore flight sims are actually ON the PC's). On consoles however there are game series I absolutely love. Some of them are actually on PC as well, but I think they were executed better on console. Mass Effect Chrono Cross and Chrono Trigger (If you haven't tried these...these are absolutes if you want to see something that has C&C that really affect how a game ends in it). Lunar (Silver Star and Eternal Blue) Grandia Series Final Fantasy (Hit and miss on some of these) Growlanser series Everquest Champions series (and you can toss in the BG series...not to be confused with the PC BG series) C&C/C&C Red Alert Civ Revolutions Force Unleashed series (wish they got a third) Fifa And a bunch more, but that gives a round about range of different varieties of games that I enjoy.