Gorth

What has Kumquatq3 to do with anything?

That felt good, didn't it?

Yes Are you? That is because you can not boycott the DRM part without boycotting the rest of the game. How? Did you end up with the DRM part without the rest of the game? It is simple math really, if the number of units sold drops, you shift towards a different market. In this case, console gamers. Investors play a game of "ROI". No investors, nobody to commission guys like Obsidian to work on projects. What they (publishers) need is a business model that works entirely like pay-per-view. You can play a game via a remote desktop on a server and your credit card only gets charged for the time you actually play. Then we can do away completely with disagreements about shrink wrap licenses, DRM and all kinds of other nasty stuff, because there is no need for a publisher to protect the content of the media that is used to distribute a game. Plus, running on the publishers hardware, you get the same benefit as consoles, they have all the exact hardware specs that it is going to run on

Silent Service I & II... the memories... nothing like the sound of a tin can crumbling when you exceed your maximum safety depth

666? At least the forum software says so

Hush... (since I can't vote in the Australian election, I can pretend to vote in the US one) I just need an online connection to one of those voting machines

I even tell my own phone to **** off when it rings... but then I've always hated phones in all their incarnations, shapes and forms

I would like a link to that exact quote please?

That pretty much sums it up.

*Hides big pruning scissors behind his back* Nice idea. Let's see if we can point people in this direction with their gripes... worth a try

Sounds like great fun I took a walk into the city, not intending to do any more than getting some fresh air and a bit of window shopping. Walked past one of the DVD stores and let curiosity get the better of me, just one peek, who knows, maybe they had Battlestar Galactica Season 4? Yeah, I know, I could look it up on the internet and check release dates, but where is the fun in that. It's like looking up the answers to a test Anyway, didn't find any BSG S4, but I did find Rome Season 2 which I hadn't seen yet (I loved season 1) and a boxed set with all 47 episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus at a bargain price

What is that, a Quake 2 mod? heh, somebody who never played ST.A.L.K.E.R.

Not caring one inch about AFL, I've checked my stock of old Cognac (and it looks good) and browsed through my DVD collection for things I haven't seen for long time. "Galaxy Quest" and "Firefly" it is tonight I think. A number of my old movies are going to be phased out and replaced with Blu-Rays. The old and most time worn ones first. Time to order "The Fifth Element" and the new deluxe compilation bunch of all things "Bladerunner".

No Witcher EE in the stores here yet No STALKER clear sky yet either... I need something to play on my new toy (computer). Maybe I should see if the have Bioshock.

Some beautyful views you've got there

hey yeah, haven't seen him around in ages he was the reason i actually joined I think he finished some school (Baccalaureate?) this summer and is probably busy working on the future. The guy has a great writing talent

Another entry in Gorth's diary. While the gfx card is nice and I don't really have any games besides NWN2 that challenges it, the noise levels are just unbelievable. A vaccuum (sp?) cleaner running on full power would feel at home there, Ordered the following beauty from EK Waterblocks in Slovenia. Hopefully, that will bring some peace and quiet back to my office The darn sound card is still on back order... *grumble* I suppose my next task is to find a monitor that does justice to the nice capabilities.

I don't think you've seen the last of these guys, although it is a while since the poster formerly known as Eldar has been here.

Got a Commodore 64 in '83 I had been playing around on the highschool computers during my second year there and got myself moderately interested in programming. Didn't think much of it as a career though, as the machines were big and heavy (cast iron?) and cost more than a luxury car. Then one day, my dad came home with this colourful pamphlet advertising the C64. The thing had sound AND colour AND a staggering amount of memory. Adding to that, it was only a 1000$. Selling everything of any value and getting a night job over the winter, I managed to afford not only the C64, but also the tape drive and my very first game, "Gridrunner" by Jeff Minters Llamasoft After that, I bought a few more games, including a 'cartridge' game (probably my first and only console game). The Hobbit was what got me into reading Tolkien and many an afternoon was spent playing International Soccer or Beach Head Plus, it gave me a platform that enabled me to start programming at home. I learnt a lot from those old computer mags, like Byte and Your Computer. The latter usually had the source code for games for various platforms. The best Pac Man game I've had came as a "Type it yourself" game

Enforced socialism has a poor track record too when it comes to economics. It is a good way to lift feudal societies up to the "next stage", but only to a certain point. Then you need to gradually move into market economy to improve economics further. On a personal level, I am not a fan of unfettered capitalism, as I know corporation 'A' doesn't care one inch about me and my wellbeing, it only cares about the wellbeing of corporation 'A'. Since it is not a person, you can't attribute nor expect it to have any morals, hence the need for counterbalances that protects individuals from corporate interests (unions, legislatators, watch dogs, anti trust whatever). The challenge is to find the sweet spot where it is attractive for corporations to do business without running roughshod over people (e.g. Victorian age industrialisation). Not having lived for a long time anywhere where I would eligible for voting on anything, I've lost interest in politics. Still funny to observe though

EA and Atari are investors. They finance projects and expects returns on their investments. Different publishers, different ways of achieving it. Some like to have control over the projects, some prefer a more hands off approach. They have to keep their share holders happy first and foremost. With a bit of luck, we get something that makes us, the gamers, happy in the process. Edit: By extension, with a bit of bad luck, we get something we don't like.

Thanks Nice to put a bit of background in a lay man undertandable way to some of the names and preceeding events.

That about sums it up. The Intel raid seems to be the odd one out. I updated my bios too yesterday through the ASUS update tool, running under Vista no less, didn't even need to reboot right away afterwards. Alternatively, the bios can be (re)flashed from a usb stick if you mess it up completely.

Football even. Point taken however... Of course I knew that. Just checking if people were paying attention.Thats it, yes...

*Cough* How about discussing Ice Hockey and leave out the personal jabs? That also goes for implied ridiculing of fellow posters