Forgive my scepticism, but I have to wait until I see a second, less biased source before I take this at face value. The rule of reporting is to get two verifications, and I think I'm going to do just that.

Only if that finally gives us my dream scenario of President CowboyNeal.

Does that take VAT into account?

I'm not questioning you, I'm legitimately curious.

Secondhand market? No, no, piracy killed the secondhand market for PC games long, long ago. Even in 2004, I couldn't return PC games after I'd bought and opened them, and trade-in costs didn't even offset the gas I spent.

You're never going to see someone buying back a used PC game - not a major retailer, at least - because if they did, they would lose money hand-over-fist, as people copied their games and returned them.

Steam isn't even a fucking company. Valve is the company. Get your facts straight.

It's funny because there's a game called Elven Legacy that's coming out soon; I previewed the Russian build of it, and it's nothing more than Battle of Wesnoth with better graphics, a shitty story, less options, and worse gameplay. It aped the hexagonal gameplay almost exactly, but made it less intuitive.

It's going to likely cost $30. I have Wesnoth on both Linux and Windows.

I think you're letting a historical view - propagated since the game's popularity has taken off - get in the way of perspective. The first Halo, for a console shooter, was very good. Furthermore, it wasn't presented to the fratboy crowd, it caught on with them. It was only after Halo's popularity jumped that the stupid shit started happening.

I'm not saying Halo is the bee's knees; it's above average when all is said and done, but not amazing. But I don't think it's the standard of mediocrity that everyone says it is, either.

kdawson's the editor. He fucks up everything he touches.

C'mon mods, fire away on me!

The "scene", as people like to call it, will always live. The people that have been pirating since swap parties and VHS recording will still be pirating.

It's the 98%ers that companies want to make afraid.

<i>A real solution, of course, would be the content holders to get off their collective asses and make way for a global and non DRM:d way to access content at a reasonable fee.</i>

Everyone that has tried this has been abused. No ifs, ands or buts; everyone that has tried going the open route has been anally raped with no lubricant, and no kiss afterwards. It's worked like this:

Company 1: *drm*
Consumer: "u fagget i pirate u"
Company 2: "That's not right... here, just pay a reasonable fee, and I won't limit you"
Consumer: "lol ur easy 2 pirate fag"
Company 2: ":("
Company 1: *MASSIVE LITIGATION PUSH*

Your idea makes sense on paper, but human nature is a painful reminder that it just doesn't work in reality. Check out the piracy numbers on the completely open (and Linux enabled!) World of Goo.

Source: http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/metallica/articles/story/6959138/money_makers

That's the top 50 moneymaker list from 2004.

I was told by my current employer that they almost didn't hire me because I was "too opinionated", and that it "could cause workability issues". This was because I was open and honest in my interview, and because they saw my website, which I used as a reference for my skills.

But in the end, they hired me, opinions and all. It's caused a few issues in their eyes, but I think they've learned they'd rather deal with me - where my opinions are out in the open for everyone to see - than deal with someone who is better at hiding things. That, and I'm very, very good at my job.

In the end, the problem fixes itself; anyone that wouldn't hire me because of the things I've said on my website or anywhere else, that's their loss, and even if I worked for someone like that, I wouldn't be in that kind of environment for long. The ones that take me get a very good employee who's loyalty is unquestioned.

Depends. How much do you value groupthink? Personally, "getting along with the team" is overrated, and honestly, a false sense of security.

It's not really a matter of a game's quality, it's a matter of how everything spawns off of it.

For example, video game RPGs spawned off of Akalabeth. That doesn't make it *better* than, say, Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, but it does make it influential.

I don't think Goldeneye belongs in that category, however, because while it was the ubiquitous console shooter, it still owed a lot to those PC shooters. It's not like Tetris, which spawned itself countless clones; it was an evolution, not a spark.