They're fickle up to a point. If EA is in control over a major properties like the Sims, you'll never be able to get my wife to just give them up. Though to be fair, although we've got all the Sims 3 stuff and expansion packs, all of them are pirated (torrented). She doesn't care, she just likes to hear when something new pops up, and I download it for her.
True. One of the nice things about smaller companies is that they basically HAVE to listen to their customer's concerns, otherwise they'll go out of business. The customer base is naturally small enough such that the impact of even a single customer can be felt, hence there's an incentive to improve their response to complaints (at least in theory).
For a large bohemith like EA, a single customer's word means fuck-all. You need a LOT of people to swing in a direction for EA to change their behavior, and that simply won't happen due to human nature - specifically the average gamer's nature.
You might be the smartest, most savvy consumer around, always rationally voting with your dollars--but most people aren't, and they're going to dilute your good choices with their bad, uninformed, irrational or random ones.
That might be one of the most insightful things I've ever read on Slashdot. Shame you posted as an AC though.
and video games aren't a necessity by any means.
The way some kids and young adults act I'd almost be tempted to question that. Games are these days considered as necessary as food to a lot of young people, which is a testament to their addictive nature of games and the strength of peer pressure (and I ain't flaming, since I've been there myself many times). It's also the reason why EA have nothing to worry about.
If you honestly continue to believe in a direction that's not producing any real dividends (your phone/tablet strategy is still failing and there's widespread disappointment for Windows 8) then that's arrogance of the highest level which can only be explained by delusion. It's really as simple as that.
Who ever said I was a hater? I pity them more than anything.
In my experience with a few Microsoft employees, I have yet to meet any of them who are highly critical about the direction the company is headed. They all seem to believe the radical decisions made by the company will pay off in some way despite the mass hatred towards them.
The only ones that are truly critical about Microsoft, no longer work there. I'm strongly of the belief that Microsoft has a very good indoctrinating and brainwashing methodology with their employees. This infallible belief in thinking they're at the forefront of technology and know what's best for tech can only be explained by mass delusion. Which horrifies me.
It's like Deus Ex -- everytime someone mentions it, you have to go play it again.
:)
Excuse me for a moment, I need to go do something...
Actually it's examples like this which make me worry for the future of gaming. I had an argument (online argument, yes I know) with someone who honestly didn't see the problem with always-online DRM, and who tried using the logic "I've never had the urge to play games from 10 years ago, who would?" as an argument for why always-online DRM isn't a bad idea.
I lost the argument mostly because he was a dick who, like a lot of games, is incapable of thinking long term about issues. Which is why I'm hoarding all the good games with suitable cracks while I can.
Seriously, I'm getting fucking tired of companies slagging off at each other, with either aggressive or passive aggressive comments made between various CEOs or VPs or whoever thinks they're important enough to get the spotlight for a few minutes.
Make good stuff that people want. If a competitor is doing something that's risks drawing attention away from your stuff, don't act like children. Just shut the fuck up and present something even better. If you feel you have to acknowledge the competition, do it with some old-fashioned class for goodness sake. This bickering gets old extremely fast.
I've tried LibreOffice 4.0.2.2 (basically the release candidate for the just-release 4.0.2, so it's as recent as you can get) with a
You simply cannot rely on LibreOffice in the real world when dealing with Office documents. ODFs are perfect of course, but absolutely no-one uses them so it's pointless. Everyone else around here uses Office without complaint, and I'm out of excuses for why we should change if LibreOffice has no advantages.
Likewise (in our organization). I'm just saying that there's always a way.
Even if Windows 8 has to be the target though, there are already a mountain of start menu replacements available to provide the one thing that people complain about most in Windows 8. I have no intention to move from Windows 7 any time soon, but if I HAD to move, I'd know how to and in the least painful way.
Yeah and? Windows 7 will be supported till 2020. That's 7 years you can keep using Microsoft's best OS ever until it becomes officially dead, and by that time either Windows 9 will have fixed the issues of Windows 8, or we'll just slap on a start menu replacement (basically the main issue people have with Win 8) and move on.
Honestly I think Slashdotters are just finding ways to become angry, as if that make their lives worth something. It's not worth the effort.
No, you're wrong. You can't use hyperbole ("broke everything completely") and expect to just be taken as truth.
Well for corporate/business users, not much. Windows XP Pro was the last version of Windows that didn't require activation. As for home users - everyone around me has moved to Windows 7/8 or OS X (not Linux, everyone who's tried it ends up going back to Windows in short order when they find out limited it is for mainstream desktop use) and so XP being unable to be activated is quite irrelevant.
Mathematicians practice absolute freedom. -- Henry Adams
