Manmademan - Slashdot User

Comment Re:So he's saying games should be immune to inflat (Score 1) 139

by Manmademan on Thursday November 01, 2007 @09:01PM (#21205747) Attached to: EA Boss Says Games Too Expensive

Yes, SNES and N64 carts cost more to manufacture than Disc based games do. It wasn't just this though- nintendo had some pretty draconian royalty policies in place as well. New games could and did cost up to $30 more than comparable PS1 games back in the day, and you can't tell me that was all just the cost of the cart itself.

But that's besides the point. What the OP was trying to point out is that since the advent of disc based games (say, 1995 or so) the cost of a AAA game has only risen 20%, from about $49.99 to $59.99.

I'll say that again. that's TWENTY PERCENT in about 12 years. Less than two percent a year- it's barely tracking the rate of inflation. Hell, it's probably LESS than the rate of inflation. Up until "next gen" the cost of gaming hadn't budged at all, and if you're still gaming on a PS2, GC, or Xbox1 it STILL hasn't.

People, the dollar is tanking. It's currently worth less than Canadian money. Imported goods are skyrocketing in cost, and even basic staples such as gas and food have doubled in cost or more. There's almost no other product you can point at that hasn't had a substantial price increase in the past twelve years, and yet somehow gamers expect the price of games to not move at all in twelve years? Seriously?

Submission + - Free music to college students

Submitted by vindimy on Monday January 22, 2007 @04:35PM

vindimy writes: news.com.com reports that

In one more attempt to counter music piracy, major music labels have agreed to support a service that will offer free music downloads — with some substantial restrictions — to any college student.
The service, from Ruckus Network, will be supported by advertising on its Web site and on the software used to download and play songs. The four major record labels and several independent labels have agreed to license their music to Ruckus at lower rates than they charge other mass-market music services on the theory that college students would rather steal songs than pay the $10 to $15 a month that such services normally charge.

Questions arise, how likely are students to use the free but DRM-guarded service? Is the music industry finally making steps toward gaining peace with its young audience? Do we have the next free sharing killer app?

Submission + - Microsoft PR Paying to "Correct" Wikipedia

Submitted by

Unpaid Schill

on Monday January 22, 2007 @04:27PM

Unpaid Schill writes: "Over on the O'Reilly Network, there's an interesting piece about how Microsoft tried to hire people to contribute to Wikipedia. Not wanting to do the edits directly, they were looking for an intermediary to make edits and corrections favorable to them. Why? According to the article the article (and I am not making this up), it was apparently both to let people know that Microsoft will not "enable death squads with their UUIDs" and also to fight the growing consensus that OOXML contains a useless pile of legacy crap which is unfit for standardization. In an unrelated note, does anyone happen to know what the going rates are? I think I'm being underpaid."

Submission + - Caught in the Web: Top 10 Internet Scandals of All

Submitted by

Tiny Tuba

on Monday January 22, 2007 @03:52PM

Tiny Tuba writes: "The Web is a great way to deliver information, but it is also a great way to expose, spread, or jump-start a scandal. In this article, Dan Tynan looks back at some infamous scandals many of us have probably forgotten. It includes greats like how The Drudge Report surfaced the Monica Lewinksy scandal, and how AOL out-ed Senior Chief Petty Officer Timothy R. McVeigh.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,128554/article.h tml"

Submission + - Microsoft Turns to Razer for Gaming Edge

Submitted by

ThinSkin

on Monday January 22, 2007 @03:44PM

ThinSkin writes: "Once described as "an ugly duckling" because of its defective hardware and/or spotty software, the Microsoft-Razer Habu gaming mouse may in fact be ready for primetime, according to this ExtremeTech review. The Habu has plenty of features common among gaming mice, including on-the-fly DPI switching, polling rate customization, and even a swappable left side panel that replaces one large buttons set with a smaller set. Its 2000 DPI laser eye also has enough pop for gamers looking for a little extra horsepower."

Wikipedia Adds No Follow to Links 264

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday January 22, 2007 @03:29PM from the things-that-shouldn't-matter dept.

netbuzz writes "In an attempt to thwart spammers and search-engine optimization mischief, Wikipedia has begun tagging all external links on its site "nofollow", which renders those links invisible to search engines. Whether this is a good thing, a bad thing, or simply unavoidable has become a matter of much debate." This topic has come up before and the community voted to remove nofollow back in 2005. This new round of nofollow comes as a directive from Wikia President, Jimbo Wales.

Submission + - Geothermal energy will power America - MIT

Submitted by

amigoro

on Monday January 22, 2007 @03:00PM

amigoro writes: " This article says that mining the huge amounts of heat that reside as stored thermal energy in the Earth's hard rock crust could supply a substantial portion of the electricity the United States will need in the future, probably at competitive prices and with minimal environmental impact, according to a new MIT-led study.

The panel also evaluated the environmental impacts of geothermal development, concluding that these are markedly lower than conventional fossil-fuel and nuclear power plants.

And that might counteract the "imaginary" fears the world leaders have that global warming causes economic hardship"

Submission + - Pentium 4 631 overclocked to 8000MHz

Submitted by

Andreas

on Monday January 22, 2007 @12:52PM

Andreas writes: "There is always those who are willing to take things one step further than others. A group of guys known as OC Team Italy is one of them. They namely pushed an Intel Pentium 4 631 to over 8000MHz using an ASUS P5B with modified voltage regulation and liquid nitrogen. Overclocking is cool and all, but this extends to what would perhaps call useful. Still a milestone though."

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