now quit cloning around and come inside, mitosis cold

You can in fact download without paying, just like the other eight thousand sites like this (rapidshare, megashare, megaupload, duckload, etc etc etc)

And just like all those other sites, hotfile removes offending files as soon as they get reported (often within minutes of the files being posted!)

So really this site (and the others like it) are just like youtube or any other place you can post things - as long as they remove offending files can they be considered guilty of infringement? Granted these kinds of sites are huge piracy magnets - its how things spread before torrents even - but does that alone make them different?

It may seem different but if hotfile can be sued, there are staggering(!) implications for the rest of the internet.

From my time exploring mturk I would have guessed it to be much higher than that, non-spam related jobs were definitely the minority of what I saw.

The creepiest (and highest paying) job I saw though involved watching surveillance footage from airports, making sure the automated face tracker stayed on target...

but for now there's no signal in this basement.

True that hats are still not easily crafted, but the issue is gameplay and the set bonuses are trivial at best. Even if you had every item you'd most likely use some mixture of items you like rather than the set, as the bonuses aren't worth carrying not carrying your personal best items.

Even with the new set bonuses, hats are still cosmetic by any standard.

The duel token isn't gameplay related either, and its 5 uses for 99 cents anyway.

I like how every positive reply has gotten modded troll.

Meanwhile I still haven't read a single valid point by any of the naysayers, here or elsewhere. Most of the time it doesn't even sound like they even -play- TF2.

The only valid points people have brought up are the ones who liked vanilla TF2 better before it had any new content added and wish they could play that old version. That's fair, but completely unrelated to this whole microtransaction deal.

You get wasted without new items? I think you're just projecting your dying on whatever appears to be a likely suspect.

Yeah there's a lot of new stuff compared to vanilla TF2, but variety doesn't mean imbalance. Its all about playstyle and taste. Lots of people still use the old gear.

Does everyone use the kritzkrieg instead of the ubercharge? Not even close.
Does everyone use the huntsman bow instead of the sniper rifle? Definitely not.
Does everyone use the direct hit instead of the old rocket launcher? Yeah right, most competitive soldiers don't touch it.

So you hop onto TF2 after not playing for a long time and see a whole bunch of new things, and then die to someone wielding and item you've never seen before. OH THAT MUST BE WHY THEY WERE ABLE TO KILL YOU, if only you had it too you wouldn't have died, right? It's just a convenient excuse.

But sure, TF2 is -somewhat- different now than it was originally, and liking its original form better is perfectly fair. But on the other hand, new content is what keeps most players coming back. You might be one of those guys who still plays counterstrike or quake decades from now, but you'll certainly be the minority. TF2 would be nothing but pleasant memories among me and my friends if it had never gotten new content to periodically bring us back from time to time.

A prime example of that would be the free-to-play-but-micro-transaction-based Battlefield Heroes. In there you can buy weapons that are immensely better than their free counterparts. It's a disaster and the main reason that game never got very big.

However in TF2, which has been getting new items added to it for years, new stuff is always -different-, not better. For instance a rocket launcher that shoots faster rockets but has no splash damage. Its a matter of playstyle and taste rather than one being better than the other. All the new stuff is like that.

Besides, it's also all easily crafted without paying anything, so even if some new item was better, you don't have to buy it to get it.

The only things in the store that you can't make yourself are new dyes and name changers used to customize the appearance of other items.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I saw the post this morning, I'm not a fan of microtransactions in games, as I've never seen it executed in a way that didn't punish players into using it.

But I read all about it, and then checked it out for myself. It actually seems like this system was built with a fair dose of common sense, something I've come to expect from Valve.

First and foremost is the fact that all the items are still attainable in game. But wait, did they make them really rare drops or difficult to craft in order to push people toward purchasing? Nope, they're still the same as they've always been. Easily crafted by anyone who plays much at all.

But hold on, these systems always have stupid virtual currency that you can only buy in chunks that don't match the item costs. You want an item that costs 3500 neato-points but you can only buy points in chunks of 2000! Oh, Valve's system uses real currency tied to your steam account, that you can use anywhere on steam. That actually makes sense.

Surely there is a catch though. These new items must be overpowered and imbalanced to make them worth buying, right? That's what most games do (cough BF Heroes cough) but it doesn't really work when people can still get the items without buying them. And it turns out the stats are all in line with the way Valve has always added new items to TF2. They all have their ups and downs and are more a matter of playstyle and taste than outright better/worse. There are still plenty of people who used the old original items simply because that's what they're best with.

BUT HOLD ON, WE'VE FOUND THE EVIL PLOT! Most item's are community made, Valve is profiting off content they don't even have to make themselves!! Oh nevermind, community designers are given a cut of any sales their item makes, which is probably the coolest thing about the whole system. As someone who's mapped and modded Source as a hobby over the years, and having friends who actually made items in this very update, I think it is absolutely awesome that they're getting money out of something they'd normally love to do just for fun.

This is is precisely the microtransaction system I would expect from Valve. I have no problems with it and I have yet to read any legitimate arguments against it.

Focus was certainly the wrong word, by it I meant simply what your eyes are looking at - converging on - not actual focus and things being blurry/clear.

That's actually a great idea. Near as I can figure it should solve all the problems, although I wonder if there would be noticeable alignment quirks with a cursor that's only being rendered to one eye.. I wish I could try it myself.