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Comment Re: "few" should be "almost everyone" (Score 1) 91

Physical Media is transferrable via private resale. A $70 game on disc is okay because I can sell it to my coworker after I beat it or get bored. A $70 game on Steam has a two hour trial period, or you can find it on sale for nice low prices after the marketing blush has faded. A $70 download game on the first-party platform sites is the worst value of all.

Comment Wrong comparisons (Score 5, Insightful) 106

Comparing revenue before and after DRM is cracked is a flawed (and self-serving) analysis.

it doesn't count reduced sales to customers who refuse to mess with the risk of DRM fucking up their OS installs

it counts so-called anomalies in sales after the initial launch; game sales are notorious for dropping precipitously after the initial few days for many reasons, including freshness, review feedback, other games or products releasing and competing for attention

it doesn't have any way of measuring customers who didn't buy at the offered price because it was a little too high, vs people who simply routinely pirate everything because they were never a potential customer at all

it doesn't have any way of measuring any increase in sales after customers learn of the game after seeing some hype from pirate players

Comment A diplomat's dream (Score 1) 47

I heard a phrase "foley file" but can't find its origins now. It referred to a diplomat's assistant who would quietly give brief data just before the diplomat would shake hands.

This trope has been used repeatedly in various sci-fi works since then. Star Trek, Robocop, Oath of Fealty, The Expanse, Gattaca, all have characters who have discreet scans to summarize people upon introduction.

Comment Re: NIST is right and wrong (Score 5, Insightful) 180

I was surprised they still think the acceptable character set "should" include all of printable ASCII instead of demanding it. So many systems which can't take semicolons, quotes or percents, because they still have database injection concerns they should have fixed twenty years ago.

Comment Re: A better term: lease (Score 4, Insightful) 64

I can't recall seeing a lease that is a single payment for an indeterminate length of time. Just my opinion but I think that word implies monthly upkeep payments, like Sony PSPlus game offers, but would feel wrong for one-time payments for persistent library title slots like Steam.

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