M.U.L.E., Archon, Archon II:Adept, Mail Order Monsters, Realm of Impossibility.....

Sigh, good times....

But that company is dead, and it's shambling corpse is a zombie devouring the industry...

If you would like to meet Kate, I suggest you go into a bathroom, turn off the lights, and say "Bloody Kate" three times in front of the darkened mirror.

DRM versus Copy-protection: I have re-bought games on Steam because I lost the 16 digit CD key necessary to reinstall them with the CD and they cost 5 Yankee dollars on Steam. Six of one, half a dozen of the other.

(Yes, I could have hunted for a hack, but I can do that for the Steam games as well. Again, six of one, half a dozen of the other.)

It's funny, when I take a DVD and turn it into digital content (using Forbidden Majicks!), I never have any problem trusting it. It's totally DRM free, will play on practically and device, and I can make unlimited copies....

Oh, you mean DRMed digital content....

Oh, by the way, the above is a fantasy story. It's impossible to turn a DVD into digital content without the consent of the Lords of Copyright. CSS for DVDs is completely unbreakable both legally and through forbidden knowledge. (I certainly don't own a T-Shirt with the DeCSS code on it...)

Put the rat cage on Julia, not me! Do it to Julia!

"Latest Update to Amazon's Video Player disables Roku Players and Internet Enabled Blu-ray players from playing their content."

"An Amazon spokesman was quoted as saying, 'Unfortunately, due to piracy concerns, we are unable to continue supporting non-Amazon set-top devices. We are sympathetic to our customers who's set top devices will no longer play our content, and are offering them a $10 off coupon for KindleTV....'"

Basically, somewhere in the chain is usually an incompetent manager or product development person who will shut you down if you give honest development estimates for a good, bug free release, and encourage you to lie. This has the effect of training, the first couple of warnings you get over giving realistic estimates, which are overruled anyway, and you turn into Gale Boetticher on Breaking Bad giving his scary drug lord boss estimates on how long it will take him to exactly duplicate Walter White's Meth formula.

Gale Boetticher: l suppose if we had......at least a few more cooks together.

Gustavo Fring: You don't think you're ready now?

Gale Boetticher: Well, l mean......he is such a.... A master.

Gale Boetticher: There's always more for me to learn. But l'm thinking that if we had......say......one or two more cooks.

Gustavo Fring: [Icy Silence, the temperature in the room drops 10 degrees]

Gale Boetticher: One more......l guess would do it. l suppose.

Gustavo Fring: l believe in you, Gale.

On the other hand, at least things worked out really well for Gale, eh?

Yes, but they've also prevented me from watching Farscape, and I'm going to go farbot from a lack of puppets!

Well, ok, sure I could dig out the DVDs, but it's so inconvenient!

"3) Ok, ok, this last one is easy. Booker DeWitt scounges around some trashcans for food all the time right? All we ask is that a cocacola be in there. Easy as pie. Easier then pie. Pie has that flakey crust. All we want is a simple aluminum can in the trash. Is that too much to ask? There's all sorts of reasons it could be in there. Come ON baby, work with me here!"

See, again, all kinds of product placement could be done with Tears.. Dishonored would be much more challenging....

Does anyone remember the Coca-Cola in the old Infocom game "The Lurking Horror?"

Good times.

No, no, everyone knows that if you wanted to do product placement for Coca-cola in Bioshock Infinite, you simple call Coke Classic "Bucking Bronco" for a month or two, maybe change Mountain Dew to "Possession."

Really though, Bioshock Infinite is a bad example, since it did have plenty of Product Placement in the form of songs.

Although, knowing the crazy way the music biz works, Levine & co probably had to pay the RIAA for the right to use the songs....

The spiral pattern that catches the eye...

Unretouched pictures, from Florida

Yeah, when read stuff like this, I always say, "If you don't like it, then move to the United States..."

...but then I realize that most of the people saying stuff like this already live there... I can't find it in myself to pity them, though.

Oh-ho-ho-ho....

I've set up my special Christmas line just for you...

The reality is, it's insane for any company with a decent reputation to be getting involved with these scams. Even companies that aren't involved with scamming people might eventually be splattered with mud (or is it mud...) from this kind of sharp practice.

I mean the video game industry is already the go to area for every moral panic, and this is a case where they are being legitimately sleazy and evil...

Seriously, this is on the level of a Nigerian 419 scams... and about as ethical. Even if you are a slimeball who believes that the suckers deserve to be fleeced, you need a Lyle Langley type exit strategy at the least... (Yes, I realize the irony of this given Tapped Out.)

We should stick with nice, safe, harmless gasoline.

Totally harmless...

Most of the big US corporations don't make sound business decisions. They are good at shenanigans and not much else. Shady accounting, corruption, price fixing, wage theft, etc.

Besides, for Zuckerberg, Gates and company, this isn't a business strategy, it's ideology. It's like the use of stack ranking at Microsoft or always online single player games at Electronic Arts.

A group of peasants (workers, consumers, etc) who must be "kept in their place" is designated, the policies designed to keep them in their place are followed. If they can get government enforcement, so much the better, but if not they can use cartel or monopoly behaviour to try to enforce it. The idea that this is based on rational behavior is nonsense. It's not even naked self-interest. it's as dumb as the old Soviet "inheritance of acquired characteristics" nonsense and possibly even more destructive.

Qu'un sang impur, Abreuve nos sillons!

What would it actually take to destroy Facebook, if we all really wanted to do it (I just mean people mad at this, not the vast public)? In theory, I mean.

It's a Social Network, surely if enough people wanted to eliminate it, we could? we're talking about something entirely reliant on voluntary association, and uniquely vulnerable to people just saying "no thanks."

Frankly, I don't understand how the thing legitimately makes money.

Zuckerberg doesn't have to do that, "The Mountain will come to Mohammed" as it were.

He'll eventually get to enjoy that stuff here... as will the rest of us, just without his money.