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Comment Re: Maybe this will make programming fun. (Score 1) 51

As a person from a country not using English as the native language, I'd just like to add that I learned a lot of English from computer books documenting things I wanted to learn.

Do not underestimate the influence of interest on the ability to learn things. Learning things because I have to learn them is something completely different from "I want to learn this so I can do which I find really cool."

Games

Copyright and the Games Industry 94

A recent post at the Press Start To Drink blog examined the relationship the games industry has with copyright laws. More so than in some other creative industries, the reactions of game companies to derivative works are widely varied and often unpredictable, ranging anywhere from active support to situations like the Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes debacle. Quoting: "... even within the gaming industry, there is a tension between IP holders and fan producers/poachers. Some companies, such as Epic and Square Enix, remain incredibly protective of their Intellectual Property, threatening those that use their creations, even for non-profit, cultural reasons, with legal suits. Other companies, like Valve, seem to, if not embrace, at least tolerate, and perhaps even tacitly encourage this kind of fan engagement with their work. Lessig suggests, 'The opportunity to create and transform becomes weakened in a world in which creation requires permission and creativity must check with a lawyer.' Indeed, the more developers and publishers that take up Valve's position, the more creativity and innovation will emerge out of video game fan communities, already known for their intense fandom and desire to add to, alter, and re-imagine their favorite gaming universes."

Comment The ultimate DRM (Score 1) 125

Now we will no longer just add draconian on-line activation to the games, we will no longer give you the game itself.
Even with steam you get the game data, which could still be cracked and used if steam would go belly-up.

And there is of course the latency issues mentioned in other replies. Unless somebody breaks the laws of physics, latency will always be there. It takes roughly 40ms to cross the atlantic, making for a 80ms RTT. Routers add more as it goes, not much per each but it all adds up.

Comment Bad research (Score 4, Informative) 81

The writer has not done his research well enough.

There are two ways of selling game time in EVE.
One is to use the forum and the game time code transfer system available on the character screen, which is what the writer did.
The other is to convert the GTC into ingame items called PLEX (Pilot License EXtension) which is then traded on the market like
any other ingame item. This is not only the preferred way, it is also more profitable to the seller; netting around 720 million
ISK per GTC compared to about 600 million on the forums.

The other thing is that while you could certainly buy ISK from farming operations it comes with a risk. CCP has been known to ban
not only ISK sellers but also buyers in transactions not using the condoned methods.

The reason behind there not being any easy way to convert ingame currency into real money is that this would open a whole can of
legal worms for CCP. Tax departments, money laundring etc. etc. Not something a games company would want to deal with.

Comment Re:First post? (Score 2, Informative) 70

For many years I have been using separate components instead of a single does-it-all box. Right now it consists of:
  • ADSL2+ modem
  • ASUS eeeBox with USB network adapter running debian (fast enough, quiet, low power)
  • Cisco wireless access point (replaced a WAP54G linksys)
  • Netgear gigswitch

Never had any performance related issues, even on the 24Mbps I had back in Sweden. The homebrew debian firewall can be replaced with m0n0wall, pf sense or similar if you prefer web based administration.

Games

PCGA To "Take Up the Challenge of Piracy" 134

Ars Technica reports that the PC Gaming Alliance has declared themselves the "guardians of PC gaming," which includes finding ways to help gamers decide on gaming hardware, and to make progress on the issues of piracy and DRM. "[PCGA President Randy Stude said,] 'The PCGA will take up the challenge of piracy, not to assume the responsibility that the ESA has taken on... rather the PCGA would like to address the methodology that publishers might be able to take to solve, or to do a better job trying to solve, the piracy challenge for their substantial investments in content.' The PCGA won't give a standard approach to publishers, saying it is much more likely it will release a series of recommendations to publishers, and track piracy on an annual basis to see if the problem is growing or shrinking. The PCGA is also working on methods for members to track how effective their antipiracy measures are once a game has been released."

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