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Comment Make Good Games (Score 1) 535

A simple solution for the video game industry's problem with people selling used games:

Make games that are so good that people won't want to sell them.

You wouldn't think this would be that hard. I mean, if people are copying the game and then selling the original, then it's a piracy issue, which: fine, whatever, they should try to discourage in a way that doesn't penalize non-pirates. But if people are just bored of the game and want to get rid of it, they sell it for (usually) less than they bought it for, passing on part of the cost to the next owner. The second owner sacrifices shininess and timeliness for lower price, and the world keeps spinning. This is the way used bookstores and used car dealerships and vintage clothing stores work. Why are video games so different?

Even without a formal boycott, people can see that this game has had its resale value removed as a "feature". The fact that they won't pay as much for it used is the whole point, and I would be surprised if Nintendo sells enough more units to make up for the sales they lose to people who won't buy a game they can't resell in the first place.

Submission + - Wikileaks insiders resign (wired.com)

Americano writes: Wired reports that at least six wikileaks insiders, including Daniel Domscheit-Berg, Wikileaks' spokesman in Germany, have resigned in the past few weeks. Those who have spoken with Wired cite differences and disputes with Julian Assange, and his autocratic leadership style, as the motivation for their departure.

From the article:
"You are not anyone's king or god," wrote Domscheit-Berg in the chat. "And you're not even fulfilling your role as a leader right now. A leader communicates and cultivates trust in himself. You are doing the exact opposite. You behave like some kind of emperor or slave trader."

"You are suspended for one month, effective immediately," Assange shot back. "If you wish to appeal, you will be heard on Tuesday."

Submission + - Killer Sue Wikipedia To Remove Their Names (nytimes.com) 2

Jason Levine writes: Wolfgang Werlé and Manfred Lauber killed a German actor in 1990. Now that they are out of prison, German law states that they can't be referred to by name in relation to the killings. Therefore, they have sued to get Wikipedia to remove their names from the Wikipedia article about the killings. The German edition of Wikipedia has already complied, but the English edition is citing US freedom of speech and a lack of presence in Germany as reasons why they don't need to remove the name. In a bit of irony, their lawyer e-mailed the NY Times: “In the spirit of this discussion, I trust that you will not mention my clients’ names in your article."
Google

Google Apps Gets a 99.9% Guarantee 155

David Gerard passes along a posting on Google's official blog announcing that they have extended the three-nines SLA for the Premier Edition of Google Apps from Gmail alone to also cover the Calendar, Docs, Sites, and Google Talk services. 99.9% uptime translates to 45 minutes a month of downtime, and the blog post puts this in context with Gmail's historical reliability, which has been between three and four times as good over the last year (10-15 min./mo.). It also claims, based on research by an outside group, that Gmail's historical reliability beats that of in-house hosted solutions such as Groupwise and Exchange, on average. Reader Ian Lamont adds an article in The Standard that digs down into the details of the SLA, revealing for instance that outages of less than 10 minutes aren't counted against the monthly 45 minutes.

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Repel them. Repel them. Induce them to relinquish the spheroid. - Indiana University fans' chant for their perennially bad football team

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