*nod* My first comment was right. Rift in the space-time continuum caused by a critical mass of stupid. Escaped government experiment, gotta be. Is there a sealed, abandoned military base nearby?
You just watch. Next thing you know... zombie infection. Either that or an alien invasion. Time to clean that shotgun and stock up on shells!
Much the same here, though my first computer games were text-based games on mainframes. Not exactly FPS, but some included shooting down other players. (Or their space ships, anyway. At 110 baud.)
Today for me it's Killing Floor and Team Fortress 2 but I too got here via the Wolfenstein/Doom/Quake route. Sounds like our tastes in music differ but whatever, the violence is still... within people, not the music. Music is an expression, a release, not a cause. Ditto games.
Been playing violent computer games since 1974. Why am I not rampaging twice a week? Stockpiling firearms? Foaming at the mouth while I pontificate about the second amendment and how important it is for survival?
As the father of an autistic child, I have to say that this reaction is completely over the top. We've managed to deal with bullying without taking massive legal actions against entire economies with the intended result of toppling empires.
We took the radical step of HAVING CONFERENCES WITH THE TEACHERS AND PARENTS.
Excessive, I know. But sometimes you just gotta pull out the big guns.
Last week I bought myself a Christmas gift I'd promised myself: a new motherboard, CPU and memory to upgrade my main system, which I'd previously and now once again use for gaming. (1. I'd been using my laptop for the prior year, which had slightly better performance. 2. I know it's early, wanted to avoid the rush, had the money. 3. I hesitate to dignify an anemic 11-year-old Pentium 4-based computer with the term "gaming rig".)
I installed the OS, drivers, and Steam. I logged into Steam, typed in the code from the e-mail that's intended to prevent account hijacking ("We've never seen you log in from this machine before"), and told it to install my games.
Then I watched some TV. After it was finished I copied my configuration files and started playing.
Assuming everything up to installing Steam was a sunk cost, the hardest part was waiting for the downloads. That and digging around for the configuration files, I guess.
I have my issues with Steam, but this isn't one of them. Once I've bought them I can play my games anywhere. A co-worker and I once traded some in-game TF2 items on our lunch break; he logged into my laptop, did the e-mail thing, I logged into my desktop. Biggest problem he had was remembering his user ID and password.
Totally portable and nearly hassle-free.
If I'd ever thought about buying a Wii, this article just killed the last remnants of any such desire.
T-Mobile lost me as a customer when they screwed over my wife and, separately, me, in essentially the same transaction. We'd been long-time loyal customers who first saw their customer service deteriorate, and then they broke promises, and they stuck me with an expensive new contract.
Apparently their definition of "loyal customer" is "somebody we can thank for being a loyal customer while we screw them over". (Anybody else would be "somebody we can thank for choosing T-Mobile while screwing them over".)
OK, end of rant. So I paid my early termination fee (for what? I didn't get a subsidized phone (oops, sorry, I did say end of rant)), I moved on to a discount service and T-Mobile has earned my contempt, if not hatred.
But I've been following this story online and have to say that it sounds like they're actually doing something right this time. It's high time this happened. The subsidized phone thing has always been basically a scam. Any word if they'll be selling their phones unlocked? Probably not, at least not at first, but if they do I might even stop hating them.
So, um, I find myself in the position of cheering them on whilst simultaneously despising them. The cognitive dissonance is making my brain itch.
On the post: One Problem With FTC/Google Settlement: Implies Fair Use Scraping Is An Antitrust Issue
...which the rest of you may view as unfortunate... um, never mind.
On the post: Camming Group Leader Sentenced To 5 Years; Barred From Owning 'Any Device' That Can Infringe Copyrights After Release
Re: I can see it now...
On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
Re: Re: Re: “How can it be a natural right if it requires a government for it to exist?”
On the post: Police Chief Deploys Officers With Assault Rifles To Stop & ID Everyone; Says Local Crime Stats Give Him Probable Cause
Re:
You just watch. Next thing you know... zombie infection. Either that or an alien invasion. Time to clean that shotgun and stock up on shells!
On the post: Police Chief Deploys Officers With Assault Rifles To Stop & ID Everyone; Says Local Crime Stats Give Him Probable Cause
Must be a government experiment that got away.
On the post: Japanese Police Arrest 2Channel Founder Because Users Talk About Illegal Stuff Occasionally
Re: Re: Oh, Timmy. So SOON with a counter-example from JAPAN?
On the post: The Fastest Growing Emerging Economies Are Also Those With The Weakest IP Laws
On the post: Senator Chambliss Says There's No Reason To Debate FISA Amendments Act; Just Pass It
On the post: Once More With Feeling: Paid Software Doesn't Mean A Company Treats You Any Better Than Free Software
On the post: NRA's Plan: If We Blame Video Games & Movies For Sandy Hook Massacre, Perhaps People Will Stop Blaming Guns
Yeah, because clicking a mouse is exactly like firing a gun.
On the post: Another Politician Boards The Bandwagon: Sen. Rockefeller Blames Violent Games And Television For Newtown Tragedy
Re: Hate These Guys
Today for me it's Killing Floor and Team Fortress 2 but I too got here via the Wolfenstein/Doom/Quake route. Sounds like our tastes in music differ but whatever, the violence is still... within people, not the music. Music is an expression, a release, not a cause. Ditto games.
Been playing violent computer games since 1974. Why am I not rampaging twice a week? Stockpiling firearms? Foaming at the mouth while I pontificate about the second amendment and how important it is for survival?
Maybe it's not the music or the games at fault.
On the post: The Complex Joys Of Music In The Age Of Digital Abundance
On the post: Time Warner Cable Doesn't Think There's Demand For Google Fiber
On the post: Italian Prosecutor Still Wants To Put Google Execs In Jail Because Of A Video Uploaded By Some Kids
We took the radical step of HAVING CONFERENCES WITH THE TEACHERS AND PARENTS.
Excessive, I know. But sometimes you just gotta pull out the big guns.
On the post: Nintendo Still Loves DRM; The Internet Not So Much
I installed the OS, drivers, and Steam. I logged into Steam, typed in the code from the e-mail that's intended to prevent account hijacking ("We've never seen you log in from this machine before"), and told it to install my games.
Then I watched some TV. After it was finished I copied my configuration files and started playing.
Assuming everything up to installing Steam was a sunk cost, the hardest part was waiting for the downloads. That and digging around for the configuration files, I guess.
I have my issues with Steam, but this isn't one of them. Once I've bought them I can play my games anywhere. A co-worker and I once traded some in-game TF2 items on our lunch break; he logged into my laptop, did the e-mail thing, I logged into my desktop. Biggest problem he had was remembering his user ID and password.
Totally portable and nearly hassle-free.
If I'd ever thought about buying a Wii, this article just killed the last remnants of any such desire.
On the post: Jammie Thomas Asks Supreme Court: How Much Is Too Much For Copyright Infringement?
Re: Re: Re:
...The comparison is neither symmetrical nor ironic. It is merely self-serving.
On the post: Jammie Thomas Asks Supreme Court: How Much Is Too Much For Copyright Infringement?
Re: Re:
On the post: 10 Years Later, T-Mobile Finally Kills Phone Subsidies: And It Doesn't Mean You'll Pay More
Apparently their definition of "loyal customer" is "somebody we can thank for being a loyal customer while we screw them over". (Anybody else would be "somebody we can thank for choosing T-Mobile while screwing them over".)
OK, end of rant. So I paid my early termination fee (for what? I didn't get a subsidized phone (oops, sorry, I did say end of rant)), I moved on to a discount service and T-Mobile has earned my contempt, if not hatred.
But I've been following this story online and have to say that it sounds like they're actually doing something right this time. It's high time this happened. The subsidized phone thing has always been basically a scam. Any word if they'll be selling their phones unlocked? Probably not, at least not at first, but if they do I might even stop hating them.
So, um, I find myself in the position of cheering them on whilst simultaneously despising them. The cognitive dissonance is making my brain itch.
On the post: Lester Chambers, Screwed Over For Decades By The Recording Industry, Goes Direct Via Kickstarter
Tell me again who the dirty pirate is?
On the post: Last Week To Order The Techdirt Holiday Bundle In Time For Christmas!
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