Posted 11/14/2009 at 11:55:58pm

"So, on a completely unrelated topic, what’s everyone playing this weekend? "

I played Combat Arms at Nexon.net.  Online FPS Action.

As a side note, I don't understand why forums and comment sections on every internet website always turn into flame wars.  Years ago it never used to be that way.   

Posted 10/20/2009 at 08:06:34am

We really do need to move on from the "buying and having your own personal game disk" from the days of old and become part of where gaming is going.  Free online MMOFPS games got it right.  No disk, no purchasing of a game download.  The game is free for everyone to download, use and enjoy.  Hence no piracy issues.  Where do the developers and publishers get their revenue and profits?  Strip all of the upgraded eye candy weapons, armour, melee, game characters, body-wear, enhanced speed, power and so forth and give them the basics to start out with.  Any personal upgrades cost cash, and lots of it. 

Take Nexon's Combat Arms for example.  I haven't heard of anyone pirating Combat Arms, why?  Because it is free to download and play.   "Well, Combat Arms and other free online games have horrible graphics, no depth in game play, and are made exclusively for 13 year old children"  Nexon North America made approximately $100 million US dollars net profit last year alone just in the the North American market.  Not bad for a "kiddies" game.   

FYI...Infinity Ward is the developer of Modern Warfare 2, and Activision, the publisher.  Activision is ultimately responsible for the decision whether to use dedicated servers or not.  Infinity Ward has little to do with it unless there are third-party investors who partly own both Infinity Ward and Activision.   

Why doesn't Activision want to run MW2 on dedicated servers?  Why should they?  You make a one-time purchase of a disk or a download and that's supposed to pay for the enormous cost of running and maintaining expensive dedicated servers 24/7?? 

Free MMOFPS games have dedicated servers and they have them for a reason.  Gamers that want the best gear, upgrades, and personal weapon cosmetics pay dearly for them via purchasing cash items and many of those items expire over time.  Yes, we all want the luxury of having dedicated, perfectly maintained servers 24/7, but we don't want to pay for them.  "Hey, I know, lets get the little green elves to pay for them!"   

Posted 10/06/2009 at 08:13:18pm

The cost to pay salaries for more coders to put advertisements in the game, extra server space and cost to constantly maintain and change the advertisements are actually going to drive up costs.  Investors of game developers and publishers are not going to cut their throats by taking the gamble of increased revenue with adding adverts to their source code and then give the paying customers a discount.  Corporations and investors are in business to make money, and drive up profits as quickly as possible.  As long as there are the masses of sheeple to continue patronizing their products, they will buy low and sell high. 

If your preferred FPS game has adverts and it is upsetting enough that you don't want to play it, then what is the alternative?  There is none.  Play a second-rate game or not play at all.  They have us over a barrel.  Boycotting a game is the only option, but in mass, that will never happen.   

Posted 09/16/2009 at 02:16:03pm

Could the new Hello Kitty MiNEW A10 nettop mean the end of the Alienware Area-51 X58 Benchmark Destroyer?

Posted 07/26/2009 at 12:53:34pm

The Sims are nothing more than a fad.  Passing fad?  Unfortunately not.  The Sims are here to stay at least for several years.  A lot of the sales of Sims games are due to word of mouth advertising in social realms within grade schools, middle schools, high schools and universities.  If you're in one of these schools, and a group of "cool" classmates are bragging about this fun game they have, all of their peers are sure to follow.  They buy the game, play it just enough to know what it's about, report back to their alpha peer group, throw it on the shelf and there it collects dust until an occasional day of boredom arrives every few months. 

My children bought the Sims following suit of the majority.  Sims on the monitor hasn't been seen in a while now.  Usually it's the gunshots and explosions of FPS games like Combat Arms that can be heard throughout the day vibrating the walls of the house.

Posted 06/12/2009 at 09:28:21am

European Union regulators said Friday that Microsoft Corp. was offering less choice, not more, by vowing to sell the next version of Windows without any Web browsers at all

Now the EU is complaining that Windows operating systems without a browser offers no real choice.  It Looks like the EU just shot themselves in the foot.  

Microsoft said Thursday that it would remove its Internet Explorer browser — and not include any alternatives — in the Windows 7 software it will sell from Oct. 22 in Europe to soothe EU antitrust concerns.

But the European Commission said it preferred to see consumers offered a choice of browser "not that Windows would be supplied without a browser at all." "Rather than more choice, Microsoft seems to have chosen to provide less," the EU said.  A "must carry" option that would offer several browsers was a better option, the EU executive suggested, because "consumers should be provided with a genuine choice of browsers" on the software that manufacturers install on computers.

Now the EU is blaming Microsoft for not offering choice just after the EU themselves told Microsoft to take their browser out of the OS download, and they will probably require Microsoft to install a ballot screen to vote on which browser to download. 

Thank goodness I don't live in this EU dictatorship that doesn't think things through before they make decisions.

Posted 06/05/2009 at 09:06:15am

This is a nice monitor, but personally I would rather use the money much more wisely by purchasing the emperor chair gaming station from Novel Quest at novelquest.com.  This chair comes with three screens that angle just perfect.  It's nice not having the separation, but with this gaming station a person could pick their favorite screens of choice and modify their settings on each individual screen.

 http://www.novelquest.com/emperor.html

Posted 06/05/2009 at 08:49:17am

From what I have read on modem forums, this Motorola modem (which is a misnomer for this type of device by the way), has the ability to be hooked up to internet service cable connections with speeds up to 100 Mbps.  Cox Communications just started offering 25 Mbps download/3.5 Mbps upload with 28 Mbps Powerboost to their customers with the purchase this modem.  The monthly charge for this service is $79.99 per month, not including the separate purchase of the modem.  The nice thing for people that want higher internet speed, is that you can keep this modem when Mbps speed increases become available from ISPs throughout the years. 

Posted 05/29/2009 at 02:41:55pm

Packard Bell was, is, and always will be nothing more than a monument to corruption.  This is what happens to a business when it continually cheats customers, and even more so what can happen when a bunch of these screwed over customers go public with class-action lawsuits.   At the very least, they could take a tip from Blackwater and change their name.

Posted 05/25/2009 at 08:28:17am

I have to bring into question whether an internet speed above 12 Mbps will really help the average PC download, upload and browse faster.  I think that when the average PC bought off the shelf at a local retail store or online is hooked up to a 12 Mbps connection, anything above that would be pointless.  In the state where I live in the U.S. we have available 20 Mbps and below.  I have used the 12 Mbps for a few years, then I decided to upgrade to the 20 Mbps speed when it first became available, for a period of six months and went back to 12 because there was absolutely no difference in performance.  Yes, my clock speeds were higher using the internet speed test programs, but in reality...how much data can a PC handle at once?  Every byte of data has to be processed and there are many internal components in a PC that has a process it follows.  Motherboards, CPUs, GPUs, Memory, Chipsets, Antivirus/Firewall software, Internet Browser, all play a part in how fast this data can be processed.  Many people don't have high performance PCs yet, and PCs that are bought off the shelf, frankly are not capable of processing that much data at once.  I admit that it's kind of nice to have the bragging rights with a higher speed connection, but I'd rather save the money until I own a high performance PC.