User comment history
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| News Comments > Op Ed |
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| 10. |
Re: Op Ed |
Jan 9, 2010, 19:38 |
Stormsinger |
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Prez wrote on Jan 9, 2010, 14:48:
If you have to spend 10 million dollars to develop a proprietary graphics engine rather than spend, say, 1 million on licensing the Unreal 3 engine, that means your game has to sell that many more units to break even, and is that much more of a financial failure when it doesn't. When a company can't make ends meet because its games aren't selling enough to pay for development costs, the first thing to be cut is payroll.
So your suggestion is to cut payroll first? If you're spending 10 million to develop a graphics engine, that's -all- in payroll. I fail to see how laying people off earlier helps anything.
I also completely agree with his analysis on the stupidity of firing people and then acquiring others immediately after, while I don't understand your explanation for disagreeing with it at all.
That's because you're assuming that all people are interchangeable...but you're wrong. The skills, talents, and experience in one group of people (the folks being laid off) generally are either going to be quite different than those of the new company you're acquiring, or if they're the same, then the management has some reason to think the new group is -better- than the ones they laid off. Not to mention the IP that comes with an acquisition...that's often a fair part of the reason for the acquisition.
Basically, the impression I get from his article is of a just-out-of-college or almost-out-of-college author who has no real-world business experience, but thinks he's ever so much smarter than those who have actually done the job for real. |
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| News Comments > Op Ed |
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| 3. |
Re: Op Ed |
Jan 9, 2010, 13:38 |
Stormsinger |
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Funny, I would call that article "utterly clueless". The author doesn't appear to have the slightest idea what he's talking about. Reducing the emphasis on graphics doesn't save jobs (if it saves any money at all, it's by -shedding- jobs). Nor does buying another company have any relevance to firing people, unless those people were directly competing with the company you're buying (and not doing it very well).
Actually, it appears that his idea of what a business is for, is to provide jobs...a beautiful dream, but no more than that. In the real world, the purpose of a business is to make money...providing jobs is wholly incidental to that. This op-ed piece is more in line with Lennon's song "Imagine" than anything connected to the real world.
This comment was edited on Jan 9, 2010, 13:39. |
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| News Comments > GameStop Financials |
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| 6. |
Re: GameStop Financials |
Jan 7, 2010, 10:59 |
Stormsinger |
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Verno wrote on Jan 7, 2010, 10:39:
Growth is a pretty basic part of the equation with regards to profit and sales anyways. Let's say you have $10,000 to invest in a videogames company InBlack. Do you want to invest it in the company that is making money and showing signs of continuing to make more? Or do you want to invest it in the company that appears stagnant or worse?
Certainly you're correct in today's real world, but there's no reason why it -has- to be that way. Growth is not a requirement to make a profit, and profit is what makes money for actual investors. Growth is primarily important to market speculators, who make their money from stock prices. In other words, it's not a -real- value...it's just an illusion that props up the fictional value on the exchange (think the difference between gold-backed and fiat dollars).
Myself, I'd really rather find a company that had a steady and -sustainable- profit to invest in, rather than looking at the illusionary value of the stock market. But I'll admit that this is a philosophical stance, and probably not the one most likely to maximize my profit. |
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| News Comments > PT Boats: Knights of the Sea Demo |
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Re: PT Boats: Knights of the Sea Demo |
Dec 31, 2009, 19:44 |
Stormsinger |
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That is one damned unfriendly tutorial, though. Get within 3 cables to identify the enemy...but it doesn't tell you what the hell a "cable" is until you've already succeeded. Destroy the enemy ships, but you can't take any damage. Hell, I can't even -see- the enemy ship from my forward guns, they don't depress that far (I can't even see the -water-). How in the world are you supposed to -aim- them?
I'll come back and try it again tomorrow, but I'm definitely unimpressed so far. Sad, cause I was really looking forward to this title.
This comment was edited on Dec 31, 2009, 19:45. |
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| News Comments > Heroes of Newerth Beta Opens for the Holidays |
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| 4. |
Re: Heroes of Newerth Beta Opens for the Holidays |
Dec 23, 2009, 14:44 |
Stormsinger |
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| Had I recognized the company name, I'd probably have been a bit less surprised. Savage hit me exactly the same way back when I tried it...no docs (in my experience, it appears that S2 simply doesn't believe in them), and yet the "community" would rip you a new one for even a little mistake. |
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| News Comments > Heroes of Newerth Beta Opens for the Holidays |
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Re: Heroes of Newerth Beta Opens for the Holidays |
Dec 23, 2009, 01:16 |
Stormsinger |
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I dunno about the game, but take warning, the community over there...how should I say it...is exceedingly newbie-unfriendly.
In a newbie-only game even. It clearly reminded me why I don't really like online games...and why the DotA games (which all seem to be lacking any meaningful single-player side) appear to be a genre I will simply never be allowed to appreciate.
So, screw 'em. Although I do appreciate being able to learn this for free, rather than having to buy the game first. |
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| News Comments > Out of the Blue |
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| 4. |
Re: Out of the Blue |
Nov 11, 2009, 14:28 |
Stormsinger |
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| Okay now, that bear attack is really amazing. Not just the damage he did, but the repair job made to fly it home. I have to admit they grow 'em tough in Alaska. |
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| News Comments > Spaceships Ahoy - Gratuitous Space Battles |
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| 9. |
Re: Spaceships Ahoy - Gratuitous Space Battles |
Nov 4, 2009, 12:30 |
Stormsinger |
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| Awesome demo, Cliff. GSB was already on my to-buy list, but now it's reached the point where I may not be willing to wait until after I find new employment. It looks good for many hours of fun, which makes it a bargain in my view. I'm sure I'll pick it up in the next few weeks. |
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| News Comments > Torchlight Mods |
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| 4. |
Re: Torchlight Mods |
Nov 4, 2009, 10:31 |
Stormsinger |
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What difference does it make if they're all released at once? Are you expecting these games to be limited time offers, and to be removed from the market in 3 months or something?
Buy what sounds best and what you can afford...when you finish playing those, you can come back and buy another one. It's really not rocket science. |
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| News Comments > Star Sentinel Tactics Announced |
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Re: Star Sentinel Tactics Announced |
Oct 22, 2009, 12:01 |
Stormsinger |
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"a squad of United Alliance Marines, as they battle to prevent a race of bloodthirsty reptilians from launching a devastating attack on our Galaxy."
I'm not really sure who's at fault on this, but it drives me right up the wall every time I see such absolutely terrible writing for a game's backstory. A single -squad-, to defeat a force that's going to attack an entire -galaxy-? Just flipping ridiculous... |
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| News Comments > Borderlands Midnight Madness & Trailers |
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| 16. |
Re: Borderlands Midnight Madness & Trailers |
Oct 19, 2009, 22:54 |
Stormsinger |
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... gotta wait another 7 days for the PC version because the empty suits are afraid of the big bad pirates will take away sales of their precious console versions.
Hump's probably closer than most here. And yet, it's awfully hard to say they're wrong in this belief. When you see tens or hundreds of thousands of downloads, only a liar or a fool would claim that -none- of those represent lost sales.
The actual number of lost sales is, of course, up for debate. But delaying release for the most pirated version doesn't cost them much, if anything. If you -really- want to stop this practice, all you have to do is -not- buy the game in any version, and be sure to write the company and explain why. Then convince a few thousand friends to do the same. As soon as the delay appears to cost them more than it might earn, they'll stop doing it. Best of luck on that, btw. |
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| News Comments > D&D Surface Demo |
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| 2. |
Re: D&D Surface Demo |
Oct 19, 2009, 15:07 |
Stormsinger |
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This whole video leaves me feeling, "Meh!"
Converting a tabletop game to use a Surface should -not- mean duplicating everything exactly as it is done when playing with pencil & paper.
The Ruse videos were much better examples of how to use a Surface. |
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| News Comments > Fallen Earth Rises |
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| 22. |
Re: Game Reviews |
Sep 23, 2009, 11:16 |
Stormsinger |
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If they believe their product is so great, a demo with a free trial would earn them a lot of customers and quite a bit of respect.
It's not that hard to offer a free trial:
When it's your game and investment, then you can offer whatever deal you like. As long as it's their game and investment, they get to choose. See how it works?
And Blizzard didn't offer a free trial when the game was new, either. That came quite a while later. |
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| News Comments > EVE Insider Trading Scandal |
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| 3. |
Re: EVE Insider Trading Scandal |
Sep 9, 2009, 10:22 |
Stormsinger |
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How do you figure that? In ANY multiplayer game with trading, having advance knowledge of upcoming changes would allow a trader to make a killing. Nothing new or unusual about it.
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| News Comments > Op Ed |
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| 11. |
Re: Op Ed |
Aug 30, 2009, 18:19 |
Stormsinger |
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OSC is a hack, always has been. I read a ton of Sci-Fi and could never get through one of his books from start to finish. Abysmal shiite.
I believe that says more about you, than it does about Card. While he may have despicable political or religious beliefs, the man is one of the best authors in the field. I can't think of more than one or two others who are as good at characterization (Spider Robinson perhaps, but who else?).
Not to mention that his politico-religious beliefs don't really seem to make it into his books. The Homecoming series has one exceedingly sympathetic homosexual character in a major role...just by reading his books, you'd never know that he's against equal rights. |
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| News Comments > Spaceships Ahoy - All Aspect Warfare & Angle of Attack |
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| 6. |
Re: Spaceships Ahoy - All Aspect Warfare & Angle of Attack |
Aug 18, 2009, 03:54 |
Stormsinger |
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"... code named R.A.N.D.O.M. (Random Access Nuclear Destruction of Obsolete Matter) ..."
Oh yeah, with writing -this- good, you just know the game is going to be great make you gag. Seriously, couldn't Smart have hired a professional writer for this? Or at least someone with an 8th grade education?
This comment was edited on Aug 18, 2009, 03:54. |
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| News Comments > Champions Online Beta Status |
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| 10. |
Re: Champions Online Beta Status |
Aug 18, 2009, 03:50 |
Stormsinger |
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I won't play a game that requires me to provide them bandwidth to patch other players' installations (I immediately disabled torrents for WoW's patcher, and downloaded my patches from Fileplanet). They're the ones making the money, -they- can pay for the bandwidth.
That said, providing the bandwidth for that initial surge is -very- expensive...which is one of the many reasons I don't object to a monthly subscription. Frankly, if the game doesn't impress the beancounters enough to gamble the costs of the bandwidth, then they'd be better off just cutting their losses and never opening at all. |
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| News Comments > EVE's Banhammer of Unholy Rage |
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| 5. |
Re: EVE's Banhammer of Unholy Rage |
Aug 18, 2009, 03:45 |
Stormsinger |
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I still find it rather funny that it's okay to fuck over CCP's customers pretty much any way you like...but don't you dare try to make any money from their -game-. Personally, I'd expect that any game developers that pick the griefer crowd as their preferred customers would inherently have a lot of players who also don't much care how the devs want them to behave. But for some reason, they always seem to be so surprised about it...
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| News Comments > World of Darkness MMOG Confirmed |
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| 17. |
Re: World of Darkness MMOG Confirmed |
Aug 13, 2009, 13:04 |
Stormsinger |
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This is one of the few game settings that actually has a chance at getting something like WoW's numbers, assuming that the gameplay is equally sticky. World of Darkness has huge numbers of fans, perhaps not as quite many as Star Trek, but they're far more game-oriented and FAR more fanatic on average.
What I'm not so sure about is CCP's ability to turn out a game with such broad appeal. I don't think that targeting an audience of griefers is going to make it. And taking two years after release to make the game fun (like they did with Eve) isn't going to help them reach millions of players either. It needs to be fun right out of the gate...I guess we'll see if they have what it takes to do that. |
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| News Comments > Copernicus Looks to the Stars |
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| 2. |
Re: Copernicus Looks to the Stars |
Jul 26, 2009, 15:52 |
Stormsinger |
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"You don’t see very many markets where there is a Coke and no Pepsi." says 38 Studios' Brett Close, using the ever-popular soft-drink analogy. "That’s what you have with WoW. Other products have been successful, but they’re not the massive competitor that I know will exist."
I'd think there's at least one other case that should immediately come to the mind of anyone involved in a computer related industry...Microsoft. There is simply no competitor anywhere near their market share. |
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204 Comments. 11 pages. Viewing page 9.
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