Beef Row
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Mattcrampy wrote:
I've seen a couple of torrents, including one just for MetDROiD Prime for some insane reason. If any of the pirates are out there, could you tell me why someone specifically requested MetDROiD Prime? Google cut off all but the first half-paragraph.

Was there enough information in that first half-paragraph to confirm it wasn't just a Metroid Prime torrent with a typo? Some quick googling failed to find the torrent you spoke of, but suggested that this was a not entirely unheard of typo.

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Mattcrampy
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Almost certainly not. Here's the snippet in question:

[REQ:12170] MetDROiD Prime - DROD Hold (Mod) (Windows)
It is a mod for a game called Deadly Rooms of Death. Found at: http://www.caravelgames.com/Articles/Games.html I have never played this game before, but I was able to get my hands on the mod to fill the request I installed it and ...

Really, really friggin' weird. (Also, it appears that despite 'Deadly Rooms of Death' being depreciated, almost everyone still uses that name. Most people I talk to who know the game know it by that name, as well. Of course, it's useful to kill off the use of D.R.O.D. with the big ugly dots.)

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Jatopian
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Mattcrampy wrote:
it appears that despite 'Deadly Rooms of Death' being depreciated, almost everyone still uses that name. Most people I talk to who know the game know it by that name, as well. Of course, it's useful to kill off the use of D.R.O.D. with the big ugly dots.)

That's partly because it's easier to say "DROD" than ... whatever your other name is, and since when is it depreciated?

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Mattcrampy
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You'll notice that the Caravel website never refers to the game as "Deadly Rooms of Death", only as "DROD". This is a deliberate thing to try and get the branding consistent with affiliates and distributors and download sites and things. Some of them call the game DROD, some Deadly Rooms of Death, some of them D.R.O.D., and then all those combinations again with Architect's Edition.

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[Last edited by Mattcrampy at 03-13-2008 01:15 AM]

eb0ny
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File: pic.jpg (24.9 KB)
Downloaded 792 times.
License: Public Domain

Sorry to bump this thread, but look what I have found:


It seemed to fit the subject, so I posted it.

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[Last edited by eb0ny at 03-15-2008 04:33 PM]

b0rsuk
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Reznor’s NIN web-based music venture makes almost $1 million in three days

Reznor’s experimental, web-only release of the new NIN album is so far a success, scoring the band over $750,000 in just under three days — and this is without the help of a record label.
Today, Ars Technica noted the $300 Limited Edition package, of which only 2500 were assembled, is officially sold out. Official sales stats have not been released, but this means Reznor and his band have bagged $750,000 in addition to the revenue from the other packages.
Sunday at 6 PM, Nine Inch Nails front-man, Trent Reznor, released his band’s new album, Ghosts I-IV, via an online-only release on the Nine Inch Nails site. The album is offered in a variety of packages, including a free downloadable pack with Ghosts I, a $5 download that offers all four volumes of Ghosts in lossless formats or 320kbps MP3, a $75 set freaturing a Blu-ray disc, and finally the Limited Edition pack featuring vinly LPs and other goodies.
Reznor has embraced new technologies and systems as opposed to fighting them like the RIAA has tried this decade. This is perhaps the RIAA’s greatest fear: artists discovering that a computer, a server, a web-site, file-sharing, and some concerts makes the record label obsolete.
The new album has been released under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license, which basically gives NIN all commercial rights to their music but any kind of non-commercial use by anybody is legal. This means the album can be legally shared and released on file-sharing networks — remixed or not — and you can bet this has already happened. Why fight the inevitable?
Reznor holds to the belief that the Internet and file-sharing networks are a blessing to bands — whether the members are a local hit or huge super stars, and as you can see above, he doesn’t just talk the talk.
He personally released Ghosts I onto torrent sites, a bold move after finding himself disheartened for the lack of people that decided to pay when he released the album of a friend, Saul Williams, online and found that many opted for the free version instead of the higher-quality $5 pack.

http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/2008/03/03/reznor-releases-new-nin-album-via-online-experiment/

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Briareos
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b0rsuk wrote:
(this strange url has a space in it. Use the whole line.)

I was going to fix your URL by replacing the " " with the correct "%20", but by now the whole post seems to be gone from that site, as searching for "Reznor" there doesn't turn it up either...

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[Last edited by Briareos at 03-17-2008 09:26 AM]

Syntax
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Well, I'll be typical knowing therefore that a backlash may occur when I say that I don't believe the contents of the quote is actually true.

I am extremely cynical but believe that's a right. I'm sort of happy therefore that the original article has been pulled. The marketing has been done now, and that story will create more sales. For one, I would never have looked up this album had it not been for the post above.

Briareos
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Syntax wrote:
For one, I would never have looked up this album had it not been for the post above.

*cough*

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Syntax
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lol

I didn't look it up then either (as I'd never noticed that post)

b0rsuk
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Ok, I admit my link from the post above doesn't work for me, either. Some other articles on the matter:

Nine Inch Nails Album Generates $1.6 Million in First Week

Trying to find out how much money Radiohead made from the digital release of In Rainbows was like pulling teeth, but Trent Reznor has made no secret of how the Nine Inch Nails album Ghosts I-IV has sold. According to the band, 800,000 transactions generated $1.6 million in sales revenue in the first week of the album's availability, despite the fact that the 36-song version of the album is widely available on torrent sites.

Nine Inch Nails included free downloads in these figures, which are not being released to SoundScan in the traditional manner, according to Billboard.

Ghosts I-IV is currently the top-selling album on the Amazon MP3 store; again, Reznor paid approximately $38 to have it distributed there.

http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/03/nine-inch-nai-2.html
http://techdirt.com/articles/20080313/171933538.shtml

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[Last edited by b0rsuk at 03-17-2008 11:00 AM]

Syntax
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Sorry b0rsuk... I never meant I didn't believe you.
I just don't believe what is told within the article (regardless of quotable/linkable "proofs").

b0rsuk
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Syntax wrote:
Sorry b0rsuk... I never meant I didn't believe you.
I just don't believe what is told within the article (regardless of quotable/linkable "proofs").

You mean Trent Reznor is making stuff up ?
EDIT:
I've found the article !

http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/2008/03/03/reznor-releases-new-nin-album-via-online-experiment/

syntax: the music is available for download on NIN website, too.
http://ghosts.nin.com/main/order_options

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[Last edited by b0rsuk at 03-17-2008 01:16 PM]

Syntax
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b0rsuk wrote:

Syntax wrote:
Sorry b0rsuk... I never meant I didn't believe you.
I just don't believe what is told within the article (regardless of quotable/linkable "proofs").

You mean Trent Reznor is making stuff up ?
EDIT:
I've found the article !

http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/2008/03/03/reznor-releases-new-nin-album-via-online-experiment/

syntax: the music is available for download on NIN website, too.
http://ghosts.nin.com/main/order_options

Damn you Good tune...

Mattcrampy
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Guys, I'm not sure how this is relevant to the topic of discussion - I mean, Ghosts I-IV is CC-licensed, Nine Inch Nails retains the copyright, they just give away rights that allow the work to be used as a promotional tool. DROD does a similar thing, we give away rights that allow us to take advantage of people who can improve the game in ways we can't. I'm not sure it's news that people can make money on the Internet or that artists can turn fans into a kind of amorphous patron, either.

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b0rsuk
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Stardock: Piracy isn't to blame for bad PC game sales

Nowadays, hearing big PC game development houses blame piracy for both poor game sales and their increased focus on consoles is a common occurrence. We've heard high-profile staffers from id Software, Epic Games, and Infinity Ward do it, and countless others have chimed in. Meanwhile, console games continue to significantly outsell most PC games.
But is piracy really the underlying cause? Brad Wardell, CEO of software maker and indie game publisher Stardock, doesn't think so. In a recent blog entry, Wardell has spelled out his view of why makers of AAA titles are failing to get as much traction as they'd like in the PC market. The problem isn't so much piracy, he says, as the fact that "game developers want to be like rock stars more than businessmen."
According to Wardell, PC game developers are banking too much on the "cool" factor and failing to actually design games for people likely to buy them. High-profile titles like Crysis may get glowing reviews and appear on game magazine covers, but the hardcore PC gamer market at which they're aimed is both swarming with pirates and too small in size. "Anyone who keeps track of how many PCs the 'Gamer PC' vendors sell each year could tell you that it's insane to develop a game explicitly for hard core gamers," Wardell says. "I think people would be shocked to find out how few hard core gamers there really are out there. . . . The number of high end graphics cards sold each year isn't a trade secret."
As evidence that more accessible titles do better, Wardell points to not only the success of games like The Sims, but also of Sins of a Solar Empire—a low-budget, real-time strategy game published by Stardock that's reportedly sold 200,000 copies in its first month already. To put things in perspective, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare sold 383,000 units within its first couple of months of release. Unlike COD4, Sins of a Solar Empire didn't benefit from huge media coverage, and it doesn't even have copy protection—something Wardell says Stardock chose not to include because "the people who actually buy games don't like to mess with it." He adds, "Our customers make the rules, not the pirates."

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/14383


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ErikH2000
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Interesting discussion, but I make one request, in observance of Imaginary Property and irritatingly vague US copyright fair use laws...

Please, don't quote such large amounts of text from outside sources. A paragraph or paraphrased summary with a link to the site in question suffices.

-Erik

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NiroZ
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From that same chart that Call of duty 4 sales were quoted from. (note that this does not cover digital distribution)

1. World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade (Blizzard Entertainment) - 2.25 million
2. World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment) - 914,000
3. The Sims 2 Seasons Expansion Pack (EA Maxis) - 433,000
4. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward) 383,000
5. Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (EA Los Angeles) - 343,000
6. Sim City 4 Deluxe (Maxis) - 284,000
7. The Sims 2 (Maxis) - 281,000
8. The Sims 2 Bon Voyage Expansion Pack (Maxis) - 271,000
9. Age of Empires III (Ensemble Studios) - 259,000
10. The Sims 2 Pets Expansion Pack (Maxis) - 236,000

Note that the top two sellers were games that could not be pirated.

Banjooie
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Film at 11: Borsuk tries to justify his piracy of whatever it is he's pirating or other, with hilarious results!

This thread needs more kittens in it.

Jatopian
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Hey NiroZ, you should at least read the first and last posts before posting. Specifically you should reread the one above your most recent one.

Banjooie wrote:
This thread needs more kittens in it.

The power is yours!

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Make your pressure plates 3.0 style!
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[Last edited by Jatopian at 03-21-2008 03:00 AM]

NiroZ
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Hey, I was enjoying this discussion.

b0rsuk
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ErikH2000 wrote:
Please, don't quote such large amounts of text from outside sources. A paragraph or paraphrased summary with a link to the site in question suffices.

-Erik

That's what I initially wanted to do, but I got an impression this particular article would feel incomplete with just one or two paragraphs. I still linked to the original article.

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Mattcrampy
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If there's too much to quote, just provide the link and ask us to read it.

Honestly, though, I agree that the chief problem on the PC platform is that AAA PC games suck. Unless you like late-cycle Western-style RPGs, first-person shooters or real-time strategy games, you're more or less SOL on the PC. And if you have a console, the only thing you're deprived of is the RTS.

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Briareos
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Mattcrampy wrote:
Unless you like late-cycle Western-style RPGs, first-person shooters or real-time strategy games, you're more or less SOL on the PC.

I think you're at least forgetting adventures (like Sam & Max) and racing games (like TrackMania) that are either PC only or just as available on the PC as on other systems...

np: Autechre - Fol4 (Quaristice (Versions))

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[Last edited by Briareos at 03-21-2008 02:54 PM]

slimm tom
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Mattcrampy wrote:
Honestly, though, I agree that the chief problem on the PC platform is that AAA PC games suck. Unless you like late-cycle Western-style RPGs, first-person shooters or real-time strategy games, you're more or less SOL on the PC.

That's true, but what the consoles do not have, is indie games. Because most indie games are low budget, and a console developer kit is very expensive. The only affordable choice for an indie is the XBOX, because of the XNA software.

And BTW, I don't have a console (with exception of a Nintendo 64 ) and I play all AAA games on my computer, and I very much enjoy it.

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Mattcrampy wrote:
And if you have a console, the only thing you're deprived of is the RTS.

As an aside, I'm hoping that starts to change with the advent of Tom Clancy's EndWar, coming soon. The place where I work is providing the voice recognition system that is going into this game and we're excited about its implementation. It's quite ambitious for the level of the state-of-the-art speech recognition technology existing today, and should demonstrate how RTS games can become a workable genre on consoles.

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[Last edited by mrimer at 03-21-2008 03:08 PM]

Briareos
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Sooo... when will we be able to control Beethro via voice commands?

np: Autechre - Fol4 (Quaristice (Versions))

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Rheb
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Briareos wrote:
Sooo... when will we be able to control Beethro via voice commands?

"Beethro, tell me a joke."

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[Last edited by NoahT at 03-21-2008 07:16 PM]

Oneiromancer
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slimm tom wrote:

Mattcrampy wrote:
Honestly, though, I agree that the chief problem on the PC platform is that AAA PC games suck. Unless you like late-cycle Western-style RPGs, first-person shooters or real-time strategy games, you're more or less SOL on the PC.

That's true, but what the consoles do not have, is indie games. Because most indie games are low budget, and a console developer kit is very expensive. The only affordable choice for an indie is the XBOX, because of the XNA software.

As you pointed out, with the XBox 360 we actually do have indie games. N+, games by PomPom (Mutant Storm), and a few others even. And then Wii Ware is supposed to bring indie games to the Wii. So I suppose it should more be that the consoles have very few indie games compared to the PC.

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