sandpark wrote:
As an aside, why do you think that PC isn't a global spec for game development? Have you ever heard of DirectX? Or were you just talking about the fact that PCs can be upgraded with better hardware? Not sure I'd qualify that as a con.
I believe he means it's more efficient to develop for a very minimally changing set of hardware components in game consoles than it is to accommodate the near-infinite configuration possibilities of computer components.
That being said, the comment about it being viewed as a P2P mmo is foolish, as those console games are not mmos, nor are they being 'maintained', they are being 'emulated' because their cashflow potential is zero. The way I view it, is that if a game is not available in any-single-store in an ENTIRE city, it's probably past it's life cycle and not generating any money. There may be some online market potential, but if the disks aren't being printed anymore it's still not generating revenue for the original creators. Now, I could see a game-streaming-network potentially becoming a 'thing' like netflix someday and actually succeeding (a few have already tried and failed), which 'could' generate revenue for the original game developers but that'd almost undoubtedly be at a severely reduced value based on contracts with the service provider (much like netflix does with movie companies). So in this situation we have a large group 'reccognizing' the reduced value of the original titles, but charging consumers pretty largely increased prices for massive gain, while trickling very little back down to the developers, where the "service provider" takes advantage of not one, but two groups: The producers AND the consumers. This is "o.k." because "something is better than nothing".
Here's the problem I have with it. If I purchase a DVD, I have that DVD forever. But if purchase a blue-ray player, I don't expect to get the blu-ray version of that DVD for free.
If I purchase a console game, I have that game forever. But if I purchase a new system I don't expect to get a "hi-rez" version of that game for free.
If I purchase a piece of software, often times I have that license forever. I don't expect free upgrades to the new version every time I buy new computer parts.
HOWEVER:
If I purchase a new PC I can put that piece of software on the new PC and it (usually) continues to work fine.
If I put that DVD inside a blu-ray player that can also play DVDs, my DVD should play fine.
If I put a console game into a system that holds the capability to play exactly the same version of the game I own, that has been 'ported' over, I should have access to that game since I already payed for it, and can insert physical proof of ownership into the system.
So 'NO' this is not like an mmo where you pay for content changes and server maintenance, it's like an mmo that you pay for every time you want to re-install it. Imagine having to buy a new copy of your mmo, and probably start over since there is no way to import your old save data, every time you want to upgrade your computer. Tieing software specifically to individual machines is a prick move, and even most of the LARGE software companies out there today have moved away from this model, even Cisco and Microsoft are completely open to you moving software around, and they are as prick-ish as it gets (though sometimes it might require a phone-call during registration to confirm it's really what you are doing).
I don't believe that we should have to pay for the same product more than once. Content-Additions, Sure, we can weigh weather or not it's worth it, but unless they take EACH game and actually add VALUABLE CONTENT to those products, the service provider (in this case Sony) can go ***** themselves for double-dipping into it's consumers, or in this case, TRIPPLE-DIPPING since a purchase has already been made by many for the DLC version of the game on PS3.
THIS is why people jailbreak systems. THIS is why groups like anonymous go out of their way to give Sony a hard time. I'll be the first to say that own a PS3 and I love it, but I also don't waste money buying the games twice out of pure principle. I'm getting old now, I'll be 30 next month... and when I was in my early teens I was playing PS1 games via ISO's in Emulators on old-*** Macintosh hardware I installed on 'exposed' network shares at school... technology that old, data that old, games and movies that old... we don't want to hear Giant companies like Sony telling us "how hard they are working" to bring those games to us... because quite frankly, there's nothing difficult about it.
Edited, Feb 22nd 2013 11:09am by FUJILIVES 
