Hot Button Topics (religion, politics, sports)

[Nichi]

@Bella: Such stupid. Wow. How do they not know who Samus is? >_<;

@Kriz: I don't really see the disc as being outdated; as an all-digital distribution platform screws over those of us whom have terrible internet connections, which makes up a bulk of the midwest and some areas of the southwest :\

[Krizonar]

@Bella: Such stupid. Wow. How do they not know who Samus is? >_<;

why can't metroid crawl

[Chocofreak13]

agreeing with pent here--discs are NOT outdated man, i take offense to that.

regardless of physical or non-physical form, restricting people's ability to buy/sell used games just hurts the VG market as a whole, as not everyone gets exposure to new games, thus shrinking the future market for them (why would i play Ice Cream Man 2 when i haven't played Ice Cream Man 1?). some of us (such as pent) can't do digital-only games, either because of a lack of reliable (or any) internet connection, or because they lack friends to pass them on to (etc etc). others, in my case, ONLY buy used games because (sadly) we're poor and thus are not going to drop an additional $30 on something non-vital just because of some sparkley limited-edition outfit.

if gamestop had the faculties in place to sell non-physical items, everyone would be in a much better place about this, since the codes could be sold (with or without DLC; the price may go up if DLC is included) and then bought at a slightly reduced price to the new consumer. if MS gets their panties in a bunch over "lost profits", perhaps they could take 10% or just disallow the passing on of DLC so the player would have to buy it all again. not that they should get their panties in a bunch anyway, with the exorbitantly high prices of games these days anyway.... >>;

even if this system WAS in place, i would STILL buy a physical disc over a digital code. i've had enough systems fail on me to know that handing over cash for non-physical items is a dumbass move, no matter how many server backups the parent company does.

[Nichi]

For me, in terms of digital purchases, it depends on how it's handled. For instance, Steam keeps record of every game I've bought, so if I move to a different computer or my current one goes down, I don't lose everything (At worst, I have to redownload everything). Meanwhile, if my Wii dies, I lose all of my downloaded games because Nintendo can't internet :\
(You can't even transfer Wii-to-Wii; it's strictly a one-way to Wii U transfer)

[Chocofreak13]

s'one of the reasons i don't buy anything from apple anymore (outside of apps). their policies on "unlocking" stuff via registering a password with the computer (and removing other computers from the queue above 5) pisses me off, since by that means, i can't share with friends.

[Simonorged]

Here is another idea.
What if movies where moved from hardcopy DVD to read only Micro SDcards
Entire series can be in a 4gig, the average movie is 1.5 to 2 gigs in highest quality.
And I'm pretty sure it would reduce costs.
Most people own devices that can read various file types as well.
On the topic of flimsiness iI've see these things trampled and left it a rain storm for three days and still work fine
Would this work, and is it worth the switch?

[Nichi]

That might work; as it would fix the problem of scratched DVDs, but on the other hand, it'd bring forth new problems like how easy it is to lose a MicroSD card due to its size (Plus likelihood of a dog or child swallowing it). It's like the jump from VHS to DVD; DVD owners didn't have to worry about the main issues of VHS (Malfunctioning player eating the tapes, having to rewind once finished, etc.), but in turn, they had new problems to watch out for (Scratches being the major one).

BluRay is at least a step in the right direction, as they're much more scratch-resistant than DVD (As in, they're less likely to get scratches from basic use), although the need in online updates for the player is a major downside (As the patches are often large. This goes back to what I mentioned earlier about how not everyone has proper high-speed internet)

[Simonorged]

The internet speed is the reason I say this. Though I get what you mean with the kids.

[Chocofreak13]

some of us don't have the money to switch----!

[NejinOniwa]

>EU Parliament elections
>riksdag elections this fall
>degeneracy, stupidity and racism everywhere
>dat media control
Okay, world, I've seen enough. This is why you need me in charge.

[Bella]

Nejin Oniwa for World President 2014

Seriously though, I'm not super up-to-date on what's going on in European politics (well, with the exception of Ukraine and Russia, which gets a lot of coverage even on US news) but I've heard that "conservative"/nationalist parties and candidates have gained ground? What the fuck's up with that? Backlash against immigration?

[NejinOniwa]

Pretty much. Included in mess, however, are 2 parties that are openly national-socialistic in some way or another: Golden Dawn (Greece) and that one german party I can't remember the name of because it's not the OG NSDAP.

Yes, German nazis in the EU parliament. We know.

On our side, however, radical feminist and extreme leftist party Feministiskt Initiativ gained one mandate (out of our 20 EU chairs), and the increasingly culturally liberal Green party gained one mandate; my poor pirates lost both their chairs, but at least the Germans have so absurdly many mandates to hand out that they managed to grab one over there so we're at least still sort of in the parliament. Meanwhile our local nationalist party Sverigedemokraterna gained 2 chairs, largely at the expense of the Moderate party who have lost a lot of confidence due being absolute shit in running the riksdag these last 8 years and people are starting to realize that now.

So now the stage is set for all hell to break loose in the riksdag elections this fall.

[LeaflameSD]

Spoiler: ShowHide

I don't know jack shit about politics.

[Chocofreak13]

@nej: well, in the event that HAPPENINGS commence, you can hide out here until nuclear winter claims the continent. with that in mind, good luck.

if it's any consolation, shit isn't going too well over here. we're not NEARLY as crazy as you guys, but it's been almost 4 years since Health Care Reform became a thing here and people are STILL mad about it. people are actually running for senate in this state on the platform that they want to repeal it. considering they've started showing political ads earlier and earlier these past couple years, i expect things to get to a boiling point over the summer and come november if ANYONE gets in my face about voting "Probamacare" (or whatever the fuck they're gonna call it), i'm gonna be punching someone in the face.

not really the most mature route, but the "facts" they bring up (or, rather, assumptions and outright lies) get more and more infuriating as time goes on. (it's going to tank the damn economy? 1, we're already fucking tanked, and 2, Sweden introduced UHC in 1965 and THEY turned out fine. it's harmful to the current way of doing things? seems more harmful to leave half the country uninsured. you have to drive half an hour to a hospital? well hey, at least we can all actually GO to hospitals now. >>; )

what baffles me (but only slightly, as nothing surprises me anymore) more is that some people who oppose it don't even seem to realize that there were people WITHOUT it. a lady commented to my mum at work about it and mum said she was extremely appreciative of it, seeing as how she hadn't had health insurance since 1992. the woman was aghast.

[Nichi]

Indeed.

Basically, disregarding how lonely I am here, you should never set foot in Texas; you'd go on a homicidal rampage, as 99.9999% of people here are anti-Obama, anti-LGBT, strongly against any religions that aren't Christian (Judaism often gets a free pass, at least), hates everyone and everything north of the Mason-Dixon line, takes the word of Fox News as gospel, etc. etc.