Cynic

The big problem with steampunk in fantasy settings is that it tends to be anachronistic. Steampunk is based on a 19th century Victorian asthetic but most fantasy MMOs are based in a 12-13th century medieval europe setting. So you end up stepping 700 years into the future with your design. They may as well have microwave burritos as power-ups.
If you can integrate steampunk seamlessly into your existing lore then fine but trying to add it to an otherwise unenlightened world is kind of awkward.

@Tempes Magus
You are right in that it is a gain but it is offset by the fact that they took an expense or several expenses worth $4.4 billion and took the hit all in the same fiscal year rather than letting it depreciate over several years. The government then gives a one time tax break for that amount but the corporation doesn't have to claim that as operating income.

So the $4.4 billion was calculated as an expense and came off their income sheet but the tax credit can just cancel out the taxes they would have paid on any profits made that year. You are right it is very confusing but also very common in manufacturing and telecom industries that have large equipment costs that can be easily credited.

The summary is mixing up two different concepts. The $3.2B loss was in the previous fiscal year while the disruptions caused by the earthquake and hackers happened in the current fiscal year. They had nothing to do with the $3.2B loss.
In fact it wasn't even a true loss, It was a tax write off. If they wrote off $4.4 B and only lost $3.2 B then they actually made a profit of $1.2B. But the way they report their earnings they can avoid paying any taxes on that profit by reporting it as a loss. Sony is doing just fine financially.

@Popplewell
The original Shadowrun universe was a perfect blend of cyberpunk and fantasy. They had hackers and cybernetic body parts as well as elves and trolls and magic. I would love to see an MMO based on the Shadowrun universe.

Does Graill440 really have 440 grails ? I think that's just wishful thinking.
Or perhaps somebody is too hung up on semantics.

How can you be okay with the term "master" but not "leader"? Leader is synonymous with manager , organizer or director all of which are perfectly reasonable to expect in even a casual guild leader.

What dictionary are you using where leader is defined by how famous or successful they are? Even if you're a crappy leader, you're still a leader.

The whole class restriction thing bothers me. How is it that a Wizard can't use a sword? It has a handle, you point the sharp end at something and stab. How can he not use it? Same thing with armor.
Also Giant Spiders. I am so sick of giant spiders.

@Victor Stillwater
I understood what you were saying Victor. The last time I tried to play Madden(or just about any EA sports game) I felt like an outsider. There is certainly an element of marketing involved.

@SonyLover4Life
It's called copy paste. I'll show you the keyboard shortcuts sometime. It's a real time saver.

@MLS
Except it's not true. There is more than one server at Sony and although one of them had updated software others, including login and account servers were using 2008 versions of Apache. The moral of this report is, Don't believe everything you hear on the internet.

Nice try mmFishTacos but you only showed one server.
Here are some other cache views showing numerous servers not up to date with the latest version. These all had 2.2.11 as of April 5.

I thought Joystiq was better than this kind os silly PR stunt.

Based on this nmap of the network:
http://pastebin.com/bAUHxtNr [pastebin.com]


Nmap scan report for account.rc.ac.playstation.net (199.108.4.177)
Host is up (0.077s latency).
Scanned at 2011-04-05 22:53:40 MDT for 428s
Not shown: 999 filtered ports
PORT STATE SERVICE VERSION
443/tcp open ssl/http Apache httpd 2.2.11 ((Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.11 OpenSSL/0.9.8i)

Nmap scan report for login.rc.ac.playstation.net (199.108.4.162)
Host is up (0.085s latency).
Scanned at 2011-04-05 22:53:40 MDT for 428s
Not shown: 999 filtered ports
PORT STATE SERVICE VERSION
443/tcp open ssl/http Apache httpd 2.2.11 ((Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.11 OpenSSL/0.9.

Nmap scan report for commerce.rc.ac.playstation.net (199.108.4.135)
Host is up (0.071s latency).
Scanned at 2011-04-05 22:53:40 MDT for 428s
Not shown: 998 filtered ports
PORT STATE SERVICE VERSION
80/tcp closed http
443/tcp open ssl/http Apache httpd 2.2.11 ((Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.11 OpenSSL/0.9.8i)

Nmap scan report for auth.rc.ac.playstation.net (199.108.4.136)
Host is up (0.075s latency).
Scanned at 2011-04-05 22:53:40 MDT for 428s
Not shown: 999 filtered ports
PORT STATE SERVICE VERSION
443/tcp open ssl/http Apache httpd 2.2.11 ((Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.11 OpenSSL/0.9.8i)

Nmap scan report for store.rc.ac.playstation.net (199.108.4.140)
Host is up (0.070s latency).
Scanned at 2011-04-05 22:53:40 MDT for 428s
Not shown: 999 filtered ports
PORT STATE SERVICE VERSION
443/tcp open ssl/http Apache httpd 2.2.11 ((Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.11 OpenSSL/0.9.8i)

Nmap scan report for rc.store.playstation.net (199.108.4.141)
Host is up (0.080s latency).
Scanned at 2011-04-05 22:53:40 MDT for 428s
Not shown: 998 filtered ports
PORT STATE SERVICE VERSION
80/tcp open http Apache httpd 2.2.11 ((Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.11 OpenSSL/0.9.8i)
443/tcp open ssl/http Apache httpd 2.2.11 ((Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.11 OpenSSL/0.9.8i)

Nmap scan report for native.rc.ac.playstation.net (199.108.4.144)
Host is up (0.073s latency).
Scanned at 2011-04-05 22:53:40 MDT for 428s
Not shown: 999 filtered ports
PORT STATE SERVICE VERSION
443/tcp open ssl/http Apache httpd 2.2.11 (mod_ssl/2.2.11 OpenSSL/0.9.8i)

* login server 2.2.11 (version from 2008)
* account server 2.2.11 (version from 2008)
* commerce server 2.2.11 (version from 2008)
* auth server 2.2.11 (version from 2008)
* store server 2.2.11 (version from 2008)
* rc store server 2.2.11 (version from 2008)
* native server 2.2.11 (version from 2008)