Meat

I think the important thing that everybody is glossing over is the simple equation of TWO screens is better than ONE screen. I mean, there's twice as many! Clearly superior product!

It'll be a firmware upgrade that happens while you are walked through a tutorial on how to use the Wiimote properly. By the end of the tutorial, you'll be so good at using the Wiimote, you'll be able to do the system setup, which coincidentally comes next in the line - region settings, date and time, internet/wifi connection settings, and personal preferences. Then while Wiiconnect24 goes online and communes with its masters at HQ, you'll be given the chance to create your first Mii.

It'll be smooth as buttered baby butt, and it will probably even be fun. I bet Mario does the tutorial.

Heey, this was an awesome idea when I read about it ten years ago. It was even better when I bought one FIVE years ago.

I thought this was a news site?

Not sure where you're gleaning stuff from, YLB, but whatever. I myself just find it very odd to consider a functionally limited, usually VERY different game experience as a perfect indication of what is in the final game.

As to assigning worth...its not a complex system really. Either a game is worth my time to play, in which case its worth the money to buy, or it isn't worth it, which means I'm not playing it and I'm not buying it. I'm not saying, "okay, -this- game is worth $38.42, but -this- one is only worth $17.94" - its either worth its price or its not.

Pretty basic economics, really...creating a product and selling it for a price that people would be willing to pay. Personally I think that the entire industry is overpriced, and that far more profit margin could be had at a lower overall price point, but hey. I'm not much for math.

Gah. Are you capable of basic math? You demoed the game, and now you want it. I'm demoing the game to decide if I want it. WE ARE THE SAME. I just manage to do it without buying a magazine (and supporting the advertising industry, another in my many reasoned decisions with regards to piracy).

If I went to a restaraunt to eat, and the food was something I didn't like, despite what the menu told me, I would send it back. Not, as you seem to think happens, eat the entire plate of bad food before claiming it wasn't any good and not paying for it.

I had a good two pages of reasoned argument, but I just realized something.

"Personally, I will be downloading FF12 this evening, and then, as soon as the game is released, purchasing a full-price copy from a local retail establishment, whether or not I actually like the game after playing it (However, having played the demo, I find that highly unlikely). Surely there's no moral gripe there, is there?"

You're saying that you're going to steal this game, and play it for a few weeks. Therefore you are breaking the law just as much as I am, if not more. Stop the preaching.

What -I- am saying, is I do not know if I will like this game. So I'm going to try it out. If the game is good, I'll buy it when it comes out too, just like all the other games I OWN. But if it sucks, then I'm not going to pay for it later, and I'm not going to play it now. Surely there's no moral gripe there!

What happens when suddenly you realize that the entire game has only eight hours of storyline, and that Squarenix is fully expecting you to enjoy the new combat programming system so much you'll play it ten times longer? I'd be willing to bet you'll say 'hey, wait a minute, this game sucks! I'm not going to buy it!' You would never go and pay full price for something you know you don't want, and neither would I.

@Wild Homes - "no one says you get an entitlement to only buy awesome stuff"

How about...ME? THE CONSUMER? It is my money. I have every right to say "I don't want to spend money on this product." Yes, I know I'm technically breaking the law. But really...every argument I've heard so far is that 'piracy is illegal, which is bad, because if its illegal then its against the law and thats not good!'

I'm of the opinion that its far more wrong, both from a moral and a business standpoint, that EVERY CONSUMER IN AMERICA is now a pirate. Seriously. Go to Walmart, and buy a CD, or a game, or a computer program. Guess what? You're stuck with it now. You can't bring it back, even if you don't like the product, because you obviously have made an illegal copy of it.

If I really cared so much about following The Rules, (which I have no real incentive to do, by the way) then maybe all these identical arguments would affect me somehow. But it is really far more simple than that.


I pirate because I can. Its easy to do, and I enjoy doing it, and I'm not likely to stop. And you know what? When I find a good game, chances are good I'll buy it. Not unsurprisingly, LIFE GOES ON.

@95 - You elucidate my point perfectly. Thank you for understanding - I only hope that actions by people like us (by which I mean people who don't buy shit games, rewarding incompetence in the development cycle) will eventually cause the changes that we seek.

I know piracy is technically stealing. I also know that for a retail DVD and case and manual, it costs perhaps ten dollars to make it and send it to the store where I get it. My argument is, why should I have to pay $80 for something worth $10? If THE GAME is worth it, then I will pay for it. If its not, I've thrown away $80. But if I can play it first, then I don't have to worry about risking my money - all I risk is a blank DVD.

If the game they spent so much time and effort creating is -worth- the eighty dollars, then its worth it - otherwise, I don't care how much effort they put into it, to ME that game is only worth the 50 cents of DVDR that is in my garbage can. And I won't spend any more than that for something I'm not going to play and enjoy.

Its the mindset that bothers me the most, I think. Like Reflexive with the problem I had earlier.

I couldn't demo their product, and they didn't want to help me make it work. Know why? Because it was crap. They knew it wasn't worth their ten minutes of tech support time to get it working for me, because I wasn't going to pay for it even if they did. For them, they KNOW they produce mediocre product, they KNOW that it's buggy and won't always work right, and they KNOW that for every person like me that won't put up with crap, there are fifty others waving their credit cards frantically.

You might not agree with me. But the simple fact that you're all waving your (identical, for the most part) opinions in the air, screaming 'PIRATES ARE BAD', and generally not paying attention to reason...just makes me remember that I have no pity for those hundreds of people who buy from Reflexive.

I'm proud of the things I have. My home, my car, my family, my collection of excellent games, my twin towers of DVDs, everything that I've worked hard for and been glad I did. For everything that I've tried and didn't like, if I -had- paid for it first, then I wouldn't have what I -do- have - which is quality. You all say 'support the industry', I say 'support the QUALITY industry and maybe we won't have to deal with the crap games that saturate the market'.

"Demos, asking someone who owns the game, borrowing, renting, all kinds of ways that aren’t stealing."

And...none of which are actually POSSIBLE. Awesome argument there.

See, my reasoning is that I liked FF7. I liked it so much that I skipped school to get and play FF8 the day it came out, and I was glad I did so. I did the same thing for FF9, and afterwards I wasn't really sure if it had been worth it. I waited for FFX, and I was glad I did, because it -wasn't- worth it; even now I wish I hadn't paid the $20 I did for a used copy. FFX-2 held zero interest for me, FF11 is an MMO/cashcow and therefore completely not what I'm looking for in an RPG, and here I sit. Broken hearted ex-FF lover, hoping for something good again, jaded by the harsh reality that the recent track record has given me.