Re: Oh sure, I agree. We're definitely not there yet.
Macharius Send a noteboard - 31/05/2012 02:02:55 PM
It sucks because they're still catering to the lowest common denominator. They want to make an "HD" stream available to someone with a 5mbit connection. Even today, though, the advertised average broadband connection is faster than that but for home users, actual connection speeds are shit - on the order of single-digit or low-double-digit percentages of what people are actually paying for. If you consider only places with fairly high population density, the average connection is advertised to be MUCH faster than that, but isn't since companies and municipalities have de facto monopoly agreements. As the advertised connection speeds increase, so will the supposed quality of the offered streams. The nice thing is that there's no effective technological upper limit on the attainable internet speeds - only companies' profit/loss ratio of upgrading their servies, but there is an upper limit on quality.
Fixed that for you. Can you tell I'm bitter about my service? I live in a major metro area suburb and pay Comcast $55/month for 16Mbit service with SpeedBoost to 20Mbit. I don't think I've ever seen higher than 2Mbit actual down regardless of the day/time. Even using Google Documents for a word processor or spreadsheet is a goddamn pain in the ass: it's slow, unresponsive, and extremely limited in features. "Cloud" services I'd be interested in such as Netflix Play Instantly, fails to appeal since it features so few titles I'd actually want to watch.
In general, I find such technological apologism to be fundamentally flawed when viewed against examples of real-world implementation. You can call that part of the transition effect disruption, but I'm more inclined to believe such restrictions and limitations will continue even after the transition to centralized computing is complete.
Why does Blizzard insist on making me sign onto their servers ... seriously. ? !
- 30/05/2012 12:22:14 AM
1109 Views
It's to stop "pirates." And by "pirates," I mean, "people who play used games." *NM*
- 30/05/2012 04:31:22 AM
456 Views
Scary that in order to curb one practice - they are alienating a whole section ...
- 05/06/2012 08:30:15 AM
982 Views
Close... it's for control, for a variety of reasons. "piracy" and the used game market are the tip
- 07/06/2012 03:21:58 AM
967 Views
Fair enough. 
I guess used-game concerns are more of a console thing. *NM*
- 07/06/2012 03:54:47 AM
468 Views
I guess used-game concerns are more of a console thing. *NM*
- 07/06/2012 03:54:47 AM
468 Views
too fucking true. which is why I went to play Reckoning (fuck you, Blizzard)
- 30/05/2012 01:58:56 PM
1080 Views
You know that entire studio shut down last week, right? 
No more Curt Schilling for you. *NM*
- 30/05/2012 04:47:40 PM
461 Views
*sob*
- 30/05/2012 07:03:42 PM
1061 Views
No more Curt Schilling for you. *NM*
- 30/05/2012 04:47:40 PM
461 Views
*sob*
- 30/05/2012 07:03:42 PM
1061 Views
He shoulda cut himself on the ankle and worn white socks again ...
- 05/06/2012 08:33:46 AM
907 Views
why was it a poor business choice? The game sold well
- 05/06/2012 07:58:13 PM
1156 Views
You need to have followed the whole story a bit more to understand.
- 05/06/2012 09:14:48 PM
869 Views
It's made me furious too
- 30/05/2012 02:44:58 PM
1140 Views
criminals? what laws, exactly, have been broken?
- 30/05/2012 03:51:39 PM
1131 Views
Re: criminals? what laws, exactly, have been broken?
- 30/05/2012 06:59:49 PM
1045 Views
I guess my thing is that no one makes you buy that car that requires my million dollar gas...
- 30/05/2012 07:03:02 PM
1106 Views
Wow - you just outlined TORT reform in it's most basic premise ...
- 05/06/2012 08:00:04 AM
901 Views
You know the prototypical hot coffee case was warranted, right? The plaintiff won.
- 06/06/2012 10:52:52 AM
796 Views
Be careful -- the fanboys might hear you...
- 30/05/2012 04:56:15 PM
1056 Views
The funny thing is...
- 30/05/2012 07:48:49 PM
985 Views
The difference I see is that Steam has an offline mode that (mostly) works. D3 has none. *NM*
- 30/05/2012 08:09:40 PM
463 Views
yah...I only recently got into Steam. and ONLY because I've been moving a lot
- 30/05/2012 09:01:31 PM
1111 Views
It's still a good thing, the problem is that we're in a period of transition.
- 30/05/2012 09:26:46 PM
1002 Views
The biggest issues I see right now are bandwith caps & speed.
- 30/05/2012 09:44:10 PM
953 Views
Oh sure, I agree. We're definitely not there yet.
- 31/05/2012 01:17:58 AM
977 Views
Re: Oh sure, I agree. We're definitely not there yet.
- 31/05/2012 02:02:55 PM
877 Views
...
are you unaware that some people do drive to the bus-station anyway?
- 31/05/2012 02:36:22 AM
1186 Views
- 31/05/2012 02:36:22 AM
1186 Views
I don't think I've ever used an analogy on the internet that people didn't complain about.
- 31/05/2012 04:46:17 AM
834 Views
- 31/05/2012 04:46:17 AM
834 Views
lol, yah, I just couldn't help it for the sake of the continuity of internet stereotypes *NM*
- 31/05/2012 02:17:05 PM
597 Views
*NM*
- 31/05/2012 02:17:05 PM
597 Views
Re: It's still a good thing, the problem is that we're in a period of transition.
- 31/05/2012 01:35:33 PM
985 Views
Re: It's still a good thing, the problem is that we're in a period of transition.
- 31/05/2012 07:22:13 PM
769 Views
Stuff like D3's always-on DRM and phone home schemes in no way contribute to that future.
- 07/06/2012 03:26:08 AM
910 Views