Used Game Buyers = Pirates??

Well, that’s a new one on me. Some game publishers and even a gaming web comic have decided that if someone throws their hard-earned money on a used game, they’re no better than someone who pirated the game for free.

To the publishers: I ask you this simple question. What happens after I shell out $80 for “The Best Game Ever Game 3” and find out *Gasp* I don’t like it. If I send the game with the receipt and a self-addressed stamped envelope will I get my money back? Or will I get a letter saying “Too bad, sucker. You wasted your money. Buyer beware.”?

Now, I know the first cry will be to rent the game first.. Believe me; I do rent games before I buy them. I want to be sure I’m going to like the game before throwing a month’s worth of saving down the drain. Problem is, those wonderful developers would rather we not be able to rent the game first, because poor them.. They don’t see the money from those rentals. So again, wonderful developers, once you get rid of the scourge that is video game rentals, when I shell out $80 on “The Greatest Game Ever Game 3” and don’t like it, will you be giving me my money back? I doubt it.. It’ll already be added to the CEO’s bonus.

Now, if you’re like me and able to afford maybe three games a year, cost is a factor. I don’t have a lot of money at my disposal. So I like the fact that I can rent a game before I buy it. I like the option of paying for a used copy because they’re cheaper. I’m still putting money out. I’m not getting the game for free. Being able to trade games I don’t want or selling them is a great option as well. Being stuck with a game you don’t like is not fun.

It’s easy to argue that the more sales a company gets, the better the product will be. In video games, there is a small problem with that logic. You will see fewer games, fewer types of games, and more clones of the same genre. Instead of five first-person shooters, you will see twenty. Companies will take fewer risks than before, knowing that if they spend millions on a game that doesn’t sell, that affects their earnings, affecting what the stockholders get.

Ultimately, not being able to rent a game will result in lower profits, because people will become gun-shy at spending $80 on a game they don’t know. And without being able to trade the game in for something else, it would make many people leave the hobby altogether.

Now.. To the creators of the web comic that agrees with the developers. Can you say you have never bought a used game? Can you say you’ve never traded in a game? I seem to recall that, while I read your comic, you started a charity for gamers to send games to distribute to others in the name of charity. My question is simply this.. Are you using charity to steal from the same developers you agree with, or is this a case of not recognizing the pot calling the kettle black?

Remember when...

... it used to take talent to be famous?

I don't know why, but the whole idea of people becoming famous for being famous bothers me.

It used to be that, in order to become famous, you had to have talent. You had to have some skill that made you rise above the rest. Be it dance moves, a good singing voice, the ability to hit a small sphere a long way, or to throw said sphere past the person trying to hit it a long way, etc. Something.. People would pay to see you and you got famous as word got out. I don't mind that.. Fame is earned. Just don't let it inflate the ego, Skippy. LIke all famous people, you CAN be forgotten. Just ask ol' what's-his-name... Or That Guy... With the Thing.. You know who..

I do have a problem with people who are famous for having rich parents or semi-famous parents, or just famous for being famous. (FfBF)

Really, how does one become famous for being famous? And, more to the point, .why do they need to be obnoxious about it? Really, most of the FfBF crowd are on minute 14 second 59 of their fame.. Tick Tock, people..

I admit, I get bored at work some nights. When I'm done my work and I don't have a book to read, I'll look through the magazines. Eventually I'm left with the celebrity magazines once the other worthwhile ones are done. The annoying thing about these magazines is reading about the Kardashians, Paris Hilton, et al.Of course, to me the worst ones are the ones who are famous for massive amounts of surgery.. Especially when they end up looking like a younger version of someone else who`s famous.

Possibly the only thing worse in the FfBF universe are the women or families whose claim to fame is being a baby factory. Really.. My life would be a lot better without knowing about the family who`s popped out 19 kids, or the Octopus ... I mean Octomom.. Even the Gosselins. Of course, through the chaos, none of these people hear the ticking of their fleeting fame.. Tick Tock, ladies and gents, Tick Tock..

It would be nice to see fame going to real talented people instead of the Stupid Human Tricks famewhores we get now. Or, maybe it`s time I took the advice of Weird Al Yankovic when he parodied `Can`t Touch This` Because `It`s crummy, it`s stupid, it`s awful, it`s putrid, Gonna Throw My Set Away`

Why Green is a Bunch of Hot Air

To see why all the green-taxes, industrial bargaining, smart-meters, etc won't actually do anything for the environment, look no further than your nearest group of teenagers.

One group I had in the night of April 30th decided to have their snacks in front of the store. Ok, fine.. Except for the little problem of all their wrappers being thrown everywhere but out. Chip bags, nacho containers, candy wrappers, among other things just thrown on the ground or left on the ice freezer, not even 5 feet from a garbage can. Two, if I count the one inside.

Sadly, this is about normal. Regularly there's garbage thrown around the parking lot. It was worse at another store I worked at when we had the high school students come for lunch. Unfortunately, they're not the only ones who have forgotten what a garbage container looks like.

At the start of my shift, two middle aged women came into the store. One bought a magazine and a bag of chips. The magazine had plastic wrap on it. After she paid I put her purchases in a plastic bag, and she loudly scolded me for putting it in a bag, saying she's "green." Well, I went outside later to check to see if I needed to empty the outside garbage and, to my amusement, Miss Green was close to the garbage can. She just missed it by a foot. On the ground was the wrapper for the magazine. Way to show you're green. By leaving the wrapper. On... The... Ground... RIGHT.. BESIDE!!!! The.. Garbage..

Of course, that's not the only place. You really need to go no further than your nearest roadway to see garbage thrown around on the ground.

Now. I think a lot of the initiatives being used by the government amount to nothing more than tax-grabs, money grabs or political bluster but something does need to be done. I mean, I don't need a meter telling me I'm paying a lot for hydro and am paying more regardless of my habits. But there they are. And.. We even get to PAY for the Privilege of being told I'm paying too much for hydro regardless of my usage patterns. What we do need is a way of getting people to stop using the world as their trash can.

But how..? Taxes don't work. Simply asking gets rather repetitive and tiresome. Maybe we need to add a new section to the newspapers, and to social networking sites. You see a litterer, snap their picture, throw it on Twitter or Facebook.. Send it into the newspaper. Get them to start the Litterbug Brigade or something. Pictures of those people who don't understand how to use a garbage can might shame them into learning. Or.. They might just wait till nobody's around.

It may work.. It likely won't. But it's an option.

Wow.. Just.. Wow..

It's amazing how unintelligent people can be sometimes.

At least once a day at work I get asked if a certain newspaper is in the store. This is after the person stands at the paper rack, looks at the papers ON the paper rack, and not seeing the paper they want. They will turn to me and ask if the paper is in. Is it really that difficult to grasp that the empty shelf means the paper isn't in? Asking me doesn't change that fact.

There is more, of course, but you wonder after a while if there's some sort of IQ-reducer set on the door. Step in, you become a mouth-breathing drooler. Walk back outside, you go back to normal. Of course, if normal IS the mouth-breathing drooler.. Ummm.. I dunno then.. Can't help ya.

Oh yeah.. One more thing.. Signs.. They're there for a reason.. Read them.. Understand them.. Follow them.. When I lock the door and put the sign saying "Back in 5 minutes" Don't stand there shaking the door and knocking on the window. I won't be there to unlock the door till I'm done what I'm doing.

I don't know.. I like my job.. Just wish people were a little smarter sometimes.. We will see. 

... Can you Please do some REAL work now??

Well, the Federal Government is back in session. The issues being taken care of? Spending, particularly salaries.. OK.. Good. Most of them don't earn their pay to begin with.. Refugee Status Application processes. Makes sense to try to figure out who to let in.. The wording of O Canada... Wait... What??

Apparently, some people got their undies in a bunch over the words to O Canada and decided to complain to different MPs and the Prime Minister about it. Seems it's a result of hearing it 14 times in Vancouver. The line that's causing the offense? "In all thy sons command."

Now, since parliament went back in session, there has been a fair bit of debate about it in the newspapers. Half seem to want a change, half don't. Seems like most who want it changed are women. In fact, Senator Vivienne Poy introduced a bill way back in 2002 that would examine and change the wording. Her version would have the line changed to "In all of us command." Professor Adele Mercier of Queen's University agrees, pointing out the fact the population of Canada is 51% women.

July 1 1980 was the day O Canada became the official anthem. The words in the official version of the anthem have been around since 1968. The original text that was changed in 1968 was written in 1908. And, way back in 1908 "In all thy sons command" was there.

I have three questions to pose. They are the following:

1. If we change the wording of the one line, where do we stop? Do we change the "Home and Native Land" portion to appease the immigrants? Do we take mention of God out to appease the athiests? How about the "stand on guard for thee" for people who can't stand?

2. Have we, as a society, gotten to the point where every little thing offends someone? Seriously, there's a reason the phrase "You can't please everyone" was coined. No matter what, people will find something to complain about.

3. Isn't there more important things the government could be worrying about? For example.. The economy? Jobs? The massive deficit??

I don't know but it sounds more like a deflection topic so they don't need to do real work.

Olympic Opportunism

Another Olympic torch relay. Another Olympic Games start. Another batch of opportunistic idiots deciding to protest everything under the sun. *SIGH*

The day of the Opening Ceremonies, there were three or four groups that converged on one spot to protest at the Olympics. A couple other places along the relay route had to be diverted because of protests. The stupid thing is, nobody was protesting the Olympics themselves. No, that came once the games started, idiots throwing garbage cans through shop windows. Most of the protests had been for their own pet projects that they either didn't get out to public before-hand, or the public just doesn't care.

Instead of going through normal channels, example contacting your local government official, these people prefer to make asses of themselves with the world watching.

One thing we've been known for as Canadians is tolerance. But really, I'm tired of reading about or watching people yelling outside major events about things that have no bearing or relation to the said event. Does the Japanese tourist care there's no Daylight Savings Time in Saskatchewan? No, stop protesting at the Olympics. Does the Jamaican bobsled team care about Native Rights? No. Stop protesting the Olympics. Talk to your government. You can't do that? Then suffer is silence.

The groups protesting the Olympics, however, are a special breed of stupid. Rather than actually protesting, they just cover their faces and vandalize property with no ties to the Olympics. If you are protesting legitmately, don't cover your face. Have material to support your position. Covered faces yelling down the street does nothing but invite the ones who want to smash things to do so.

And, anyone protesting about "stolen Native land" better be Native. If not, well, guess what? You've "stolen" as much as I have.

So what I want to see happen:
1. Protests about the Olympics happen in designated places. How about Alert?
2. Protests cannot happen without a permit. The organizer can get a permit but is directly responsible for any property damage, as well as the ones who cause it.
3. Protesting without a permit carries a $5000 fine for each member.
4. Protests cannot be done with covered faces. Each person is accountable.
5. Instead of organizing protests, organize people to help find solutions to the problems you are protesting about. Action speaks louder than only shouted word.

Athlete's Pipe Dream (Don't Get to Big for your Britches Boy!)

It's odd what comes up some nights.

Tonight, a conversation on egotisitical athletes. Now it's one thing to have an ego once you make it to the top and establish yourself. It's another to believe you're the next BIG THING before you're even drafted.

Believe me, guys, it doesn't matter that you were that much better than everyone else. Until you reach the top, you probably won't find many people at your level. There will be people below your level. But they're all there for the same shot.

Once you make the big time though, the gap narrows quite a bit. It's at this point your ability matters. After years of coasting, you need to turn it on. Can you live up to the hype? Or, will you be yet another to buy into your hype so much that you become a footnote in history?

So what's it going to be? Hall of Fame, or Where Are They Now?