why am i not surprised
I was doing a bit of surfing and came across a rather long post to a message board about why Star Wars Galaxies will suck. With the NDA recently removed from the beta testers, a lot of those people were eager to let everyone know what it's really like. I must admit I was a secretly excited about the prospect of a Star Wars MMORPG. I love Star Wars, and to be able to create my own personality in a living, growing online realm based on the fabled universe was reason enough to try it. Especially since the folks behind Everquest were the ones developing it.
After reading the post I was left with a huge feeling of disappointment. The game sounds terrible, and I will probably not give it a second thought when it ships to my local EB this Tuesday. It's really unfortunate that the Star Wars Universe has recieved this kind of treatment, especially since the MMORPG industry has changed so dramatically in the last couple of years.
I was in my local electronics superstore and came across Radiohead's latest record, Hail to the Thief. I was eager to buy this album, but when I saw that it had RIAA's latest anti-piracy measures, I began to think again. Sure, the sticker may tell you that it will play in your PC's CD-ROM or DVD drive, and in your car's CD player, but I've read otherwise. I always thought Radiohead would be for the people on a subject like this, but I guess not. After all, when you sell out every concert and have a huge fan following, I suppose you can afford to alienate the few people that have a problem with music CD copy protection.
And if you're thinking, "Well hey, the artist deserves your money!", I would agree. But what I don't agree with is using a technology that perverts the Compact Disc format and renders CDs unplayable on certain hardware. It's a music CD, not a piece of software. You shouldn't have to own a device with a set specification in order to play these things, but that is clearly what is happening. If this technology can be bypassed with an extremely low tech solution, and MP3 file sharing software is still around, what good is this protection? The RIAA should wake up and realize that the phyiscal medium is no longer a suitable method of distribution. Money wasted on packaging and advertisements for some shitty band you've never heard about should not be offset onto the consumer. How is it that CDs still cost the same, despite them having been around for over 20 years? It's disturbing, especially when a more accessible and far-reaching distribution system is available. I'm sorry Radiohead, but I am not buying your new album.