They had some really good stuff in the past, it's a shame that incompetence has relegated them to the bin of history. I loved my Nomad players and my Creative Live card.

Agreed. Like what happened at the time with 3dfx Interactive. :(

PowerVR There are insufficient frowny emoticons for that one.

I'm fine with most DRM and generally don't expect companies to treat me like a friend. However I will never support always online Diablo 3-style DRM. Ever.

You should be especially wary of those who pretend to be your friend ...

The problem is, Diablo 3-style DRM came about specifically because of the DRM creep over the past four or five years. If the industry hadn't conditioned gamers into accepting DRM, it would never have sold anywhere near as much as it did.
Huh?

Dominant DRMs 8 years ago: Starforce, Disc checks, rootkits, limited activations, etc.

Dominant DRM now: Client or DRM free. (at least 95% of the market)

I don't thing that this is a bad development.

Very few games actually used rootkits, and neither Starforce nor rootkits can be deemed DRM. Sure, they sucked, but on a user level they were still preferable to online DRM. 10-15 years from now, I'll still be able to install those games on the PCs they were designed for and play them without having to buy them again, pirate them or crack them.

As for DRM-free being dominant - that accounts for a pathetic minority of the PC gaming market. GOG is pretty much at the "vanguard" of this movement, but there are hardly any major titles without DRM. The majority is client/account-bound activation, which is really the worst thing that could have happened to PC gaming.

WHAT ?!?!?!?

Are you insane? They f#cked up my DVD drive and put my burner to a crawl. They actually slowed down my system and hampered my normal activities to a point where I bought an extra walled of PC only for work.

Rookits better than DRM? What are you smoking.

There was a bit of a fight between Beta and VHS back at that time. Video players were very expensive back then, like several hundred dollars and Beta machines would sell for $500+, but had much better picture quality. VHS was cheaper and easier to produce, so if a studio had to pick one then thats what they went with. I remember my uncle telling me that he thought VHS would win because there were no XXX Adult films being released on Beta.

The push to DVD was even problematic at first. LaserDisc had failed because the market wasn't there to support it and movie studios didn't want to lose out on the much larger VHS market. To get people to switch to DVD they started putting extras on the discs, like deleted scenes and commentary. Even a lot of older movies were re-released on DVD with actor and director biographies on the disc as bonus material. When the customer base started switching to DVD then you saw these extras start to scale back. There are a lot of DVDs now that just have the movie, subtitles and scene selection. Bonus materials didn't get very involved again until BluRay vs HD-DVD.

It tells you something about the demographics of the two markets, movie watchers don't put up with a lot of the garbage that gamers do.

It doesn't help that most people see games as just being something for the kids so gamers are easily labeled "entitled" and blown off if we complain.

The movie industry on the other can't just blow off their customers so easily, because everyone watches movies.

O/T
I'm in agreement with you guys on Sony and Apple. I try to avoid Sony products when I can, the PS2 is the last console I'm going to have from them.

I consider Apple to be the Fisher Price of computers; dumbed down and childproofed as much as they can. To be fair, I can think of quite a few people who need to be locked in the walled-garden :/

You're not making the whole "making an effort to change things" sound any more attractive, you know:)

My current strategy has something to do with hookers and booze;) (Yeah, don't really like Blackjack).

Thank you, Dr. Killjoy :D

Another incident I've encountered that makes me want to murder room loads of people with an ice pick and bubblegum is the "Console War" BS. I own a PS3 because when I needed one, it was on sale. Any current console would have fit the bill as an entertainment and learning tool for my 4 year old autistic son. I chose PS3 because of HD support and the current available price, period. Consoles are just gaming platforms, PC fits in that too.

I have taken a stance and refuse to get into the console debate with anyone for any reason (with the exception of a friend of mine who owns a 360, but that's more for the sheer fun of the argument rather than any personal opinion I have one way or the other).

Apple... well, it's not really related to being a gamer but I hate that company too. When they were unsuccessful they advertised themselves as rebels, now that they are "big" they represent everything that they accused others of. Actually they are even worse. I mean, look at this commercial and tell me what's wrong: *cough* HYPOCRISY *cough* It should be Jobs' face on that damn screen. I mean, what to think of a company that produces USB cables that would work with any device if it wasn't for a small piece of plastic on its top (that you can file off though)? But that's obviously nothing next to their whole brainwash thing.

And more OT: as a gamer who grew up in Germany I've obviously always criticized the extreme censorship of video games there and also written letters to places, approached representatives of the USK (the infamous German rating agency), created bloodpatches of my own etc.

Also I have a strong anti-piracy stance (as some may have noticed here in a discussion some time ago).