MasterDex

Cool, thanks. I thought there might be some other benefit like your attacks become stronger or something. Ah well.

So I have the game now and I seem to be enjoying it more than Demons' Souls. I picked the Wanderer class, the scimitar is nice and fast. I also spent 4000 souls on the heavy soul arrows and I found they worked great against the Black Knight and the giant skeletons in the graveyard. Question: What benefit does reviving to human have? The game does a better job of explaining stuff than Demons' Souls but I still find myself scratching my head at times.

I can't, apparently. When I went to download it, it said it wasn't available in my region. I'll try again later and see if I can find a way around it.

But does it let you change your ID to one you've already registered because the way it seems to work is that they have all the EAIDs(Origin IDs) in with the other IDs so since MasterDex is already registered under my email, I wouldn't be able to select it as a new ID. They should have just kept the system they had. I don't see any reason to have changed it.

I think the key difference is that Steam is a closed system on an open platform. They're not the only choice that a PC gamer has. As to the whole Steam/EA thing, I don't think they have a problem with EA dealing directly with their customers. The problem is that Valve don't want to/can't make an exception to their rules for EA and Valve want DLC available through their service if the game it's for is on their service. I think that's as reasonable as EA wanting their own service. If Valve did make an exception for EA then they'd have to make an exception for everyone else or suffer a hit as far as publisher/developer relations go.

That's your only choice unfortunately. The pickups are all standard models as far as I recall.

Are you a fan of Mastodon to begin with? I haven't checked the entire album out but two of my friends said they thought it was their best album. They even went so far as to say it was one of the best metal albums ever. *snickers* Oh, Mastodon fans. Don't paint us all with the one brush! I thought it was a good album but no more than that. Certainly not their best!

I'm loving Opeth's new album. Such an awesome band. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at7nIxemKjc

Are you a fan of Mastodon to begin with? I haven't checked the entire album out but two of my friends said they thought it was their best album. They even went so far as to say it was one of the best metal albums ever.

Haven't heard any but I can see this getting a console release so perhaps once that arrives, it'll be added in. I wouldn't mind higher resolutions either. It's not a big deal but still, I'd rather play the game at my native resolution. As for power-ups, on one playthrough I got all these demon related pickups that seemed to be meant to work together. I was awesome. The crown of thorns is also a great pick-up as is technology, but that takes some getting used to.

That's what I don't like about Demons's Souls. So this is more of the same then?

No, but there's something hypocritical about claiming we've done something immoral by not complying with the rights and wishes of the publisher while having no problem with not doing so yourself in the case of used games.

Because when you use the rights and wishes of the publisher to prove a clear immorality in piracy then ignore the rights and wishes of the publisher when they don't agree with your views on used games, you're being a hypocrite.

I was merely trying to point out Deans comparison as being a silly one in a humorous fashion. Oh, yeah, I've brought up libraries before. I do think it's funny that you can borrow movies and music which are easily ripable but you don't see publishers complaining about them like you see them complaining about used game sales and gamestop. ...and piracy. You can't talk about the rights and wishes of the publisher, label us immoral and then make a comment on the hilarity of a publisher angry about consumers not respecting their wishes and buying used.

We're not out to prove that piracy is going to make everyone richer, we're simply saying that piracy is not an issue full of negatives, that there can be positive effects and that piracy itself can't be considered morally wrong all the time. It seems a bit pointless continuing to argue when you're just shooting down everything we say because it doesn't conform with your own narrow views on the subject.

'People' is a very generalised term to use. Yes, people knew but that group of people was a limited size. Piracy resulted in more people knowing what anime was. You're also ignoring the majority of my comment and in doing so, misrepresenting what my argument is.

How is that the point? Piracy filled demand, it didn't create demand. Only content that people want to see can create the actual demand. You didn't enjoy anime because it was pirated. If what you saw was a legal copy you wouldn't have enjoyed it less. @MasterDex, if you're arguing that piracy may be cheaper than a marketing campaign then that's true. Clearly the Anime producers didn't want to risk their own capital bringing it to the west and they probably missed out on a lot of money that way. In the case of anime, piracy created the demand by introducing the product to a new market. You're right to say that people would have enjoyed the product regardless of whether it was pirated or not but they could not have enjoyed it if they did not know it existed. Would you enjoy a flebberwick? You wouldn't know because the flebberwick doesn't exist to you. You don't know what it is. The problems involved in introducing anime to new markets at the time were great and still are today. Many studios just don't have the funds to do so, it's not just a matter of risking capital. I'm not arguing that piracy may be cheaper than a marketing campaign. I'm arguing that we cannot view piracy as a moral dichotomy. Piracy is a market force. It's never, ever, ever, ever, ever going to disappear. Ever. Treating piracy as morally wrong or right doesn't help anyone whereas accepting that piracy is a multi-faceted, morally ambiguous force allows us the flexibility to diminish the problems associated with it that the strict, heavy-handed and outdated copyright laws don't have.

The content created a limited demand while piracy grew that demand exponentially and supplied that demand. The piracy of anime, like piracy in Russia, helped to open up a new market that the content creators would have struggled greatly to open themselves. Piracy can have a positive effect on markets and to deny that is to deny a true statement. Here's a good study on media piracy in emerging economies that helps illustrate the moral grey area that is piracy, because it is a moral grey area, only its legality is black and white. I've set the link to page 399 which provides some insight into the book piracy I mentioned earlier in this thread. Media Piracy in Emerging Economies

Assuming this is directed at me: I'm trying to think of an example where the ends would justify the means but I'm not really seeing it. How's this for an example of where the ends justifies the means. In the 80's when VCRs had become mass market devices, Japanophiles started to bring over anime from Japan to the US and copied them, distributed the copied (pirated) anime to their friends, who distributed it to their friends and so on and so forth. By the end of the chain, you were getting a video that had been copied and probably watched several times but it was still something no one had seen before, it was this weird, Japanese cartoon that often wasn't for children - which was weird in itself for the US. These chains of friends started to add subtitles and fansubbing was born. As fansubbing and anime piracy continued and grew, the popularity of anime grew along with it, helped by the piracy. Anime piracy helped to sow the seeds in the creation of a new market for the content creators. But it didn't stop there. When the internet became more widely available to the every-man, fansubbing and anime piracy grew yet again but again, so to did the popularity of anime, in new regions yet again like Europe and South America. Fast forward to the arrival of broadband and fansubbing and anime piracy was well established with multiple groups delivering everything that came out of the industry. But this was the naughties now and media industries had a hard-on for C&D's so fansubbers were shut down, children were sued and the anime industry went to loggerheads with their consumers. It was too late for that though, fansubbing and anime piracy was too established, eliminating it was like playing whack-a-mole. Once one group was crushed, another rose up somewhere else. But it still helped the industry overall because anime grew in popularity again, expensive import sales were being made for titles that were deemed "unsuitable for the market" by western distributors but fansubbing gave those anime a market outside of Japan. C&D's continued, urged on by Western distributors. Fansubbers (pirates) called out to the Japanese. "We can sub your shows, often better than the companies you're selling your license to. Sell us a license suitable for our needs and means and we'll provide a share of what we make from subbing and streaming your shows.". And they did. Crunchyroll has now become a mainstay of the anime industry in the west. Crunchyroll makes the anime industry more money and it used to be a streaming site of pirated material. Gintama, the anime my avatar comes from was never going to see a western release without fansubbers. I pirated and watched every episode of it as it released in Japan, week by week, and then Crunchyroll got it. Now I'm still watching it week by week except I'm not breaking the law. I can watch from episode 1 right through to episode 228, legally, knowing my subscription is helping the creators, which I'm more than happy with after the joy they've given me through their show. TL;DR: Anime piracy created markets, grew markets and overall, helped the anime industry out. I'm willing to wager that many anime creators would be willing to agree that the ends justified the means.

Gotta love those Battlefield moments! I share the same love for the same reason. No other FPS multiplayer has made me feel so alive, awesome, clever and helpful as Battlefield has at its best.

Demoers? What? Is this a new subgroup of gamers? If by demoers, you mean consumers then yeah, you're damn right we feel entitled. We're handing our money over for goods and services. As a consumer, I reserve the right to choose what to buy and what not to buy. Like Dean said, I don't buy games to feed developers and fatten corporations. I buy games to play games; to get enjoyment from games. The whole concept of buying and playing games for enjoyment (aka Fun, aka Entertainment, aka Joy) and feeling you're entitled to decide what's fun to you personally is a bogus concept?! That's real fuzzy logic there, Yantelope. It's also not that I feel cheated if I don't get enjoyment, cheated is a very strong word. I feel I have wasted my money and money certainly isn't growing on trees for me. You don't have to be omniscient to know whether you would or wouldn't buy. We know who we are. We know what we would do. We know how our minds work. Why is that so hard to agree with? Certainly, you know yourself pretty well? I know myself better than I know any other person. In this hypothetical world where omniscience is the only way to know one's self, does every adult (We are all adults in this back and forth, aren't we?) fear that they may one day become a serial killer? That they may one day become a heroin junkie? I'll let you answer those. If I had money, yes, but growing up in a less-than-rich family meant I had to rely on my parents to buy me games. Yes. I confess. I was once a child whose parents made purchasing decisions for them. You'll have to clarify there. Until the internet was invented? Wasn't alive. Until I had access to the internet? No, I played many a game before I had access to the internet. I take it you're really asking did we ever play a game before demos and internet game piracy was around then yes, of course and I'll go into greater detail now. You have been reading what we've been typing here, right? I'd really hate to feel like I've wasted all this time talking to a brick wall. I believe I've expressed much the same sentiment more than this over the last few pages. What you are doing is assuming that we are pirating every single game that interests us. We are not. As I've said, (again, more than once), sometimes, RARELY, a game will interest me enough for me to say "Oh! What's this?" but not enough for me to slap down my limited funds and I will try it before I buy it. If there's a good demo out? Great! If not, I MIGHT just pirate it. Again, in rare cases, I might pirate a game, to see if I will gain enjoyment from it - the key factor in determining whether I buy a game or not. Simply put, yes. My time was wasted if I didn't enjoy the GAME. My money was wasted if I didn't enjoy the GAME. Yes, I am. Believe it or not, I don't even have to pirate a game to get entertainment I didn't pay for. Shocking, I know! Firstly, I'd like you to define a normal person. Secondly, I'd like you to type in 'PC games' and 'refunds' into google or whatever search engine you prefer and see what you come up with. What a cop out! Game companies are selling me the opportunity or an attempt at entertainment but they're not selling enjoyment?! Are they not good enough to sell pure joy? Game companies can make all the attempts they want at entertainment and I'll buy many of those great attempts at entertainment. Why? For entertainment (aka Fun, aka...). As a consumer, I reserve the right to determine what I spend my money on. Where games are concerned, the key factor in determining whether I will buy a game is how much I think I will enjoy it. In other words, how much entertainment I believe I can get from it. Should I start feeling bad for all the games I couldn't even be bothered to try let alone buy as well as the few I've pirated because I didn't deem them worth my time or money? You're confusing morality with legality. It's a common mistake but a mistake nonetheless. MORALS ARE NOT THE SAME AS LAWS. This has been said already. You are free to believe that it is morally wrong to pirate a game or break any law whatsoever just as you're free to believe there is a god and heaven waits for you after death. I'm free to believe otherwise. We can share our beliefs in a mature, understanding way. You don't need to force your morals onto us however and I'd be grateful if you'd stop trying. You can't possibly know that right there because you did pirate the game. Yes, I can possibly know that right there because, as I said, due to past experiences with the series, I had absolutely no intention of buying another NFS game. My pirating of NFS Shift however was a chance for EA to gain a sale from me. If I liked what I played then they would have themselves 1 extra sale. I did not enjoy the game, as I had not enjoyed its recent predecessors. Look at that! Piracy has the opportunity to sell a game to someone?! HOW CRAZY IS THAT!! It's hard to name a game I may not have bought because I couldn't pirate them because I can't recall, as Dean said, a game that I would not have been able to pirate if I had wished to do so. If I had wanted a game that I could not pirate, I may not have felt I needed to pirate the game. Your argument is based entirely around hypotheses and conjecture, The logic here is also contradictory. You go on to quantify the amount of games we didn't buy because we couldn't pirate them, tell us what we know and then say our argument is invalid because we can't know such an answer and you're right. 0 is not the sum. The sum is n. It's a variable figure. There's no way to know how many games I didn't buy because I couldn't pirate them because there are too many variables involved for me to give an example to your hypothetical conditions. You really don't want to start down that road. I can bring ALL the studies you like to the table. But I won't. It wouldn't change your narrow-minded views. Also, that you respect fuchikoma less for researching marijuana before trying it makes me respect you less, a great deal less I have to say.