Thursday Next

I'm loving that the first one you linked has been taken down because it was an "attack page". Popular school then. @Hotty I live and work in Guildford these days.

The current jobs market is pretty competitive. While I doubt that this guy will be living out of a cardboard box, it's a dent to his reputation, and finding another employer with pockets as deep as MS will be a challenge I'd have thought.

Lots of holes that I could poke in this analogy. But it's a place we've all been before.

I don't get. The very idea that Cat has enough influence to affect anything is ludicrous. Let alone that her opinion of Snow mattered to anyone other than her. Or is that the point? I have to wait for the Blu-Ray so I'm behind on shows (but up to date on books) so I have no context for this.

I'd be all for people finding security holes if their reaction was to quietly inform the site owner of the hole so that it could be plugged with minimum fuss. What happens instead is that the flaw is exploited and shared which leads to kneejerk reactions from publishers to make more onerous systems next time around. Also, don't see why you think getting something for free and early is any worse than getting something for free. If you agree that it shouldn't be downloaded until Ubisoft say you can download it, then it stands to reason that you should abide by their other requirements, like paying for it, not cracking it, and not sharing it on torrent sites.

Bang on. I bet they can't wait for that. ADWD was slow as molasses.

I do the spot the difference thing too, some of what I have heard of season 3 troubles me, but I won't be able to see it until next year. It's made doubly worse by the fact that I am re-reading the books and have just started A Feast for Crows.

So this is like "Kawaii"? (Or however it is spelt).

Grandpa? Cheeky shite! I'm 30. It did not end in '76. I took it when I was 12+ which was ~1994 (which I think is when Bucks moved over to 11+). For those who are interested. I went here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hampden_Grammar_School

Agree with Dean. I went to a really good school apart from the constant, pitiful indoctrination techniques (CofE so had to attend church on a Wednesday). After that I went to a school that was rubbish (but for less than a year so the damage was minimal). Then I passed my 12+ exam with flying colours and got into a Grammar (state funded but academically selective school). At the Grammar school teachers were called "Sir" or "Maam" (a pronounced as in "farm" not "ham") the really laid back teachers allowed you to call them "Mr / Ms Surname" as appropriate. You were expected to hold open doors for teachers and older students. Uniforms were compulsory even through sixth form. Beyond an excellent education, they really instilled a respect for others.

I didn't infer any snark, just wanted to clarify why I referred to a phone in this context.

Yeah, should have expanded more on my point. I agree a phone is about as "always on" a device as you can get, but even that can start up and run stuff without a connection. I don't know exactly what their plans are for connectivity, but making an internet connection a hardcore, set in stone, device won't even boot, requirement does seem somewhat premature.

I can actually play games on my phone without a connection. I can see one of these "Xbox 720 vs. Some Other Device vs. A rock" comparison charts coming.

Well, the Marina isn't out yet and the description is placeholder so let's not moan about that till it happens. As for Nissan DLC. It's free and it's optional and it's not content that used to be in the game. So why the complaints? If it breaks the game, and is ugly, and you don't want it and nobody else wants it, and it's God Tier Sponsored Content then don't get it, it's not Battlefield, nobody is going to shoot you with it. I honestly don't see the problem.

It's not required to play the game, it's been paid for by someone else. If EA offered two versions, one with Nissan branding for free, and one without branding for £0.99 I bet everyone bar a few protest votes would go for the free one. And what of the Marina supposedly being sold as DLC (I haven't checked if it is or is not)? Why does it matter that some DLC is free and some is paid for? That's hardly new. And what impact does it have on sponsored DLC? Truth is SimCity V is a rather successful title. It had server issues when it started, but sales were good and PSUs are still high. I'm the first to admit when a crap game is crap. (MoH and Ao2)) but I really get the feeling that much of the hate for SimCity is bandwagon hoppage. The release was poor. The always online was (in my personal opinion) a mistake. But many people seem to enjoy the game itself. They clearly enjoy it enough to care about free DLC that has a brand on it "ruining" their game.

People are bitching about an optional free thing, that is optional and free. And the biggest cause for concern is because it has the name of the person that paid for it on everyone else's behalf clearly visible on it? If I donate money to erect a park bench, I don't expect the people sitting on that bench to moan that it has my name on the plaque.

Most of the above. A lot of developers are shifting focus to next gen while making sure that there is a port of some description for 360 / PS3 that leaves less resource to do an additional port for the Wii U, especially when the install base is pretty measly and not exactly shooting up. Ninty are and always have been a nightmare to work with. A lot of developers got burned by coming to the Wii too late, or not putting out the right sort of games for it, so they are a bit uncertain as to how / if to approach Wii U. In my opinion Wii U is a bit of a Game Cube at the moment. Hopefully it won't end up a Dreamcast.

I beat Plants vs Zombies at the weekend. It finished with a sunflower singing a happy song about Zombies and lawns and such.

The catalyst is Kaiser Soze.

I hated "YOU are the controller." with a passion. "You" are not the controller, Kinect is the controller. "You" are the thumbs that interact with the controller.

They're both shit. German cars are better.

Or people will have realised that feeling personally attached to a plastic box designed to make some already wealthy people even more wealthy is a silly thing to do?

As you've already pointed out yourself. They don't have all the markets they will ever have: "CA, SA, Africa, India and the Middle East has one but its pretty nonexistent". The emerging markets are the ones where getting digital right, from a consumer and piracy perspective is all important, and making a couple of missteps that cost you a few million in the short term is nothing compared to getting in on the billions available in those markets.