That works. I like to keep ALLLL of the "event books" grouped with the event itself. Its just plain easier to find when it begs to be read (everyone knows that tracking down EVERY CW book, just for example, would take longer sifting through long boxes than actually reading the event ) and, not that I have plans to, but the events, when completely collected, sell for tons more than if not.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/Comics-/63/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=marvel+civil+war+complete

It gets trickier when books tie-in to events.

All my New Avengers is together, except for the stuff that ties-in to events...so, like half of them

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1790899723/681612454?token=225b918b

The bad economy has hit us ALL hard, and we desperately need quality job creators, especially ones that offer free training.

http://investor.ea.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=749234

And a head has, indeed, rolled.

Too bad the EA email servers were down or this would have been out last Friday

Well, they didn't just drop the whole always online DRM on people on release day. It was in the news for a while, and it was written on the box

Was EA trying to get over on people who wouldn't know what was up? IDK, maybe. But with so many PCs being connected to the internet all the time I think it just made sense to them to use this DRM on a game that they knew would be popular and, therefore, pirated.

The expectation of a network connection isn't just a form of DRM in your mind, it IS, by the very definition of DRM, a form of DRM. It is straight up EA trying to Manage the Rights of their Digital property.

But yeah, you tell them with your $$$. Or bootleg it. I heard there's a hack (I do not condone stealing or hacking software)


AC3 was going to make more money on consoles at launch (which is kind of like DRM in its own way) than it was ever going to on PC. Simcity doesn't have any other platform to take this game to market the way it should be taken to market, and the PC is just too easy to hack and get around simple DRM. EA can't afford to lose the money...although now they are.


I'm hopeful of the new Neverwinter game as well. I STILL play the first NWNs game. There are so many downloadable mods, and you can play the main games and expansions over and over and over. Fun stuff.

I love Steam! Its amazing!!

But, Steam, itself, IS DRM. If you download a game with Steam, you cannot uninstall Steam and still play the game. It manages the rights to the game.

DRM is a necessity to protect against piracy. I'm completely against anti-piracy in just about EVERY case, but I'm also not going to blame a company for wanting to protect their wares under the law. I just want the laws changed

We have Football Manager here, too, but its American Football, and quite a fun game.

I think the new Simcity game looks awesome, and, AFAIK, there IS an "offline" mode to the game that doesn't allow communication with others. And I don't mind griefing very much, but I always tend to join a group that loves getting back at them And the online play with being able to share territory space is kind of awesome! My problem is I need a new PC



But I think we should talk more about the utter failure of EA to anticipate how their own DRM would impact the launch of the game. How in the hell does a company that has been so negatively impacted in the press by past DRM debacles allow something like this to ruin the launch of, arguably, their biggest PC game of the year? Even before the launch EA was getting static about the "always online" DRM from blogs and sites. The marketing for the game was everywhere, suggesting that EA knew that launch sales were going to be, at least, moderately high. I mean, they had the Workaholics dude in his underwear playing "Mr. Mayor" and the features in this Simcity are kind of brilliant.

I just don't get it  SMH

And then the DRM is broken within 2 weeks of launch? WTF is going on over at EA? Incompetence?

Technically, yes, the "always online" aspect of Simcity equates to a form of DRM. But, according to EA, Simcity IS, in fact, an online game.

I don't here anyone gripe about WoW requiring an "always online" setup. I played Warcraft games in the past that didn't require an internet connection, the same way I played previous Simcity games that didn't require an online connection.

Whether we agree with EA or not, its their game, and they have stated that Simcity is an online game, requiring an "always online" connection, just like WoW.

I honestly do not see where DRM is a culprit here, and not the way EA prepared for the DRM they put in place.

That's not all it does. It IS a strong factor in keeping people from stealing software. Its just too bad that, many times, its also a strong factor in people NOT buying the software at all

I honestly do not believe that the fact that DRM was in place is the point of any of this scenario. The fact that EA was not prepared for the outcome of their own DRM is much more intriguing IMHO.

I didn't think Simcity was still that popular

From what I read, it wasn't the DRM that made the game unplayable it was EA's failure to test the game appropriately prior to release and a huge miscalculation in the sheer number of people who required server access to play.

This sort of DRM is not a bad idea, but it is a bad idea to implement it without having any fucking clue what you are doing. I'm looking at you EA.

No I haven't heard of that. As I said, I bet its a treat for the true fans to be able to identify these things, and actually give a shit.

Exactly, and most of the opinions of the general public (those that will make new films successful or not) do not have as broad as a PoV as the dedicated hardcore, and those dedicated hardcore fans have a PoV all their own.

I think you would have to admit that, as far as large universes such as this, SW has done the one of the best jobs of trying to make everything be in its own universe and have a certain and specific continuity. With that said, I still believe that the perceptions of many hardcore fans, no matter how incorrect that perception, could be a hurdle that trips up the films for that small, yet passionate, segment.

For example, I don't think that many will blame Leia for thinking she recalled her mother from memory (it could be excused as some Force vision or something), or even catch on to a change in the style of Jedi fighting. Although these points you made are valid, the degree to which they are valid is certainly in the eye of the individual viewer.

This equates to a sliding scale between what IS in continuity and what isn't on one side, and the particulars of each and every individual viewer that will see the flick. If this is accurate, IMO the enormity of the universe and the continuity helps the movies, simply because they can use or ignore so many aspects of the greater SW universe.

Additionally, I think a huge error in continuity that ignores or uses something improperly from a book or game, while well within the continuity constraints of the movies, would be a treat for the true fanboys who would then be able to passionately gripe about the error or misuse. I mean, wasn't the Falcon supposed to explode along with the second Death Star?

Good discussion! Welcome to the boards Mai

I think this shows its all relative to the individual viewer and how large of nits they feel like picking.

I don't think it is a fair comparison.

In the case of Marvel, there was already a precedent to have the same characters live in "different universes". The comics are not the same as the movies in any way, and a lot of the comics themselves have nothing to do with each other.

Star Wars, by design, has been very careful to keep everything, from movies to games to novels, all within the same universe. They try hard to keep a few thousand years of timeline, hundreds of planets and species, and characters all consistent across multiple platforms.

I think this is the fear being referred to, and I think its valid. In this case especially, Disney doesn't really have to worry about the true SW hardcore fans. But, the consistency was a huge aspect of what caused them to be such huge fans.

http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/news/a463779/joss-whedon-on-star-wars-i-wouldnt-bring-back-original-characters.html

Nostalgia for nostalgia sake is silly, and could be destructive to the entire process.

But I agree with Senor Whedon, these bastards are too damned old! Stop trying to lure me in with washed up actors just because they were in the credits once upon a time. Stop giving me old shit using stale ideas and personae, and give me something new.

Move forward.