2010-11-11, 13:43 | Link #4061 |
Aria Company
Join Date: Nov 2003
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There were 10 seats and only 11 nations who volunteered to fill them. It's not like Iran was picked by every other nation. They volunteered. They're still more progressive on women's rights than Saudi Arabia, which also got on the council for the same reason.
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Last edited by Kamui4356; 2010-11-11 at 13:57. |
2010-11-11, 21:27 | Link #4062 | |
Not Enough Sleep
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: R'lyeh
Age: 48
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truth once again is stranger then fiction
Quote:
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2010-11-12, 00:29 | Link #4066 | |
Yuri µ'serator
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: FL, USA
Age: 36
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I found this to be a tad absurd, and thought I would share:
Steam Killing PC Market - Retailers to Ban Steam Integrated Games Quote:
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2010-11-12, 02:53 | Link #4067 | |
Asuki-tan Kairin ↓
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Fürth (GER)
Age: 43
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Quote:
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2010-11-12, 03:05 | Link #4069 |
Asuki-tan Kairin ↓
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Fürth (GER)
Age: 43
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You do realize that a very important part in this theory is played by competition? Where there is no competition (or just one's that can be easily eliminated), there is no incentive to make your products better.
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2010-11-12, 03:21 | Link #4070 |
Komrades of Kitamura Kou
Join Date: Jul 2004
Age: 39
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Yes I do. My point being that throwing a tantrum and going out of your way to force your product supply to bend to your will as opposed to your competitor's with an "or else" attachment doesn't sound like "competition" but rather something close to blackmail. I personally still buy my software physical and have rarely if ever used digital downloads, but I prefer to have both options available to me.
I do hope that retailers know that this attempt isn't going to go anywhere, and only likely make things worse now that they have even less product to sell.
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2010-11-12, 08:03 | Link #4072 |
Disabled By Request
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The irony of said system, which enables mergers and takeovers, is that this competition encourages people within the economy to eliminate the competition with better goods, services, what have you. It's this very same competition that could lead an industry to be monopolized. When people compete, they try to sell their own products and attract as much of the market as they can at the expense of the competition. That is why anti-trust laws are in place but when you think about it, a lot of industries are controlled for the most part by only a few suppliers. The soft drink industry is largely controlled by Coca Cola and Pepsi. There's very little competition there. Even though there are other suppliers, they either focus on other beverages as well or are too small to be noticed in the first place.
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2010-11-12, 13:09 | Link #4077 |
books-eater youkai
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Betweem wisdom and insanity
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"Garfield" creator apologizes for Veterans Day strip
http://ca.reuters.com/article/entert...6AB2Q520101112 That's the same kind of error than did Scott Adams many time before.
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2010-11-12, 21:43 | Link #4078 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2008
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Gamer makes a cool half-million by selling virtual property
"Think the rent is, in fact, too damn high? Then stay as far away from online world
Entropia Universe as possible, because its real estate prices will drive you insane. Take, for instance, what just went down on Planet Calypso, where one of Entropia's wealthier players has sold off his interests in a "resort asteroid" for an eye-popping $635,000." "And we're not talking about Monopoly money here. Launched by Swedish developer MindArk in 2003, Entropia Universe features a real-world, fixed-rate currency exchange that works just like chips at a casino: players trade real cash for in-game funds called PEDs (Project Entropia Dollars), which can at any point be redeemed back for real, spendable cash -- minus a transaction fee, of course." See: http://blog.games.yahoo.com/blog/160...rtual-property Now we know where the next real-estate boom is going to be: Online. |
2010-11-13, 03:54 | Link #4079 | |
Asuki-tan Kairin ↓
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Fürth (GER)
Age: 43
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Quote:
This game couples real money to virtual money, using exchange rates. Now, I don't think the exchange rate mechanism is very sophisticated. So, the extraction of large amounts of real world money (supposedly without re-investment) causes what is known in the real economy as a recession. Since the items in the virtual world are of especially low real value, this can influence the appreciation of the items. Many people might want to sell their stuff before its speculative value becomes closer to its real value (nil), this could cause a chain reaction. This virtual market is especially volatile and maybe it serves as a good simulation/example for real world applications/laws (e.g. as counter argument to the deregulation mantra). The money lost/won in this game is not threatening any economy. And if a virtual economy fails it does not really affect the real economy. So, in essence I am all for such games, since they can provide interesting insight in how to prevent snowball effects.
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2010-11-13, 03:59 | Link #4080 |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 67
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In games where you can get banned for converting game gold to real money or vice versa .... the effect is slowed somewhat since the exchange of virtual money for real must be kept fairly quiet (black market). Unfortunately, you still see the effect in the auction/broker houses as items inflate because a certain faction has more virtual money to spend than brains
So you'll see idiotic price movements that don't really reflect supply/demand curves but rather the influx of the equivalent of 'printed 1930s deutschmarks' (wheelbarrows of paper money for a loaf of bread). I've been playing one MMO recently where I encounter an unusual bit of bizarre behavior - people selling things on the brokerage for less money than they'd get handing it to an NPC vendor.
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