Perturabo
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quote:
ORIGINAL: flipperwasirish
The logic you try to use here is faulty.
A library exists for many reasons. Governments (that pay for them), attempt to encouage/assist people to read, they do so for the betterment of all. Increased knowledge in a population is a positive in most countries and pays dividends in the long term. And yes, there is room for pure entertainment in a lot reading.
Trying to compare books to software games is not close to a fair comparison. One is an apple and the other is an orange.
I would argue that games have positive influence on society - they allow people who would cause trouble to get high on adrenaline, to get their fix in safety of their own houses, they can have educational value, improve problem-solving abilities, etc.
Also, the same thing as about books, can be said about good movies and good music.
Also, one can argue, that since books have such a good influence on readers then their value is higher and their authors deserve the same protection as game/movie developers.
quote:
ORIGINAL: flipperwasirish
In my opinion everybody should have access to books. If your library does not have the book you want try asking them to get it. If that doesn't work see if they need help. Helping just a few hours a week maybe would increase your influence with those who decide what books to get. This worked for me over thirty years ago at our library.
I'm pretty sure that a lot of people believes that everybody should have access to various goods of culture.
Whenever the idea is good or bad, now writers are at disadvantaged position on the market - their products are available for free, while other goods of culture need to be paid for, so one can for example read a book for free and then buy a shooter game. The book may be more valuable, but its writer will loose to a shooter game because the reader didn't have to choice between the two.
Also, accessible doesn't have to mean free - since the thing that makes the books expensive is its printing cost, libraries could work like movie rentals. They just don't do it.
quote:
ORIGINAL: Terminus
And, Perturabo, how do you think the books get into the library in the first place? You think they're stolen and deposited there, so others can re-steal them?
They get donated/bought and deposited here so that other people can steal them, just like books, music, movies and other stuff in 2p2 networks.
quote:
ORIGINAL: flipperwasirish
A software game is something each person has to decide if they can afford every time they buy one. Life is unfair, so in one country a person may have to work longer (at the same job) to purchase a game than somebody in some other country. This is true for most products. I don't see this ever changing in my lifetime.
Well, in case of other products its usually justified by reproductions costs. On the other hand digital media are very cheap to reproduce. So, they should belong to the same market category as services (i.e. what most of people are getting paid for in work) rather than to the categories that require expensive raw materials, etc. If local workers have to adjust the prices of their services to a local market, I don't see any reason why publishers of cheaply reproducible digital goods shouldn't.
It's possible to do as I was able to buy some Matrix games distributed by a local publisher.
Also, there was a company called Topware which specialised in selling new games with local prices.
The problem is that there's no strong movement for lower prices among gamers in countries like Poland - generally, there are people who don't accept prices and pirate games and those who don't understand the nature of the goods that they buy.
It's a big problem, because most of gaming magazines are very pro-industry, not pro-player.
They give very high notes to unfinished, buggy games and lead a constant crusade against piracy, while completely ignoring the problem of fair treatment of customers.
They often, compare games to expensive cars, both when they talk about "stealing" and when they talk about pricing, which is completely untrue, because games are copied, not taken away from the owner and unlike expensive cars are mass produced at low costs for working masses. Basically, they are a propaganda machine that serves the industry.
So, the thing is that the problems of prices/quality appears in public discussions mainly when talking about piracy, not when talking about relations between a developer/publisher and a customer, which almost never happens. IMO decreasing prices would be possible if the amount of people who aren't willing to buy overpriced games, not in context of piracy, but in context of respect for ones own/parents work would increase.
< Message edited by Perturabo -- 12/20/2008 3:36:28 PM >
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People shouldn't ask themselves why schools get shoot up.
They should ask themselves why people who finish schools burned out due to mobbing aren't receiving high enough compensations to not seek vengeance.
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