Interesting article on EQ (no spam)

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

My dad said I couldn't install BG2 on our new PC unless I read it first, and he stood behind me to make sure I did. Now I just wait until he's at work to install things, I know more about our computer than he does anyway.

Don't bother reading it, it's as boring as anything. All it basically says is that it's not the fault of [insert company here] if their product screws up and destroys/damages your computer, that you can't lend/give the product to anyone or lend/give/sell copies of the product, and that you mustn't use the product for anything illegal.

[Beldin]

Originally posted by Ode to a Grasshopper

Don't bother reading it, it's as boring as anything. All it basically says is that it's not the fault of [insert company here] if their product screws up and destroys/damages your computer, that you can't lend/give the product to anyone or lend/give/sell copies of the product, and that you mustn't use the product for anything illegal.

Sounds like reality catching up with fiction here:

Quoted from the L-Space Web:
Along with the standard computer warranty agreement which said that if the machine 1) didn't work, 2) didn't do what the expensive advertisement said, 3) electrocuted the immediate neighbourhood, 4) and in fact failed entirely to be inside the expensive box when you opened it, this was expressly, absolutely, implicitly and in no event the fault or responsibility of the manufacturer, that the purchaser should consider himself lucky to be allowed to give his money to the manufacturer, and that any attempt to treat what had just been paid for as the purchaser's own property would result in the attentions of serious men with menacing briefcases and very thin watches.

-- (Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens)

No worries,

Beldin

[Mr Sleep]

Originally posted by Ode to a Grasshopper
Don't bother reading it, it's as boring as anything. All it basically says is that it's not the fault of [insert company here] if their product screws up and destroys/damages your computer, that you can't lend/give the product to anyone or lend/give/sell copies of the product, and that you mustn't use the product for anything illegal.

It is a sad state of affairs that a company can no longer send out a product without declarations of every sort to cover themselves. The fault is quite often the scam artists finding a loophole to rip the company off.

Look at your average overseas online ecommerce store, they probably do online trading, in this it is possible through some creative work on the part of the scam artist to buy the goods say they haven't got them, get a charge back and then sue the company for not getting the products to them within 28 days... good isn't it? Never, ever put anything on one's site making any assurances and always do offline trading, it's the only safe way...

[frogus]

I think that people with psychological disorders will always find incredible things to do, as an escape. Playing EQ for 35hrs solid (or whatever it was) is just the same as running away and assuming a new personality, or leaving your family in the middle of the night unannounced, or all the other things which depressive people have to do. But noone says: 'A Bloke ran away n the middle of the night. We need to put safety labels on his family' or whatever. I posted more on this in the GB discussion or wherever it was that this came up first. Saying though 'it was the man's fault, not the game's' is like saying 'It was the man's fault that he got addicted to cigarettes and died. It was his body'. Sure, but the addictiveness of nicotine hinges on unchangeble human makeup, you say - doesn't depression?

As far as the obsession with internet goes...I am probably on the computer about an hour a day...most of which is spent on GB. I have on occasions been known to go on massive BGII binges, but haven't we all? I think that computers are no substitute at all for human interaction...Anyone tried playing chess on a computer?

But...I think that forums (especially this one ) are a good idea - as long as real people are not forsaken. The computer is notthe crucial element in these things, and the fact is, that if there was a real building in real life that all the members of gameBanshee went to, I'd be there all the time! It'd be fantastic, and **** the computer. Plus, noone would have a problem with that, and noone would have a problem (I'm sure) if this real-life GameBanhsee office had screens, so that we couldn't look at each other. Noone would even mind, I'd wager, if this room was full of people, and we couldn't see each other, and we didn't talk, just wrote messages on bits of paper. There are really two issues here - one is social interaction, and one is human interaction. The two are more distinct since the age of the internet. The thing is though, that Social Interaction is done just as well on a PC screen as in a school playgroud, but Human Interaction is just as vital (you wouldn't let a child be mothered remotely by someone over the internet would you?).

[Dottie]

Originally posted by fable
@HLD, the insidious thing about MUDs (and I use the word insidious without any moral overtones, but according to its original meaning) is that they provide a method of connecting to other people which society in general seldom offers in the realworld nowadays--at least, not after one grows up and moves away from home. The circle of friends is broken, and the culture itself is geared manily towards rampant consumerism. Everquest and other games like it are virtual neighborhoods. For lack of the real thing, they take the place of that community of closeness, support, adventure and mutual caring that we all desire.

Multiplayer online environments can be obsessive, as a result. But I would submit that the solution doesn't like in making multiplayer games less attractive. It lies in creating the kinds of communities where the intimacy of friendly neighbors are recreated and reinforced.

I agree in a way, But I feel reluctant to force people into cultural/social enviroments. And that seems to be the option here.

@Frogus: I dont think you have to have psychological disorders to play games for 35hrs. I think of myself as sane anyway.

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

Originally posted by frogus
The computer is notthe crucial element in these things, and the fact is, that if there was a real building in real life that all the members of gameBanshee went to, I'd be there all the time! It'd be fantastic, and **** the computer.

Amen to that, my friend. Pity it'll never happen.

@Dottie-They all say that.