How far do ya go for "the hobby"

[Les_the_Sarge_9_1]

This ain't a revolutionary new thread or anything. Just wondering what some of you guys do (and if I have somehow missed a trick I might be able to use myself).

Currently I am an active hoarder of demo files.

I try and scrounge up files off the net that I encounter.
Game files that aid us wargamers in deciding if a game means diddly to us.

Currently I have demos for games I sometimes even have zero interest in. But the games often have an audience, and if the game works, then it's ok.
I turfed the GI Combat demo for instance, frankly I don't think that game works at all. The game just sucks in my opinion.
While on the other hand I have the computer WiF demo. It might look atrocious, but it at least works hehe.

I have an assortment of files as well of full complete games that are routinely on hand for download, most notably of course Steel Panthers in it's many guises.

One of my best finds was perhaps Allied General. I Like that game alot. I can remember being irked when my then computer wouldn't run it. So I passed it by when it was on sale (I hate regretting that sort of choice).
Then the frustration when I was completely vexed locating the dumb Wing32.dll file that seemed to be plain not out there anywhere.
Finding that file was like winning the lottery (ok, maybe no better than a few bucks on a scratch ticket hehe).

I am actually pleased eh, that I can rarely if ever encounter wargames on KaZaa like places (yes I search there out of idle boredom occasionally). But I can say with honesty, I am always glad to see nothing there.
We wargamers must be a step above most of the gaming community (I am willing to go with that illusion heheh).

I am willing to go on record, as being willing to help any of you "dial up" limited fans out there with downloads eh.
I have been very impressed with what has been done for me in the past by fellow wargamers.
I am also very proud to be part of a group, that has gone out of their way to help others as well.
Matrix is special to me, because Matrix members are always willing to step forward and help others in numerous ways.

One of my previous and on going doodles (being retired you find things to waste daylight somedays hehe), is scanning my wargame manuals (board games that is). I have little reason to think it is ultimately of any use to many though.
But I figure if I can give just one dude a scan of a wargame, and get them to go out and buy a copy after seeing it, I think it is worth the time.
I also have collected emanuals of a lot of older titles as well (although I think they are a lot easier to find online as well).

[Nyrkki]

My greatest merit in this field is teaching one of my friends to use his computer, so that he can play Steel Panthers by e-mail against me. He's a very experienced wargamer with a pretty impressive wargame library, but a total computer illiterate.

A few days a go we were about to start a new game and he had forgot how to extract the scenario zip file. I spent 40 minutes on the phone trying to explain it to him, but without succes. Finally I realised that he had extracted the e-mail files in the scenario folder. Yes, my fault I never told him which zip file to extract...

Ones the game is on, we have loads of fun. No pain, no gain I guess.

nyrkki

[Marc von Martial]

We wargamers must be a step above most of the gaming community (I am willing to go with that illusion heheh).

No, sorry to burst your bubble, cracking wargames just doesn´t pay off

[Les_the_Sarge_9_1]

Nyrkki, grognards with years of experience and yet no online savvy worth mention are easy to find actually. I am one of them heheh.

I feel comfortable enough with my computer in numerous ways, but let's see in all the time on a computer (since 90 I think), I have played hmmm 4 games via online heheh.

[Veldor]

Originally posted by Les the Sarge 9-1
I am actually pleased eh, that I can rarely if ever encounter wargames on KaZaa like places (yes I search there out of idle boredom occasionally). But I can say with honesty, I am always glad to see nothing there.
We wargamers must be a step above most of the gaming community (I am willing to go with that illusion heheh).

KaZaa is a peer-to-peer network and as such only what is most "popular" propagates through it. All the titles still get posted to newsgroups and are cracked. Even an "un-popular" title is still another 0-day warez for some group and another notch in their belt. Games like Uncommon Valor made it to the newsgroups and had no-cd cracks posted on numerous websites as well like game******rld.com

Interesting though that no one has bothered to keep updating the files as new versions come out, at least not as far as I've seen. Perhaps even in this particular case prompting additional sales for those that liked the game and want to stay up to date. Honestly though, while not having to leave the cd in has great appeal, as a purchasor of a game I am always reluctant to use the cracks for fear of what unknown problems they can contribute.

Often when complaining and posting bugs and issues... its cuz people are using an improperly packaged cracked/ripped/etc copy instead of the real deal. Probably not so much with Matrix products, but certainly with the more main-stream stuff.

[Les_the_Sarge_9_1]

Peer to peer has it's uses, but certainly it's limits too.

The fastest way for the world to rid itself of the bad behaviour based sharing of stuff for free, really would be just for online service providers to get more actively interested in making the volume of data moved be the deciding factor in cost of service.

I currently have a 5 gig upload and a 5 gig download per month.

Doesn't matter a bit if I leave my connection open constantly, its not the duration I am paying for now, but the volume of data I move.

Now sure you can move a lot of data "eventually" at 5 gigs per month. I inquired of my provider when this alteration of service was first begun a number of months back (because I had no desire for surprise extra billing expenses eh).
My biggest month of file movement was something like just past 3 gigs of data, so I was in the clear.

3 gigs is a lot of data eh.

Do I really need a 5 gig ability?

Not really. Or at least not if I am unable to get files I should really be paying for.

I download mostly anime video in my case.

I don't have much interest in music (been to many years since anyone was making music I will listen to mostly).

All these news groups and peer to peer options would disappear like 8 tracks, if the industry just decided ok, that's it, online service is being re formatted to make it completely too expensive to just give away free data to just any ole person that asks for it.

This would reeeeeeeeeally piss off a lot of people of course. Well everyone except anyone that isn't getting any money for their products due to loss of sales from people just giving it away.

When I am online with Kazaa I have my shared junk open to upload, but I don't leave it that way while I am not downloading something myself.
A lot of my friends don't leave the option to share open. Not very friendly I suppose.

But if tomorrow my service said henceforth online downloads will be charged based on actual data movement from the very first byte moved, I would go and uninstall every piece of software that anything to do with file sharing.

I would not gripe, I would not rant, I would not scream bloody murder. I would actually see it as a good thing.
But it doesn't look like any of the service providers want to be the first to act (good way to go out of business).

I think it is a matter for service providers and those that produce to hash out. Otherwise people are never going to shed any tears or feel any guilt over doing what everyone of us does in our own way.

But I would gladly, in a second, give up my capacity in favour of the people that are regularly being screwed over by rampant software exchanging.

Yes there will always be people, that will find the "holes" in the system.
That would be why we would be encouraging people to design software to find those people and squash them.

It sure would help the industry out there, if they could assume their product was only available one way.

[Veldor]

Originally posted by Les the Sarge 9-1
The fastest way for the world to rid itself of the bad behaviour based sharing of stuff for free, really would be just for online service providers to get more actively interested in making the volume of data moved be the deciding factor in cost of service.

I currently have a 5 gig upload and a 5 gig download per month.

There is too much competition in the US for that. An ISP that imposes just about any limits at all becomes an ex-ISP. Most of them go bankrupt as it is without having all their customers flocking to the competition that doesn't impose download/upload limits.

5gig to a pirate is nothing. Its less than a dozen cd images.

Unfortuneately only more laws and legislation will fix the problem. Corporations have long been liable for what is downloaded by employees via their bandwidth... ISP's have to be held to the same standard. There is simple filtering software that would easily block out 99% of this content. ISP's simply have no reason to utilize it at the moment.

The issue has really reached catostrophic levels in the last year or so. Lawmakers will soon cave to the recording industry and motion picture association and we will soon see very specific and in some ways suprising laws in these areas.

It could probably even be argued that such a move might help jump-start the economy. If you add up all the lost revenue from movie ticket-sales, dvds, cds, software, pc games, console games, etc.. the numbers have got to be absolutely staggering.

We're a bit off topic here but its your thread after all...

[Les_the_Sarge_9_1]

Not really off topic actually Veldor.

Would you as joe consumer say to the world, yes bill me based on the amount of data I moved this month?

I know I would.

There I said it.

Now having said that, no one can bash me over the head with how using Kazaa etc is evil. I made my choice.

I support people like Matrix, being able to sell an item, free of concern, that only the most spastic pirate would offend their copywrite.
And what would be the point in them doing it, if no one could get it from them?

Pirates are getting something out of this whole sorry process. If we remove the people that make the process work, you have gotten the pirates.

We all know that industry experiences a trickle down effect of increased costs from many things.
We owe it to ourselves to eliminate this one particular form of waste.

So all the people fighting against this sort of protection, are only hurting the industry and us.

[Veldor]

Originally posted by Les the Sarge 9-1
Would you as joe consumer say to the world, yes bill me based on the amount of data I moved this month?

I know I would.

There I said it.

One problem with charging based on bandwidth consumption is legitimate uses such as online gaming which can have quite a bit of overhead or telecommuters and the like who may download database files or other such things from work through VPN connections and the like.

It would be very hard, though not impossible, to place limits on bandwidth for certain types of activities but not others.

In general though I would support any government mandated bill that forced ISP's in any way to take responsibility for the content they provide a conduit for. "Hey man I just haul the coccaine, I don't make it!" should not be an acceptable excuse...

[Les_the_Sarge_9_1]

What does one do when they are bored and can't think of anything to say?

Not sure actually I always have something to say hehe .

Decided I would give this thread a walk along page one as well.