Games

Are Companies exploiting you on DLC Content?

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For a long time now video games have had regional releases and you can play Region 1 games (from the US) in Region 2 (Europe) on European machines. This isn’t locked and when you order games off the internet it’s best to be sure you are getting the right region game for your machine otherwise any extra content you buy will most likely not work.

What Xbox and Sony don’t tell you is that extra downloadable content (DLC) is non-refundable and companies such as Ubisoft who make the DLC content for their games will not allow you to change a US code for a UK or European code.

For example a UK citizen can see a PS3 game on Amazon for sale at a very reasonable price. Buy that game, wait a whole month for it to be delivered and realise they can’t play online because the game code is region 1 only and not region 2.

Of course you should be able to return the game and get a refund, but shipping it back to America is pricey and the consumer is out of pocket this way.

So this is more of a warning to make sure you are buying games that are the same region as your console. To check this in a store simply look at the bottom of the spine and make sure the correct graphic is present.

Another interesting point I have thought about and wondered because it’s DLC content, is it taxed? Is the consumer paying any tax in the price? Are governments taxing companies DLC profits? How much is the consumer out of pocket and how many people have lost their money because they are not informed about the regional locking of DLC content?

If the games industry is in the billions and DLC content is in the millions? Could the consumer market already be out of pocket by millions? And considering DLC is non-refundable I am betting these companies have already make a fair few millions off this exploit.

Personal, Uncategorized

So i finally sold my car

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I have had my Renault Clio for eight years and it has served me well. It was a 2003 model 1.2 engine and it ran. The handling was really good and i like the speed it could go.

I waved bye bye to her last weekend. Well hopefully that will keep my costs down two cars for a single guy living on my own. Probably sensible to let her go in the end.

Personal

Selling my car

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I have recently put my Renault Clio up for sale and i feel it’s in pretty good condition. I am not sure why everyone is so picky these days with a little dent on the back or a scratch you can hardly see. My first car i had for driving was a banger! It was only worth £100. I am selling my 10 year old Clio for £1500 which is below the value of the car and i think its a reasonable price to ask for. But people have to negotiate and offering me only £900. That’s below the low end as webuyanycar.com offer low end prices and they r offering more than that!

Another silly thing people do is phone me up from a blocked number leave a message saying they are interested in the car and only giving their name! How am suppose to phone these silly people back if they don’t give a number! All in all with the way things are going i might just end up selling too webuyanycar!

article replies

Isn’t Detroit’s case, don’t put all your eggs into one basket?

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This weekends Financial Times gave an analysis on the plight and bankruptcy of Detroit in an article titled Descent into despair. I would of gave a link pointing to the website page version, but the hassle of signing up to the website bothered me!

But in responce to what was written, which when you break it down to the basics wasn’t that much. Poor city planning was one of the reasons they gave. Corruption and the way of life it is today. But they didn’t pick up on, what my title says… too many eggs in one basket.

You can’t have a whole city dependant on one industry alone, it’s failier to diversify lead it to the path to which it became. Even in the 80s some scifi writers predicted things were going in the wrong direction. Why else was RoboCop set in Detriot?

Detriot needs to look for new contracts and industries that can help re-establish itself. For instance they want to bulldoze 139 square miles and start again, I am sure they can save money if they can recycle some of those buildings. Or even the recycling industry could move into the Detroit area. Low land value can make that one alternative, but do you really want to turn a dieing city into a US dumping ground?

They really want to stay away from large scale projects and start with all the basic comdeties and business types and build up from there. A diverse city is a successful city.

Games

Galaxy Empire on Google Play.

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I downloaded the game to give it a try, played a bit and realised I have played a game almost exactly like this on the PC. None other than Empire Universe II.I am wondering how many elements seem to be copied, but Galaxy Empire is more of a dumbed down version with slicker graphics. Still I feel there might be some sort of copyright violation!

I was asking myself how the gameplay goes, but after the tutorial, building the few buildings, building a few ships, exploring a little bit of the galaxy then realising how dull this game really is.

You can’t conquer other planets, they purge guests and user accounts after a very short period. There is a chat room with rules that say you can’t discuss politics, religion and a couple of other things, which also makes that dull.

To be frank, no matter how slick you can make a game look, unless you get the gameplay right, which to me is wrong on a multiple number of levels you haven’t got a good game. To date, Galaxy Empire has to be the most boring game I have ever played.

1 out 5 stars.

customer support, Personal

10 pence for a shopping bag in my local WH Smiths

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I only brought one magazine but the woman in the store had a fair cheek to try and charge me 10 pence for a shopping bag. I found it disgusting and suprised to find the group is actually making a profit.

If they are making a profit as a group, maybe my local store is making a loss! Who knows, only their books would tell me that. But I sent an email to the customer services hoping for a responce.

Playstation, PS3

YouTube app comes to PS3

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Previously PS3 users had to use Youtube through the playstation internet browser. Now for those people that love to watch movies on Youtube they get a better app, with pairing abilities.

The refresh rate, and the rate at which you can download and watch top quality movies is impressive. However the major draw-back has to be the loss of the index system. Via your computer or laptop it’s harder to browser through collections, you might be after something, but you might not be sure of what you want.

For just simple browsing the youtube digital library seems to have taken two steps backwards. But at least they are going forward by intruducing the app to the PS3.

I for one feel there is much, much room for improvement, lets just hope they can fix the issues which I have stated.