Everyone I knew with a PS1 had a mod chip in it to play copied games. Cracks and CD-keys for PC games were everywhere online. It was dummy easy to do even before Napster or Kazaa, but those things definitely accelerated it. I remember people in college having pirated copies of photoshop, mathematica, and autocad because they needed them for classes and didn’t have $600-$1000 to shell out on software on top of books - I know that isn’t games, but the principle of pirating them was pretty similar at the time.

Yea, calling it all torrenting, when referring to an era before torrents even existed is wild. Dude is making up their own language about it at this point.

I feel like you are suggesting they would decompress the file over USB from the computer after it is transferred, and not use the phone to decompress it after it is transferred… Once it is transferred to the phone, just use the phone to decompress it.

It is also worth pointing out that the movie industry stole that anti-piracy ad. It was submitted to a festival competition and then the industry slapped it at the start of every DVD made for several years without ever even asking the creator and owner for permission or offering compensation. They did not go to jail when it went to court, oddly enough…

Incredibly easy to bypass as well…

I had the same idea as a kid, I think around the time “true crime: streets of LA” came out. I wanted GTA: Your City, where it like connects to Google earth type of shit and recreates any city you want. That’d be so fun.

Okay, but what the heck do the colors mean??

I’m very anti-pre-order, but early access I’m okay with. It comes with the same decision process as buying anything else, is what I’m getting right now worth the money I’m paying? If yes, then buy it, if no then don’t. I don’t buy promises, I buy products.

Baldurs gate 3 is a good example of early access done right. I knew going in I was getting the first 4 levels and roughly 1/4 - 1/3 of the planned final game, but what was there already was worth the price I paid, even if they never finished or released it, I got my money’s worth imo. I put like 200+ hours into it before it released, i can’t be mad at that for 30 bucks.

I’m offended by this, as I much prefer RC Cola to Coke or Pepsi… :/

Not if you just need it to keep the sun out of your eyes.

I’m not sure what you used to calculate it, but it definitely isn’t only “expensive cities with inherited properties”… I did the math on the last house I rented: lived there for 8 years. It was a duplex in a city in a very cheap cost of living state. Just my rent alone for those 8 years more than covered what the entire duplex was purchased for 3 years prior to me moving in. That means if both sides were occupied, which it was for all but 1 month in the 8 years I was there, it’s paid for in full in 4 years. Even if you “have to renovate” in 30 years, hell even 15 years, you have 10 years of pure profit even after considering insurance and property taxes and probably even maintenence costs…

Maybe your area doesn’t have high demand for rentals or you under-valued your rent price, but there wouldn’t be so many people doing it if it wasn’t profitable.

I’ve been quite happy with wps office as a replacement to Ms office products. Much happier than I was using Libre office. I dunno if it will do everything you do in excel, but it does everything I’m used to doing in excel.