Alexander Fleming didn't do that bad a job in HIS basement!
Alexander Fleming didn't do that bad a job in HIS basement!
<sarcasm>But good thing there are corporations to carry on the work and profit from his discoveries!</sarcasm>
The scariest thing by far in corporations is their legal standing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_personhood
It's almost like being pitted against an immortal being.
Let me put it this way... I worked over a dozen jobs in my lifetime. I've worked in construction, as a pizza delivery boy, cashier, salesman, mechanic, i mean I did many things to pay my way through school.
Most of the jobs that I worked before were small-business. Almost every job I had was shitty pay, no benefits, no insurance, crazy hours, no work safety, etc. I work for a big company now as an "engineer-for-hire" and I get medical care, retirement plan, great schedule, time-off, etc. The big corporation is giving me all this good stuff. And what did small business give me? Crappy pay with no benefits.
Generally, the bigger the company the better benefits it provides for employees. The bigger the company, the more money it donates to charity, etc.
Do you know that Bill Gates (who you all love to hate) changed the course of the AIDS epidemic in Africa with all the money that he made with Microsoft? I am running Windows, and I know that some of the money that I paid for it went into charity to help people in Africa. It's stupid, but it is true.
I don't need a history lesson, but maybe you do. Although try reading a book next time, instead of learning about history from an abandonware web site.
Most of the jobs that I worked before were small-business. Almost every job I had was shitty pay, no benefits, no insurance, crazy hours, no work safety, etc. I work for a big company now as an "engineer-for-hire" and I get medical care, retirement plan, great schedule, time-off, etc. The big corporation is giving me all this good stuff. And what did small business give me? Crappy pay with no benefits.
Generally, the bigger the company the better benefits it provides for employees. The bigger the company, the more money it donates to charity, etc.
Do you know that Bill Gates (who you all love to hate) changed the course of the AIDS epidemic in Africa with all the money that he made with Microsoft? I am running Windows, and I know that some of the money that I paid for it went into charity to help people in Africa. It's stupid, but it is true.
I don't need a history lesson, but maybe you do. Although try reading a book next time, instead of learning about history from an abandonware web site.
If you really knew what you were talking about, you would realize how stupid your statement is. Fleming never investigated the potential properties of the bacteria as a drug. Fleming wrote a paper about Penicilin and never looked at it again for almost ten years. Eventually other scientists and engineers started looking into the potential to use the bacteria as a drug. And trust me they did not produce the drug in their basement.
EDIT For the record, Fleming was a prominent researcher, he did not discover anything in his basement.
People can make lots of money without having to destroy rival companys by buying them out and stripping them down.
Have you ever wondered why we play LFS rather than games like Gran Turismo or PGR...its because it offers the most realistic physics in any racing game. Now if the LFS devs had set out to make a money they would make it easy to drive the cars fast, flood the game with tracks and cars which have bugs and look crap...and they would charge £30 for each game s1, s2 and s3
To me the only thing money can offer is financial security, which will take a wieght off my mind, but on the whole will not make me happy. So if big companys make lots of money...fine, just aslong as the people running companies like these can live with the guilt of giving them selfs multi-million dollar bonuses for sitting on their arse and delegating responsibility.
I (unfortunately) also work for a 'big company' and get most of what you state above, and in return I am a NUMBER, the big directors havent even got a clue that I exist.
In my particular job, if one of the 'bosses' take a day/week/month off, nobody notices, the company runs smooth, and everything gets done. If however WE (the workers!) dont turn up, everything grinds to a halt...so who is more important? the prat who gets his piccy in the paper because he used some of his profits in a tax-dodge..(sorry...'charity donation') or the poor b**t*rd that actually does the work?
Maybe, but the best job I ever had in my life was with a 'small' business run by one guy on his own, and 15 staff...might not have had all those big commercial benefits, but I had job satisfaction, a sense of being appreciated, and a boss that I would do anything for!
why did I leave such a great job? the boss died unfortunately, and the company got taken over by a big corporation.... 'nuff said?
That's a personal project of his. It's not Microsoft's (the corporation's) venture - it's the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. There is quite a difference.
Thanks for the advice -although I have already followed it, it's just that those series of articles had nice leads to information worth reading.
Oh, and thanks for the attitude too, a prime example of constructiveness that is. Keep it up.
xaotik go to the Microsoft's website, and find how much money they donated to charity last year. You will be amazed.
Personally, not every job in small business that I had was bad, and I know of jobs with big business that are not good at all. Big corporations make mistakes, as do small businesses. Are big corporations evil? No, I don't think so.
Let me find a polite way to put it.... The CEO's in big corporations are better than you. They work harder than you (and me) at what they do. They are smarter than you and me, and thay make more money than you and me. It's as simple as that. Think of CEO's as football stars, except they have amazing business skills instead of amazing football skills. Do you think that Chelsea players are waaay overpaid? Maybe.. Can they play the game better than anybody else in the world? Yes.
You don't become a CEO for sitting on your arse. You become a CEO with hard work, dedication, luck, sweat, but not by sitting on your arse. And CEO's get paid accordingly, because they are better than you and me at what they do.
Personally, not every job in small business that I had was bad, and I know of jobs with big business that are not good at all. Big corporations make mistakes, as do small businesses. Are big corporations evil? No, I don't think so.
Let me find a polite way to put it.... The CEO's in big corporations are better than you. They work harder than you (and me) at what they do. They are smarter than you and me, and thay make more money than you and me. It's as simple as that. Think of CEO's as football stars, except they have amazing business skills instead of amazing football skills. Do you think that Chelsea players are waaay overpaid? Maybe.. Can they play the game better than anybody else in the world? Yes.
You don't become a CEO for sitting on your arse. You become a CEO with hard work, dedication, luck, sweat, but not by sitting on your arse. And CEO's get paid accordingly, because they are better than you and me at what they do.
Ohhh wow... But I don't care about Africans, nor AIDS... I do however care about cuddly pandabears in China, but I can't donate because Bill Gates took my money and saved those damn Africans (this is an example, I'm not racist... really).
My point is, it is completely irrelevant what companies do with their profit. Most of it goes into finding more ways to make more money (donating to charity is actually beneficial to a company or CEO because it's a pretty cheap way to get publicity, and it's tax-deductable).
Besides the monetary issues, there are other issues that need to be considered. What if EA became the ONLY distributor for videogames in the world? What if EA decided that for every sports game they released they would stop online play after a new version came out? (Oh wait, they've already announced they will). What if EA decided to use an invasive protection method to protect their games from being pirated, resulting in their products to be only playable on certified hardware. What if they then decided that only some hardware will be certified (causing ATi or NVidia to not be able to play their games, or only some brands of DVD players accepting their discs)? What if EA's 'conquer the world' mentality actually works and makes it impossible for other developers to produce titles like... say... LFS?
I know this is worst-case scenario, and it won't come to that anytime soon... But then again, it might. Just look at all the stuff the MPAA, RIAA, MS, Sony, etc, etc have tried and are still trying... It all points to total control of the consumer's freedom of choice. No choice means skyrocketing prices, inferior products, and no more fun.
Read up on how many companies they've put out of business in the process - you'll be amazed too. You initially referred to Bill Gates though and his campaign in 3rd world countries - that's what I replied to.
If the goal of the CEO in life is to make more money than anyone else - then yes, he is better in that field/group of people that their goal in life is to make more money than anyone else. However, I wouldn't generalize it and say he is better than other people - that's all he does and that's it, he'll die another rich CEO (if he plays his cards well) and that's it, some other CEO will take his position and some other after him, making money - only making money - to be better than other CEOs. You can't judge everyone by the size of their wallet.
Bill Gates, to go to the example you brought forth, left his CEO position in Microsoft to do something more - and yes, he has - he didn't just want to go down as another rich CEO that played up his hand, got the money and sat on it.
I think you took the american dream a bit too seriously... I've had bosses who had absolutely no clue what the company was doing or what had to be done... You can either wake up or go back to your dream, I don't care... But point being is not what EA offers it's employees, it's how EA treats it's customers... Which is sub-standard to put it diplomatically... So it's no surprise it got such a bad reputation...
xaotic you'd be surpised how many CEOs have interests besides making money. Amazingly enough, most of them are people like you and me, but they have the gift or talent in business management, much like athletes do in sports.
TagForce, don't get me wrong man, I agree with you that monopoly means no choice. There is a reason why I play LFS, it has the small game, small community appeal that I would not get anywhere else. However it's stupid to be mad at EA for the little tricks they use to make people buy games every year. Their purpose is to sell games, they have thousands of employees to feed, investors to pay off, etc. I'm just saying, it's silly to be "mad" at corporations making money, it's like being mad at a dog for barking, that's what they do!
One important point though, don't doubt for a minute that LFS developers would sell the game in a heartbeat if the price was right.
TagForce, don't get me wrong man, I agree with you that monopoly means no choice. There is a reason why I play LFS, it has the small game, small community appeal that I would not get anywhere else. However it's stupid to be mad at EA for the little tricks they use to make people buy games every year. Their purpose is to sell games, they have thousands of employees to feed, investors to pay off, etc. I'm just saying, it's silly to be "mad" at corporations making money, it's like being mad at a dog for barking, that's what they do!
One important point though, don't doubt for a minute that LFS developers would sell the game in a heartbeat if the price was right.
There is this nasty thing called "reality" and sometimes you have to deal with it. The reality says that people need jobs. Big corporations provide careers for people so they can feed their families.
Of course it does not matter to you, because all that matters to you is Your Own Enjoyment. Again, I never bought an EA game in my life, I just have to deal with reality on a daily basis.
Agreed - not all of them are money robots - but again you are changing your line, you previously said they were better that you, me, everyone because they can make more money.
I don't know the devs and I have no idea how they'd think about that. But alot of people that I know would do that IF there was a direct and imminent need for that money. You'll be surprised how many people still exist that aren't greedy and just want more than what they actually need.
(thisnameistaken)
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by thisnameistaken
You are continously zig-zagging and flip-flopping from one subject to another. No one said that this isn't "reality" - but the reason bad quality and terrible aftersale support is reality is because people "deal with it" and just leave it at that.
A game is made for enjoyment - when someone buys a game he don't do it to feed someone else, he does it to play a game and enjoy himself - that's what games are. There is no point in being so vitriolic with comments like that or about people in basements and what-not. You should know things are not so black and white.
@silver bullet
Infact, you can read all about it in that article from the abandonware gaming site that I posted earlier.
Yes, I know - I shouldn't read those kind of things, read (specific) books instead and live in reality and not in my mom's basement with a borrowed computer seeking only my enjoyment.
I'm not mad at corporations making money... I'm just after the ones that want to make money by taking away the consumer's constitutional rights. And only a handful of people notices their tactics... Usually those that are into non-commercial stuff.
By your own admission you are not familiar with the product. You can not truly understand the comments from its customers nor can you build an accurate profile of that company's history and character. So how can you argue so vehemently from the basis of pure conjecture and your local business culture? You may be right about EA or you may be wrong, but whichever one you are, you wouldn't know it.
You didn't seem to understand my point. I don't like most of EA games, but thats not something I would go and cry in the Internet about, no. I just said that neither EA, or LFS developers would never able to pull off a contract, because their viewpoints and goals are so different. I would explain it more detailed, but I noticed you did it yourself already:
See?
Reality is that our society is failing. In our society people need jobs... In reality however, people need a small patch of land to grow food on, and a bit of big game for meat.
In our society however, big corporations want to make more money for themselves... So the 5000 people that used to work all over the US at different helpdesks for EA are all fired, and EA opens up a large 3500 people callcentre in some 3rd world country (pakistan?) where the average salary is like $1 a week... Who cares about the 5000 American workers that are no longer able to feed their families and are unable to get a new job since all they know is answering questions on phones, and no smaller companies exist anymore because the large corporations have bought them all up. And what about those innovative programmers working on that groundbreaking new title that when it became popular lost their jobs because EA bought their company and outsourced all programming to their office in Malaysia?
Big corporations aren't the answer to economic problems... I dare say they are the source of most of its problems. Yes, they do some good, but at what cost?
Wow, Im getting gangbanged over here! Ouch.
Yes I played EA products on very many occasions at my friends', and I have to say that I liked them very much. I did not buy a single EA game for many different reasons, but I do have hours of first-hand experience with several EA titles.
frokki I see your point more clearly now and I agree with you mostly, but I still maintain my earlier argument that LFS devs would love to make a bunch of money if they had an opportunity to sell the game.
And again, EA has every right to screw you over when you buy their product because you accept their terms and conditions. And you as a consumer have every right to screw over EA by not buying their product. And that's my bottom line.
Yes I played EA products on very many occasions at my friends', and I have to say that I liked them very much. I did not buy a single EA game for many different reasons, but I do have hours of first-hand experience with several EA titles.
frokki I see your point more clearly now and I agree with you mostly, but I still maintain my earlier argument that LFS devs would love to make a bunch of money if they had an opportunity to sell the game.
And again, EA has every right to screw you over when you buy their product because you accept their terms and conditions. And you as a consumer have every right to screw over EA by not buying their product. And that's my bottom line.
It's funny, but this is not what I dream of when dreaming about a gangbang... For starters, in my dreams, all the others are female.
You managed to kill off the 'lust' with that post, though...
You are one sick mother....
You haven't seen their games long enough to realize they're all buggy as hell and you haven't seen anything of their customer relationship to know there isn't one and all you're talking about is how benefitial it is for their employees when you don't know how they treat them... What IS your point, mate? We all who have a job are thankful we got one... But if I'm being treated like shit if I am the one leaving my hard earned money in their accounts, they can go to hell, honestly... Sadly, some others still do buy their products... And no, they have no right to tell us lies about what's going to be in the game and then leaving it out or suddenly stop providing a master server for a game that needs one...
I think i've lost my point somewhere on the first page. I do get an allergic reaction when people start bashing "bad corporations" for all the evils in the world. I am going to retire from this argument now.
EA buys Dice
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