PS3 crime spree, part II: Fall of man
By Paul Miller 
posted November 17th 2006 1:40PM
posted November 17th 2006 1:40PM
Read - CT man shot outside Wal-Mart, suspects still on the loose. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Read - Armed robbers steal 5 PS3s from Ohio EB Games store. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Read - Riot breaks out at Circuit City. [Thanks, John C.]
Read - Police use pepper balls to control crowd in Tyson, VA. [Thanks, Troutman]
Read - Escaped rapist apprehended in Best Buy PS3 line. [Thanks, MrMarvey]
Update: While not actually criminal, last night's award for cruel and unusual went to PC Gamer, who were on hand in SF to try to convince a card-carrying line-waiting PS3 fanboy to swear off Sony forever. In exchange for a $7,500 Falcon Northwest PC rig, dude had to sign a legally binding contract to not purchase or ever own a PS3, under pain of
Same thing happened at my best buy. They sent in soldiers with pepper pellets and rubber bullets to stop a riot. The doors to the store broke and 22 people died in our city. I can't believe all this violence over a console. Especially sence like 90% of the people were going to sell at ebay right after any way. This world is crazy over games and money.
It's not hard to find a loophole and especially if you have a good roommate. All you have to do is get the room mate to buy the ps3 and have him let you play the ps3 all you want. Legally, he hasn't bought and doesn't own it. Or, a more ciminal route, steal a ps3, you haven't bought it and you don't legally own it. Overall, I'd consider you a dumbass if you passed up that $7500 opportunity, especially if loopholes like the above exist....
Yeah, and they said Video games dont breed violence..... well they were wrong.
Camping at Best Buy (or similar stores) needs to be stoped.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061117/ap_on_re_us/playstation_shooting
im willing to bet that sony has like 2 million consoles ready, but only released 500K so they can watch people ruin themselves over one of those.
Big props to PC Gamer for luring a console gamer away from the dark side. Also big props to Neil for not only knowing the difference between greatness and hype but for knowing not to say no to one of the greatest machines in the world.
I guess everyone has a price. This tool decides to get a hoold of a 7500 dollar PC that will be utterly outdated by next year... while the PS3 will not outdate till PS4... fuzzy math anyone?
The reason it's $7500 is because it /doesn't/ get outdated for a very long time!
Hell, my 2 year old box with Radeon 9600 and 1.8 gHz Athlon is going along just fine... Maybe time for a little upgrade to the graphics card at this point but that's nothing big.
This computer cost $700 originally, and at this point it is still able to run most modern software that doesn't suck.
What I've come to understand here is quite simple: People believe that computers degrade in quality.
Actually, this is wrong: Users inadvertently degrade their computers.
That is much like how if you buy a Porsche but you drive it into a wall every day, it becomes a crappy car very quickly.
Luckily, computers are quite resilient. They get dented easily (it's not really the user's fault for that; some crappy cars, if you shut the door too hard, it feels like the windows will shatter! That's the car's fault), but those dents can be fixed for free and with minimal effort.
Solution #1: Use Linux. Ubuntu Edgy has breathed new life into a 5 year old POS Compaq (it was bad even when it was bought). It can now do smooth playback of very big videos; a task which was practically impossible with it under Windows.
Solution #2: Update drivers. (Or, again, use Linux because most modern distros have updaters that don't suck and there is a strong hope that, some day, if we keep at it, most driver updates will be official).
Solution #3: Since I know and respect that Linux is out of the question (I only use it on the crappy machine; the better one needs Windows' hardware/software support): Virus scan, Ad-Aware, WinDoctor (if possible). I generally don't get many of these problems (no viruses, maybe 6 critical finds from Ad-Aware with the routine checkup). Some other people seem to get incredible amounts of viruses, spyware, and all sorts of other goodies!
I won't go into a rant about why this happens, since it would only score me fewer points than I already have, but a hint: Use Firefox, Opera, or /at least/ IE7!
Finally... with that $7,500 rig, I hope this guy is doing more than just games.
Maybe something productive like 3d modelling or game development. It's not the same, but it can be very amusing and would really utilize that thing's power. (Well, not so much game dev as 3d artwork... but game dev can definietly be more fun than game playing).
Where was I?
-Ah, yes. Nice rig; it will last a long time.
Err... ramble fest as usual (I doubt anyone's reading this... if you are, you're weird!):
I've noticed that lots of software these days seems finally to be focussing down on fleshing out what can be done with all the hardware, instead of just graphics. Recently, the folks at VALVe said that they think game graphics doesn't need much extra innovation and that it all looks fine at this point. Their recent plans for the Source engine focus on using multi processor power to do fancy effects instead of just graphics cards.
The result is more precise effects, thus giving a striking image with tons of extra details being controlled in more logical ways, but with little extra hit on the 3d rendering time.
Wow, sorry about that enormous ramble! (Hope you didn't feel a compulsion to read all of it).
I'd like to see the look on the guy's face when he realizes PC gaming is mostly crappy FPS games. That would be priceless.
Anyone who thinks all this is funny is seriously effed in the head.
People getting shot, injured, and things getting stolen isn't entertaining or amusing. It's pathetic and shows there are people out there who must have some "chimp gene" flowing down through the family tree.
If this isn't a sign that people are taking gaming WAY to seriously, I don't know what is.
What's this Jim and Pam, Jim and Karen nonsense? Who gives a crap? Now, Pam and Karen...
Yes, I received my PS3 just yesterday. It's the greatest machine ever, but I have one problem fellow gamers it's the 20g. I know it's bad but the stores ran out of the 60g so i got stuck. So my question is how do I upgrade my current system to the more expencive system. the most important part is the wifi wireless enternet. I need wireless enternet really bad so if any one can help please respond... also upgrading memory and anything else would be great info also...
They should have released all of the PS3's in Iraq so they would all kill each other
I went to pick up batteries yesterday, and the Drugstore/Electronics store had two PS3s sitting on display, and walking down the mall past EB games the line up to get in at store opening was a whoping 2 people (a fellow and his girlfriend).
Nintendo would never incite such violence.
Mario & Luigi are said to be distressed and could not be reached for comment. Someone in the office was heard muttering "damn Ebay..."
I was at E3 a few months ago when they unveiled all the new systems. The Wii had a line four hours long to get in and try it out. The PS3 machines were free, and nobody was going to them. The reason: The Wii is plain out more fun. It looks odd until you try it, and then it's the funnest darn thing you've done since you were a kid. At some point, you will try the Wii, and you'll know you have to have one. It's just that cool. So let the silly people beat each other over the head for their Playstations, we have Wii!
You don't imagine how many unsold ones I saw in Taipei....
Yes, but all Neil has to do is get someone ELSE to buy the PS3 for him. (Hide it when necessary) That contract doesnt say anything about buying games. So, by the end of 2007, Neil will walk away with both; a free PC Gaming Rig and a PS3. How stupid can PC Gamer Magazine be?
Compare this to the launch of Wii. Complete contrast - which also reflects in the business attitudes and ethics of the two companies as well...