Ross Scott

That was more in response to this quote: It was an attempt to show they ARE eating up more money. As for the rest of your points, you probably won't like this, but I'll make this as simple as I can: I think it IS fair to look at median wages (and benefits) over average since that gives a clearer picture as to what's happening. Similarly, looking at the bottom 70% represents the majority of people. There was a headline not long ago about the middle class shrinking as more people are being pushed towards lower or upper class, so we're seeing an increased stratification of society. Increased benefits for those who are already middle-upper or upper class doesn't stabilize a society. I'm not an expert on this. It could be all this is wrong and you're 100% right, however, as a layman, I'm seeing both sides present good-SOUNDING information and it's difficult for me to discern the difference for who has legitimate points and who doesn't (or if it's a mixture of both). Typically in situations like this I try to look at competing experts and see who seems to have the more well-reasoned argument. We currently don't have that here, so I'm kind of lost. As such, I'm unable to properly debate this with you. I think I might be able to get a firmer grasp of it, but it would take me many hours and I have to make more videos. Again, even if the points raised by that article are completely bogus, they're presented in such a way that I can tell the difference between valid information v. misinformation (this is going to get its own rant topic later on). So I hope I'm clear here: I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm saying both sides of this debate are arguing at a level above me, so I can't tell the truth from the myth. In these situations, just seeing the argument from one side isn't enough for me, I need to have it distilled down from both to something I can understand. To put in another way, pretend you want to know what flavor jelly donuts are: Person 1: They're clearly raspberry, the manufacturer states it, plus it's the sensible solution under the Law of Brookerberg. Person 2: It's orange, the raspberry data is manufactured, orange has been supported by the Quantuf theory. (I look up law of brookerberg and it talks about using raspberries more efficiently in pastry use. The Quantuf theory talks about the number of oranges in relation to the amount of donuts in circulation. I leave still not knowing what the fuck is going on). That's where I am with this. I will say though, I have LOADS of personal anecdotes about people being harder pressed financially (though that's hardly quantifiable), however I am seeing other trends to suggest that there is wealth extraction occurring (besides the stuff I mentioned): -HSBC (too big to jail) got off with a slap on the wrist for laundering money for Al Qaeda and other criminal organizations for over a decade. The DOJ let them off the hook, NOBODY goes to jail. To me this screams of regulatory capture. -Our biggest employers are places like Wal-Mart, McDonald's, Kroger, Home Depot, Target; not places known for their amazing wages. -We bailed out the banks and other companies, despite protest to congress from the American people. The vote initially didn't pass, but Henry Paulson and friends managed to get it through anyway. -Areas in the rust belt are almost 3rd world status in terms of poverty, with Detroit having water cut off to people, the water recent scandal in Flint, etc. -Lobbying has grown to the tens of millions. This suggest policies that favor those with a lot of money to spend, as opposed to average workers. -The TPP appears absolutely monstrous and is not something that would benefit average workers. I think this is another indicator of the power shift we're seeing. -My understanding is our money velocity is at a current low, which is not something associated with average workers having discretionary income. -I mentioned earlier how we need about 3.6 trillion to maintain current infrastructure. That level of neglect also does not suggest a healthy economy where there is plenty of money to take care of these things. Anyway, I tend to notice small trends like that which add up to a picture in my brain, and on a personal level, prior to the beg-a-thon, I would have been in trouble myself, despite my output remaining semi-constant over the years. Anyway, if things are getting better, I think I need a lot more evidence of that than what I've seen and I apologize I'm not on a level to fully grasp your arguments regarding the benefit wages. But hey, good news! The next Game Dungeon won't be on economics at all. You know, I said "I don't know the answer", in the video, but I think some people hear what they want to. Anyway, as for it being overly-leftist, my answer to everyone is the same on this: If you don't like those ideas, fine, suggest an ALTERNATE solution. That's kind of the point of this, I don't know the solution, but I can predict where we're going if we do NOTHING. I'm going to disagree and say "this is not happening" is not a solution. Even if you don't believe it, pretend it IS happening, what would you suggest then? I have to correct you here. As someone who has worked on hundreds of systems before, I think what you mean is precise machinery (specifically integrated circuits) is MANUFACTURED only in a very clean environment. Once it's made, it can operate in any number of conditions, depending on its design. As for your points: 1. I have less data on this, but I think it will vary a lot from field to field. My understanding is the amount of people getting displaced will greatly outnumber the new opportunties, creating a negative net effect. 2. This will start step by step. Robots are unlikely to replace sweatshop tier labor anytime soon, but a fast food cook? I can EASILY see how they could be gone. 3. Fast food jobs and trucking jobs are both service occupations. That's 15 million jobs right there. Again, I was never suggesting ALL jobs will be replaced, but a large enough number to cause a disruption, 4. I always assumed there would be some overseeing. Say a McDonald's has 12 people working a shift. If you had a fully automated kitchen, you could cut that number down to 3-4. So again, not ALL jobs being lost, but enough that it causes big waves.

It could be I'm wrong then on that point. Wouldn't the articles about the new jobs we're getting paying less still hold up however? I'm kind of tired and I sense this is something that could go on for pages with no real resolution, so I'll try and keep it simple: -I'm not trying to intentionally misrepresent anything (unless it's obvious and funny), I'm just working with the best data I could find. I'm not an expert on this. -Even if your graph is accurate, I think there are MANY other indicators that a lot of wealth is flowing towards the top, way too many for a video not focused on that. Here's a sample one: http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2013/09/10/some-95-of-2009-2012-income-gains-went-to-wealthiest-1/ -There's a direct rebuttal to the data you're mentioning: http://www.epi.org/blog/compensationproductivity-link-broken-vast/ I think this is the point that stands out for me. I operate under the assumption that anyone willing to work who has their survival threatened by not being able to (either through circumstance or ability) is exposing a problem in our whole system, not the individual.

About 3.6 Trillion worth. http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/ I received so many comments regarding this video, I may make a short follow-up video next month covering all the stuff needing clarification or unaddressed points. Sorry about the real unemployment thing, the main thing I was after is we normally don't count the following: -People underemployed (who want to work full time, but can only get part time) -People who are looking, but haven't been hired in over 6 months -Discouraged workers (who want to work, but have essentially given up) I wasn't thinking of people age 16, nor retirees. EDIT: Feel free to help me out with some data covering a more realistic scenario of the employment situation based on that. The point is the official rate isn't very representative.

This is a blog post. To read the original post, please click here » Here's a video I meant to have out this time last month! This one got delayed for various reasons. I almost had to scrap all of it due to an error with the camera while recording. For whatever reason, my camera likes to re-enable auto-focus in between shots after setting in manually. There is no way to permanently turn it off. I forgot to triple-check that it was still off, and thus a whole lot of the footage ended up too blurry to use. I ended up being able to salvage enough of it to complete the video. I cleaned it up the best I could, but it does mean the visual quality on this is definitely lower than average. I figured people would rather see a lower-definition video rather than none at all, so here it is. As for the topic, I don't plan on restricting Ross Rants to just gaming topics, I'm thinking I may alternate back and forth. This is one that's been on my mind for a while, it's certainly a litmus test for how humanity will deal with its approaching problems. In retrospect, it's not very rant-y, but I think I'll more than make that up on the next one I have planned. Also I can't tell you how badly I wanted to use the to Short Circuit in this video (which I consider the best robot-themed music ever made), but I was concerned it would trip up the copyright police and something that would probably cost thousands to license. Anyway, expect some more videos soon, it will be a few days, but I'm going try and get the next Game Dungeon out ASAP! COMMENTS

This is a blog post. To read the original post, please click here » This is short notice, but I've been invited to the GOGCast, a podcast hosted by GOG.com. It will be live tomorrow (March 17th) at 5PM EST at http://www.twitch.tv/gogcom. It will get hosted on Youtube later, I'll make another post when that happens. Also expect a new video in a couple days! EDIT: For those in Europe, this will be 10PM CET due to daylight savings time in America. COMMENTS

When I do a dedicated video to this topic in a few months, I hope to be able to contact the EFF, plus I'll reach out to every popular Youtuber I'm able to in hopes that I can spread the message. I also hope to set up a homepage where people can get data on just how many games have been killed and which ones are currently at risk. I'm going to be lazy and copy / paste what I wrote on Youtube: " I think what you may not realize is that EULAs are not legal documents. They can say anything. They are attempts of the parent company to protect themselves in the event of a dispute, but they don't supersede the law. In Europe, it's entirely possible they are in violation of consumer laws in many countries, and perhaps simply no one has bothered to call attention to it. Raising awareness about EULAs won't stop companies from continuing to write draconian ones, nor will it stop the average gamer from ignoring them. Companies like EA need incentive to change anything. That has to either come from relentless complaints from their fanbase, or actual legal action. In the USA, I think there is no legal protection for consumers in this manner, but in some European countries, there could be. If not having an end-of-life plan for their games means EA has to give up their entire European market, that could be enough of an incentive for them to stop killing games. "

This is a blog post. To read the original post, please click here » Back from the world of offline! Here's the monthly videochat from Sunday. I would have had this out sooner, but my internet went down while I was doing the chat and I didn't have any internet for 3 days afterward. My ISP got bought out by another provider and that caused a disruption to the service. Normally my internet connection is pretty good, at least the timing wasn't so bad as I was trying to wrap up the chat when I got disconnected. I think I rambled in this chat more than usual, but it's mostly like the others. Some announcements worth reading about are that I do intend to have an online meetup with fans in Planetside 2 and will have details on that later (hopefully this month), also more is discussed about companies killing games. I had the thought that this practice might actually be illegal in Europe, depending on the consumer protection laws in place for the various countries. If so, maybe some action could be taken to make EA feel actual legal or financial ramifications as what they're doing may actually violate consumer law in some countries, but no one has actually called them out on it yet. If that's the case, maybe we can do something on that front. If anyone knows more about consumer law in any European countries, you're welcome to email me about it. That's all for now, I'm running behind, but more videos coming this month! COMMENTS

Because I'm not sure where that option is No, I don't. I had to jettison most of what I owned when I moved to Europe. I even gave away almost all my discs and just made disc images of them instead since I had to cut down the weight on the plane.

No replies, but don't worry, it's still going. I have plans for some more stuff I'll discuss in the next videochat also.

Guys, sending letters is still the priority. Sending emails or using other contact info is a secondary measure, especially for people who can't afford to send letters. I do think online petitions are a waste of time however, since I've never heard of those changing anything. The idea is to find some avenue of getting attention of either EA or some sort of press. Anything else is likely wasted effort. I'm not against the idea, but I basically have no intel as to who it would be effective to send it to, or if it would reach the intended recipient. Maybe see if there's an official customer service mailing address? While that's normally a bad place to send messages because they're designed to suppress them, it might work for physical objects. This looks very promising, however I'm not fully comfortable with using these emails until we can confirm these are actually managers or executives, and not just some employee with a similar name. For example "awilson" could be an Alan Wilson in accounting. Let me know if you can verify any of these.

This is a blog post. To read the original post, please click here » Here's some news with what's going on. First, the next Ross Rants and Game Dungeon are running late, I hope to have a video out in a few days though. The Ross Rants episode almost got scrapped since the camera screwed up with the focus and left most of the footage blurry, but I think I can somewhat salvage it. It can be pretty demoralizing to have to throw out hours of footage. So the visual quality on the next one may not be the best, but it probably won't be noticeable at resolutions 480 and below. Second, lots of people have sent Darkspore letters, though I haven't received any contact info for other means, like business emails. This is something I'm going to keep going, I plan on making a video dedicated to killing games probably in a couple months, with a more planned out campaign behind it. In the meantime, any ideas for how to contact EA would be appreciated. Finally, as a reminder, the next videochat will be 4pm EST on Mar. 6th. Additionally, my girlfriend Magda has expressed interest in appearing for a short time on the next chat and can answer some questions if you're interested in asking her something. More videos coming and more news on the 6th! EDIT: Magda has postponed her appearance on the next videochat, but might still appear in a future one. Also, there will be more Planetside 2 news this month. COMMENTS

I listed the addresses in the order I thought they would be most effective. But that's the thing, no one really knows. The same person getting letter after letter may just have it filtered through their secretary (though the secretary may pass along the message that they're still getting the letters). Alternately, if we can get more addresses, the more managers at EA that actually talk about this, the better. I don't really have a good answer for you aside from "more of everything." Personally, I plan to send a letter to each of those main addresses, then probably again later when I make a new video specifically on the topic. If I get better addresses from some sort of EA insider, I'll send ones to them too.

So far sizer doesn't help me much. It completely glitched out on a DX9 game I tried (in windowed mode), and for VMware, it forces the host system to change its resolution (rather than zooming in the image).

I just don't see it as realistic. Hell, Battleforge was a free to play game, how do you effectively boycott that? Hell, even if a boycott were to work, it can easily misfire. Say a ton of people boycotted a game for being online-only, but then the message the gaming press writes is because the handling on the cars was too poor. Guess what will happen? We'll have an online-only sequel with better car handling. Communication with EA is what's absolutely essential. While I think there are sometimes a few legitimate uses of piracy, piracy as a form of PROTEST is not one of them. It sends the wrong message entirely. The message they get is "we like your game, but don't want to pay for it, therefore you should add even more restrictive DRM." That message is what got us here in the first place. I think the concept is stupid honestly. I'm not saying you're stupid, I think you're just impassioned, but to the best of my knowledge, piracy has never positively influenced anything as a PROTEST. The only time I 100% endorse piracy is for abandonware (piracy in regions the company refuses to sell in I think is more a grey area, depending on the timespan). I think piracy has proven itself to be absolutely necessary for preservation, but brand new and popular games are where it's least needed. Again, communication with EA on how you don't like their practices I think is the only potential solution. Letters to executives send a louder message than a pirated game (and one not open to misinterpretation). I would send them to as many different people as you feel like. If you're sending multiple letters to the same person, I would split them up over time. No, it's not, actually. For the record, I am not actively AGAINST online-only DRM to protect against piracy. It can be smart. I of course don't LIKE it, but I can appreciate their reasons for doing so. What I'm adamantly against is SHUTTING DOWN THE GAME. Unfortunately, that goes hand-in-hand with online-only DRM about 99% of the time, but it doesn't technically NEED to if the company has an end of life plan. I don't want EA to think I'm being unreasonable, I just want a solution, no matter how it comes about.

Because I'm sloppy at doing things. I plan on making a concise video that can be shared with anyone later on, but it's probably a couple months away with everything else I'm doing. Meanwhile, Darkspore dies in a couple weeks, so I had to move. I admit I'm on the extreme end of the scale and don't like seeing ANY game die artificially, even if I'm not interested in it personally. I focus on EA because they're the leader. If it's even possible to get them to change their policies, it could serve as a precedent for other parts of the industry. MMOs definitely see this kind of artificial death more than any other genre. It was single AND multiplayer, I guess I should have mentioned that in the review. As for why, all I can think of it is piracy prevention, which I WOULD be cool with if it wasn't for the fact that online-only is treated like an automatic death sentence.

That would be great. I don't pretend to know the best method of contacting EA to get their attention, this is just my best guess. If Archive.org has better suggestions for who to contact, I'll use them. I'm okay with anyone getting involved with this who wants to. However, in my eyes, there's two things to keep in mind: 1. I don't support personal attacks against anyone for this. Aside from the legality of that, I don't see that as fixing anything. 2. My ONLY agenda for this is for them to stop killing games (and not just EA, but especially them). I think keeping the message simple is important.

If people really want to contact the Accounting Officer, they can go ahead, but do it at EA's office (the address is up in the Youtube description). The personal addresses won't help the situation. I don't see the need to unleash the internet on his family over this.

This is a blog post. To read the original post, please click here » More Game Dungeon! First off, I want to apologize for the delay on this one. I was hoping to get this one out a week sooner than I did. While that's normally no big deal, this is one episode where there are potential consequences for viewers having it out later, but not so late it's a disaster. Without giving away too much, I'll say this is one episode I hope for some of the most audience participation on. I may have to revise my plans of having two more videos out this month. I'll certainly try, but it's possible I could be late seeing as how long this one took to make. I'm not certain, but this one might be a record for the number of image inserts in a Game Dungeon. Lots of info in this one! COMMENTS

Ah okay, so this is the automap data (I think I couldn't even get that working in the episode). Not as good as the full thing, but definitely cool. I actually plan on discussing the maps when I get to the followup episode.

Yeah it seems like something waiting to happen. To clarify, this is the sort of thing I'm talking about: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/01/01/best-pc-games-of-2015/ https://adrianwerner.wordpress.com/2013-and-beyond/ Have the games arranged by genre per year, have a decent screenshot, and a quick blurb about the game. I find this to be the best method for browsing for new games, but I've only seen this for upcoming games, as opposed to ones that are already out.