Post by jklinders on Jun 20, 2013 21:50:27 GMT 1
I might be beating a dead horse at this point but considering that there has been a bit of a track record of going back on promises made pre launch for these things and Microsoft (or Sony) could change their minds about their stances or features post launch I found this article interesting.
www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/criticalintel/10442-The-Xbox-One-Wouldve-Hurt-Soldiers-And-Sick-Kids?utm_source=latest&utm_medium=index_carousel&utm_campaign=all
it outlines how sick kids in children's hospitals and soldiers serving abroad would have been dis-proportionally affected by the idiotic region locking and daily internet checkups that the xbone would have demanded.
a couple of excerpts here.
I would say that the sheer size of the US military would have represented a pretty steep loss in sales, but then you have this.
I hope sanity continues to prevail here. In some respects we have more at stake than consumer rights. Sometimes we are talking about kids or soldiers getting some decent comforts while recovering in a hospital or serving overseas. This is more important than the console platform makers never ending battle to gain more control over the consumer.
www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/criticalintel/10442-The-Xbox-One-Wouldve-Hurt-Soldiers-And-Sick-Kids?utm_source=latest&utm_medium=index_carousel&utm_campaign=all
it outlines how sick kids in children's hospitals and soldiers serving abroad would have been dis-proportionally affected by the idiotic region locking and daily internet checkups that the xbone would have demanded.
a couple of excerpts here.
"A sin Against All Service Members"
Since the beginning of the War on Terror, games have become the entertainment of choice for U.S.troops serving overseas. Soldiers serving on dangerous deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan - some working twelve-hour shifts and taking fire every other day - often rely on a game of Madden to unwind after a patrol. Games can also break up the tedium of endless guard duty on a remote air base, or provide relief for sailors bottled up in a nuclear submarine. "It helped me a lot in coping with everything," said Sgt. Chaene Kingray, an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran who spoke with NBC News about how troops use games to relax. "There were many times where stress was building, but after sitting down and playing a couple of games it just reminded me of home."
People have started recognizing the military reliance on games as well. Originally consoles would come to warzones tucked in a rucksack or backpack, but in the last few years a range of organizations began sending care packages of games to men and women on deployment. Operation Supply Drop, one of the most prominent of these organizations, has distributed $300,000 in games, consoles and accessories since November 2010. Some go to far-flung units that have lost soldiers or Marines in IED attacks, while others go to the wounded at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
But that wouldn't have been possible with Xbox One's connectivity requirements. Reliable internet is hard to come by in a warzone. Most deployment locations have an MWR (morale welfare and recreation) center that provides free computer terminals and wireless, but there's usually a line out the door and sessions only last 20-30 minutes. Even then, connection speed is extremely slow - one Afghanistan vet I spoke to said that opening Gmail could take a full minute. Larger bases may have internet cafés, but they charge $5-10 per hour and also have a wait. Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan can buy their own internet access via satellite broadband, but the plans are so expensive that they're often shared amongst a group of soldiers, sometimes at $60-100 per person, per month. That's a heavy burden for a 19 year-old private who makes less than $21,000 a year including combat pay.
But internet connectivity wasn't even the biggest issue. Under Microsoft's previous policies, Xbox One would only be available and supported in 21 countries at launch, most of which were in North America, Western Europe and the English-speaking world. "Supported" is the key word here, which meant that even if you bought an Xbox One in the United States it would cease to function if you took it to an unsupported country. Online check-ins would not have been valid from Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, South Korea, the middle of the ocean and most other places we send our men and women in uniform. Even if members of the military, who are well known for their ability to overcome and adapt, could've found a workaround for that, games would've only been playable in the countries in which they were purchased. In other words, under Microsoft's previous policy, even if you could overcome all the other obstacles, the Xbox One wouldn't play games sent via care package."
Since the beginning of the War on Terror, games have become the entertainment of choice for U.S.troops serving overseas. Soldiers serving on dangerous deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan - some working twelve-hour shifts and taking fire every other day - often rely on a game of Madden to unwind after a patrol. Games can also break up the tedium of endless guard duty on a remote air base, or provide relief for sailors bottled up in a nuclear submarine. "It helped me a lot in coping with everything," said Sgt. Chaene Kingray, an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran who spoke with NBC News about how troops use games to relax. "There were many times where stress was building, but after sitting down and playing a couple of games it just reminded me of home."
People have started recognizing the military reliance on games as well. Originally consoles would come to warzones tucked in a rucksack or backpack, but in the last few years a range of organizations began sending care packages of games to men and women on deployment. Operation Supply Drop, one of the most prominent of these organizations, has distributed $300,000 in games, consoles and accessories since November 2010. Some go to far-flung units that have lost soldiers or Marines in IED attacks, while others go to the wounded at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
But that wouldn't have been possible with Xbox One's connectivity requirements. Reliable internet is hard to come by in a warzone. Most deployment locations have an MWR (morale welfare and recreation) center that provides free computer terminals and wireless, but there's usually a line out the door and sessions only last 20-30 minutes. Even then, connection speed is extremely slow - one Afghanistan vet I spoke to said that opening Gmail could take a full minute. Larger bases may have internet cafés, but they charge $5-10 per hour and also have a wait. Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan can buy their own internet access via satellite broadband, but the plans are so expensive that they're often shared amongst a group of soldiers, sometimes at $60-100 per person, per month. That's a heavy burden for a 19 year-old private who makes less than $21,000 a year including combat pay.
But internet connectivity wasn't even the biggest issue. Under Microsoft's previous policies, Xbox One would only be available and supported in 21 countries at launch, most of which were in North America, Western Europe and the English-speaking world. "Supported" is the key word here, which meant that even if you bought an Xbox One in the United States it would cease to function if you took it to an unsupported country. Online check-ins would not have been valid from Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, South Korea, the middle of the ocean and most other places we send our men and women in uniform. Even if members of the military, who are well known for their ability to overcome and adapt, could've found a workaround for that, games would've only been playable in the countries in which they were purchased. In other words, under Microsoft's previous policy, even if you could overcome all the other obstacles, the Xbox One wouldn't play games sent via care package."
I would say that the sheer size of the US military would have represented a pretty steep loss in sales, but then you have this.
"Soldiers weren't the only ones who would've lost out with the Xbox One. The console's online requirements would've made it difficult to accommodate in medical facilities. That could've had major ramifications for children's hospitals that benefit from Child's Play, the game industry's chosen charity.
Victoria Vaden, the education coordinator at Dell Children's Medical Center, spoke with me by email about how therapeutic games can be for young people undergoing medical treatment: "Video games can be especially important for school age and teenage patients in the hospital for distraction from pain, discomfort and boredom as well as positive diversion. If a patient can focus on playing a videogame that is familiar and fun, stress levels decrease, pain can become less bothersome and memories of the hospital include positive, fun experiences."
Dell Children's Medical Center keeps a playroom with multiple consoles, but according to Vaden those aren't currently connected to the internet, and getting them online could cost thousands of dollars. "If we had to drop a new port in order to connect the system, then it would be prohibitive unless we had donor/grant money to cover the cost," she said. "In terms of incorporating the process of connecting the machines to the internet each day, this is something we could probably manage fairly easily into our playroom opening and closing procedures." But, she adds, they don't want their consoles connected to the internet at all. "That adds another level of liability in terms of patients potentially accessing inappropriate content on the internet or logging in to accounts and not logging out before another user starts playing."
But the playroom isn't the only way kids access games at Dell Children's. Like most children's hospitals, Dell has a corps of traveling carts that bring consoles to kids too sick to leave their beds. "Game carts are especially important to patients who cannot leave their rooms," says Vaden. "These carts can provide a sense of normalization (or a bit of a normal environment) during a time when most things are atypical." The onerous process of connecting the Xbox One to the internet, however, meant it probably couldn't have been part of the lending system. "This would be extremely difficult to the point that we would most likely decide not have the Xbox One on a game cart."
Victoria Vaden, the education coordinator at Dell Children's Medical Center, spoke with me by email about how therapeutic games can be for young people undergoing medical treatment: "Video games can be especially important for school age and teenage patients in the hospital for distraction from pain, discomfort and boredom as well as positive diversion. If a patient can focus on playing a videogame that is familiar and fun, stress levels decrease, pain can become less bothersome and memories of the hospital include positive, fun experiences."
Dell Children's Medical Center keeps a playroom with multiple consoles, but according to Vaden those aren't currently connected to the internet, and getting them online could cost thousands of dollars. "If we had to drop a new port in order to connect the system, then it would be prohibitive unless we had donor/grant money to cover the cost," she said. "In terms of incorporating the process of connecting the machines to the internet each day, this is something we could probably manage fairly easily into our playroom opening and closing procedures." But, she adds, they don't want their consoles connected to the internet at all. "That adds another level of liability in terms of patients potentially accessing inappropriate content on the internet or logging in to accounts and not logging out before another user starts playing."
But the playroom isn't the only way kids access games at Dell Children's. Like most children's hospitals, Dell has a corps of traveling carts that bring consoles to kids too sick to leave their beds. "Game carts are especially important to patients who cannot leave their rooms," says Vaden. "These carts can provide a sense of normalization (or a bit of a normal environment) during a time when most things are atypical." The onerous process of connecting the Xbox One to the internet, however, meant it probably couldn't have been part of the lending system. "This would be extremely difficult to the point that we would most likely decide not have the Xbox One on a game cart."
I hope sanity continues to prevail here. In some respects we have more at stake than consumer rights. Sometimes we are talking about kids or soldiers getting some decent comforts while recovering in a hospital or serving overseas. This is more important than the console platform makers never ending battle to gain more control over the consumer.