Your a artist.

Your delusional and presumptuous musings are definitely interesting to read.

See, that's exactly what I'm talking about! There's a certain level of baseless conceit that I don't think I can emulate correctly, or at least not without instruction. For example, in one breath you decry intellectualism in the same sense that one might by berating an engineer for using acronyms, and in the next you declare yourself the intellectual. In one discussion you fail to understand what a special case is, and in the next you declare yourself the king of logic. It's a sort of doublethink, but with less think. There's a part of me that thinks it's all an act. Can someone really be so dense; so arrogant? No, you're an observer, a social tinkerer. That's respectable at least.

8bit, I don't need to help you sound like you have no idea what you're talking about. You do that all on your own. And trust me, when things concern you and I, I'm always right. I'm that much more educated and my intellect is far greater than yours.

You're kind of bad at picking up on parody, Radek.

EDIT: On second thought, that wasn't a particularly good parody. While I was as wrong as you generally are, (Namely, regarding apostrophes; I have no idea if that is actual Armenian, but I do know that the Latin script interpretation uses apostrophes for something or other.) I was still far more articulate than you generally are.

Perhaps you can help me sound like I have no idea what I'm talking about? You have a certain finesse that's difficult to replicate.

Maybe through the messaging system, or facebook chat, or on their walls, or perhaps a combination of the three.

You should consider switching to Diaspora, however. It is a Free, open source, and federated social networking system that respects your freedoms.

You're kind of a bad liar, 8bit. Any real Armenian or person fluent in Armenian would have recognized what I said. Just because I chose to write using the English alphabet as opposed to the Armenian alphabet doesn't make a bit of difference. How do you think I communicate with my family on Facebook? Someone who understands Armenian would understand the phonetics. Lawlgasms.

Yes, especially considering that I speak, read, and write Armenian. It doesn't use any Armenian words that look familiar, nor an Armenian word or sentence structure, nor any of the characters exclusive to the Armenian alphabet, which are found in abundance in the language. Also, the Armenian language does not denote tone with an apostrophe, even in its latin script equvalent, like Mandarin pinyin script does, for example.

Armenian is an Indo-European language, and what you wrote looks clearly romantic.

Unfortunate.

That doesn't look like any Armenian I've ever seen.

oh sorry, i was just saying some philosophy and logic related things in armenian. the culture is just so rich in that kind of stuff. couldn't you understand?

Oh god did I walk into the ESL version of my class again?

No hablo Espanol! No hablo Espanol!

logic'een masseh: panmeh ches keedehr

plz logic me

Can you please quote it, then? I am having trouble remembering any relevance to piracy at all. Rather it addressed conditions that you attributed to piracy.

If you know how piracy has effected you in the workplace (you don't seem to actually have this knowledge) and you received this insight from your experience working (I don't believe you have) then you have necessarily gained insight into the nature of piracy from your job.*

You are going to have to explain why that is a bad analogy.*

Some people also feel embittered over the fact that gays want to get married. I don't feel that gives them the right to restrict their rights. Unless you feel that being offended gives you the right to restrict the rights of others, the idea that some people dislike piracy was not particularly relevant to the thread. Further, its very common knowledge that does not require working in the video game industry.

Further, I recall you making the opposite point; that the people developing games are more interested in having their games played than selling copies, but failing to sell copies may cause them to lose their jobs.

It quite clearly is, especially considering that around 75% of artists benefit from piracy.*

If you were following this discussion, you would see that this trails naturally from that discussion.*

If I can't use generalities then it is a special case.

Have we concluded that piracy is ethical?

Hypothesis.

* I dislike participating in discussions with you because you seem to see them more as a game to win than a means to learn or teach. Comments like "bad analogy" and "no it isn't", as well as attempts to focus on an irrelevant thesis, ignore the thesis at hand, or retroactively change your claims add nothing and act to halt discussion rather than move towards a resolution. They also make you look really silly and inept.

Yes, it did.

I never said working my job gave me insight into the nature piracy. I explained how piracy affected me in the workplace. Misdirections are way too easy to catch, I say.

Bad analogy.

Um, no. I'm sure piracy being related to less sales was an opinion I pitched, but my story was entirely a workplace-experience restricted tale. Whether my claim that piracy affected the industry in a negative way is true or not really makes no difference when considering the actual goal of my story (which was to show how embittered some people felt that people would gladly steal their work).

No, it isn't. Don't mind project.

That's good for them. I'm talking about you being a sophist. Misdirection avoided! Yet another interception by Radek!

Please, don't use generalities and then try to ridicule the person when you're called out on it.

Nor would I, but I don't doubt their validity when proper consideration is given.

Maybe I didn't object? Wonders.

I can tell you that you've confirmed a theory of mine.

No, it was not, as it did not actually address piracy, nor do your experiences give you insight into the nature of piracy. (If I, for example, work at GE designing cars, would this give me insight into the nature of car theft?) Your anecdote was an account of how low sales are seen through the eyes of someone who's actually working in a place where games are developed.

And, considering my comment regarding existing testimonials, yours is the outlier. The testimonials I mentioned also shift blame from pirates to management, who now, very obviously, are making the choice to punish developers.

What? All development studios are major developers? There are no independent development studios?

They are just anecdotes, and I would not rest my argument upon anecdotes exclusively.

You conveniently skipped the line where I pointed out the empirical analysis I referenced.

I've compressed two arguments into that sentence. Can you tell me what they are?

No, my anecdote was an account of how piracy is seen through the eyes of someone who's actually working in a place where games are developed. You projected what you thought I was saying onto what I was actually saying and argued from there. Like always, you used classic misdirection to avoid not having the upper hand.

I'm glad you realized that. And?

No, it wasn't. It was a case. It wasn't a special case.

Sorry, doesn't matter. They're just anecdotes (wow, it's that easy?). Since they conflict with my anecdote, they don't count (wow, it's that easy?). And not only that, you reporting them here makes your statement a testimonial, which makes it less viable than my anecdote.

Another side step. Good job.

I dismissed your anecdote on a number of grounds that I perhaps did not make clear at the time:

• Your anecdote did not actually illustrate a link between piracy and lost sales. Rather, it assumed piracy as the cause and then explained the impact of lost sales from your perspective.

• Your anecdote was, as you point out, a single data point.

• Your anecdote was a special case with variables that may not be able to be generalized such as...:

• Your anecdote only addresses experiences within a major game development group, it does not address experiences within indie development. Indeed, I never claimed that piracy has no effect on major developers. Rather, I would claim that the sale of games developed by well known developers is indirectly decreased by piracy, (as a result of information democratization) but that overall industry sales remain unchanged, and that lesser known developers see an increase in sales.

• I countered your anecdote with an empirical analysis of the impact of piracy on sales, which concludes the above.

• Your anecdote conflicts with testimonials from other people who I have talked to who have worked for major developers (EA, Activision, Microsoft) and who claim that the development and QA teams are judged more upon critical reception than sales, while the sales and marketing teams are held responsible for sales numbers.

Therefore, Moses, all trees are on fire.

You know, I find something funny and have to tell you.

The first time we got into a real "debate", it was in the first piracy thread that I participated in. You dismissed my testimony (an account of what I witnessed while working at a major developer) as anecdotal and therefore invalid. Here's something an intelligent and well-educated person would realize: first-hand perception is the best (but not always the most reliable) way of acquiring relevant information on a matter.

Example:
The tree on top of the mountain is on fire.
You are on top of the mountain.
You can see the tree burning.
You know that the tree is on fire.

8bit, knowing this and having read most of your recent posts in SD, I can say that you are a modern sophist and that you lack real understanding of logic and science.