news from evill

[BTs_Lee.Harvey]

Evill: I'll probably be deactivating NetFone during GR games in future.

so the guys in clans.. you might wat to try to get everyone on premium asap..

im just wondering how the os 9er  are going to talk then.. we have one guy on os 9 and he can use nf to talk right now.. cant talk if evill does this

[Typhy]

This is typical of Evill, hence the fact that I hate that stupid prick.

I was happy to make my contribution to GameRanger, and appreciate the features of Premium, but I sure as hell won't be renuing it after this year - simply to make a statement - such things like this are unnescessasary loads of bullshit.  

[*DAMN Elandrion]

lol I wonder how he wants to do that...

[Jeb]

Welcome to the self centered world of software development. Unfortunately i think its wrong (ethics) for a program to prevent you from using another legitimate piece of commercial software. Its starting to look like the next version of GR will have .Net integration.

On the other hand, gr can try to block netfone, but there will be workarounds.

This isn't meant to say that i hate gr's voice chat feature, it has potential. Until you can choose who you want to connect to, netfone is superior. Only being able to talk to your team (defined by the ghr team), and only being able to talk while in a game is a drawback. I look forward to future improvements.

[BFG]

How on earth is he going to do that?! You can't... can you?!

Totally agree jeb. This is bad move from scott, I gotta say i think this is very wrong. Its like a damn monopoly - basically trying to force more people to use premium by stopping them being able to use voice communication through outside (netfone) methods. The words 'microsoft' come to mind for some reason.

Of course he couldn't stop you running NF on your other mac , or heaven forbid on a pc mwhaha. etc

The voice chat in GR Just dosn't meet the standards that u can get from Netfone. Unless there is one hell of an inprovment in GR voice chat then it is no alternative.

I doubt i'll be renuing my premium...

[crypt]

I think there is a way to do this, and although I do want more of these freeloaders to go premium, I don't think Evill should justify that by disabling nf. I mean as of now NF is 10x better than GR premium chat.

[c| Splinter]

My knowledge of the law is a bit fuzzy here, but to me it sounds like Haxial could have a grounds to sue the pants off of Evill if they wanted.  Offering an alternative is one thing, but making it so you have no choice but to use his software sounds a little bit like why micro$oft lost it's anti-trust case.

[c| Splinter]

How on earth is he going to do that?! You can't... can you?!

He would be able to search through the running process on your mac and kill netfone if it's running.

[th.Sentinel]

I think he can block some ports once you are joining a game... that way he can block the netfone port.

Searching for processes, can be called hacking, so he can't do that.

I will be using my other mac for netfone... That way I can connect or reconnect if one of my teammates is crashed + no netfone attacks... I just hope some of 'em have a second mac...

[|MP|Buccaneer]

Or maybe he was just being a smart ass.  I'm surprised nobody has thought of that yet.

He cant just block the port, since you can change the port that NF uses.  He'd have to either script GR to shut it down when you go into a game or possibly completely take over the sound input device.  

In any case, I'd bet money that this is an example of Evill speculation / humor that's coming a bit out of context.  Kinda like musing that killing your professor is a good way to get out of a final.  Not that you'd do it, but you'd think / joke about it.  I could see him saying this in response to people asking him if he's driven up premium sales with voice, and then comments about how NF is better coming out of the peanut gallery making him say this.  

Oh, and btw, don't talk too much about anti-trust, since neither GR or Haxial are American companies (both Australlian) so their laws apply, and since you don't have to pay for GR, and most of the people that would complain haven't paid for NetFone, it wouldn't even count as anti-trust in America.

Crypt and Jeb, I happen to think GR chat is better then NetFone.  Remember, it's your opinion, not a fact, that NetFone is better.  They have different features, and I happen to like GR's feature set better.  It's not like NetFone is a great app.  

A quick list:
People say that you can't chat out of the game, but you can.  GR has normal voice chat outside the game, while in GR.  You just can't talk to people while you are in a game, and they aren't.  There is a difference.

Sure, you can only chat with others that have premium, but you can only chat with people that have netfone over netfone.  And Netfone isn't free either, even if most of you pirate it.

You may not be able to chat with people outside the game, but you also don't have to wait for everyone to leave and come back so everyone can connect and adjust volume when someone else with NF joins the game.  

You can talk to anyone in the game with GR chat, you don't need their IP's.

GR chat doesn't have the volume problems that Netfone does.

GR chat doesn't have voice activation that Netfone does.

Don't have to worry about chat spamming, or people connecting to you in NF while in the middle of a cb if you are using GR chat.

GR chat doesn't use as much bandwidth as Netfone.

Face it, GR chat was made for gaming, Netfone wasn't.  GR chat isn't meant to let you talk to your buddies outside of GR, outside of the game even, it was designed to let you talk to them inside the game.  

So it doesn't have voice activation yet, better that he gave it to us early while he worked on that, then waited for months more just so it would be in it.  Don't you agree?

I guess I'm just getting pissed off that since Evill has added this feature for us, I've heard 10 times more bitching about it then gratitude.  People suck and can't seem to be pleased with any progress.

[c| Splinter]

Oh, and btw, don't talk too much about anti-trust, since neither GR or Haxial are American companies (both Australlian) so their laws apply, and since you don't have to pay for GR, and most of the people that would complain haven't paid for NetFone, it wouldn't even count as anti-trust in America.

Talked with a friend that's pretty knowledgable on the subject.  Even though neither company is based in the US, their products are sold in the US making them open for litigation.

I've paid for both products, and I think that it's great that Gameranger is trying to add features and improve.  I'd just like to have the choice on which one I can use.

[BFG]

Definatly, tis a great thing that scott is working on inproving Gameranger and its features, but its another to try to force monopoly by disabling the use of other applications... like i said before - think internet explorer... think microsoft.. etc.

and of course (like i said) just run NF on your second mac... if you have one.

I prefer to think he's being a smart ass

[Cutter]

he mentioned when he came out with the voice chat that he would do an OS9 version in the future. last night he did a 180 on that. he says why should he hold back features for OSX for the OS9 ppl. which isnt true, he'd just be giving the OS9 ppl what he already gave the OSX ppl. he also mentioned last night that he'll be making gr OSX only in the future.so the ppl with old macs (like me) are fucked. mr. kevill asked for our support by purchasing premium (and i did). now he stabs us in the back. like when he said premium was a one time payment...shortly after he switched it to yearly. Evill you suck ass! you're a fine programmer but a horrible businessman. get your shit together plz, contrary to popular belief not evrybody on gr uses OSX. and for those that do and want to rip on me for being outdated....fuck you too!  

[|MP|Buccaneer]

he also mentioned last night that he'll be making gr OSX only in the future.so the ppl with old macs (like me) are fucked. mr. kevill asked for our support by purchasing premium (and i did).

Gee, OS 9 was retired years ago, and is no longer being supported by APPLE even, why in the hell should GR support it?

He wants to keep improving GR, but you want him to do twice the work and make it work with an outdated OS too?  Poor fucking you.  You still run a PPC 604 or earlier, there's a bunch of shit that wont run on your system.  It's at least 6 years old now if it wont run OSX (G3's came out in '97 and iMac's in '98).  

There comes a time (notice Evill didn't say WHEN) when you have to let the old OS go.  It's long past time.  Running OS9 now is like running OS6 when OS9 came out.  Yeah, it would be real nice if my colorclassic was good for more then a cool conversation piece, but eventually, they are just too old to expect support for.  

For another thing, OSX has reportedly been much easier to develop on, so why should he hold something back from the majority of the users until he has it working for the OS9 people?  Why not bitch at Haxial because their products don't work with 8.6?  They need the carbonlib from OS9 at least to work.  So should they have to write another version of their products for people on system 7 or 8??

Splinter,

1) GR doesn't have to be paid for, 2) even when sold in the US, it isn't anti trust, it would be trade related then, 3) since NF isn't sold, or even advertised to be a gaming solution, it doesn't come close and 4) two apps being incompatible isn't actionable, GR isn't an OS that is shutting out other companies for it's product.  NetFone would still work fine when not using GR.  He doesn't have to make it so GR works with someone else's apps.  

Saying he'd have to is like saying Evill could file suit against a game publisher because they don't make their game playable over GR.  

Again, like I said, I think this whole thing was taken without the use of the Evill translator.

[crypt]

I still think its bullshit to take away nf and replace it with his inferior voice chat.

[|MP|Buccaneer]

Yes Crypt, and that fine rebuttal just goes to show how well thought out and enlightened your opinion is.  Thank you for straightening me out.

[Cutter]

three years old bucc not six.

[Jeb]

I agree that GR works pretty well bucc,

I talked to evill lastnight about it, and i mentioned the need to have a user defined host. Rather than having the game host work as the voice chat host.  That way chat can happen outside of games, and there won't be any strain on the ghr host.

Evill said that he would like to try killing netfone (forcing people to use gameranger) rather than shutting gr down. He also said that he thinks its wrong to squash a legitamate app.

[Supernatural Pie]

he also mentioned last night that he'll be making gr OSX only in the future.so the ppl with old macs (like me) are fucked.

WHAT ABOUT OLD GAMES?! ROGUE SPEAR! HELLO?!

Umm... if he did that, GameRanger would truly suck.

[BTs_Lee.Harvey]

ok.. he said that he was going to have GR send a message to NF to quit when you start a game in GR.. He tested it last night and he said it worked..............

he also said that GR will be os x only soon too... not as soon as the NF thing but he said it will happen!!!