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Just to be clear, I didn't say this guy was autistic (how could I know? I'm no doctor) nor do I disparage those who are. I'm speaking more to a difference in personality with some types. To quote The Social Network, "It's not because you're a nerd, it's because you're an asshole."Quote:
Originally Posted by gamevet
I wasn't centering it around just your comment, but there is a certain frame of mind for someone that would want to get into that field. It can be a very me centric job and not every software engineer works with large groups. They may come off as being an asshole, because they don't develop the social skills to communicate or understand the feelings of others. A lot of them have led very sheltered lives, because the way that they think, is very different from those that have lived a more social life.Quote:
Originally Posted by o.pwuaioc
You should check out Inside Bill's Brain: Decoding Bill Gates. He was an asshole to his parents, because he just couldn't relate to the social aspect, which in his mind was a waste of his time. Bill Gates would have been socially inept, if not for his mother forcing him to understand the importance of being social. He was driven to take in as much information as he could, and he viewed being social as something that would take away from the more important things to him.
https://https://www.youtube.com/watc...KmHNY=youtu.be
Quote:
Originally Posted by gamevet
He obviously doesn't work with any of my customers then. If I see a new $150k car parking up outside work with some 23 year old in the driver's seat then there's always a colleague of mine will joke that his parents paid for it. Nine times out of ten though it'll be some software guy. Most of them don't seem socially inept, but there was one guy who I really wanted to punch in the face and looking back on it I think he was just too autistic to know he was annoying.
I think any individual with a well paying job and no other commitments such as partner/kids is apt to spend quite a lot on their hobbies. I mean, as long as you put aside for retirement and the like I don't see an issue with spending what is essentially "fun money".
If your cousin is still interested in software I recommend she become familiar with math and logic concepts first, there are intro courses out there. Right now there is a lot of demand for people with Java and Python experience, and C# is also pretty widely used. Depends on her overall interest, but degrees in computer science with something secondary (statistics, math, finance) can make a real nice foot in the door for a high paying job right now.
I saw something about Google having an 6 to 8 month training program that will earn the person a job with the company. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
I've taken this thread off course, but never mind.
My cousin finished a math degree and became an actuary a while back (bad choice in my opinion). Given the way the world is heading with automation, I think software dev might be about the only job in existence in twenty years time. My cousin did find someone who offered her a software job and all training required after an aptitude test though (she obviously turned that down). It seems that the world is desperate for software engineers and yet I haven't heard of many schools and colleges pushing those skills, at least not in my town anyway.
That was the point of this sub-conversation. Plenty of those guys then complain about not having any money, paying taxes, etc. In reality, plenty of them are just bad with money. Not all, of course. Maybe not even most. But a large portion of them regardless.Quote:
Originally Posted by xelement5x
Ah yes, the classic "no wife" lifehack.Quote:
Originally Posted by o.pwuaioc
https://i.postimg.cc/JnMKpKW6/ao-Pp45n-700b.jpg
I remember reading about 80s' programmers, that were pretty much kids, getting big checks from publishers for their computer games. The 1st thing that a lot of them did, was buy an exotic car of some sort. Then you'd hear about the company tha they had created, folding 5 or 6 years later, because they had ran out of money.
Because when someone does computer jobs, they automatically call themselves "software engineers", even if they are just data entry monkeys, or creating powerpoint slides. Which does not pay as well as an actual software engineer.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mad Moham
And web designers call themselves front-end engineers these days. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by zyrobs
With the amount of cobbled together external JavaScript they often import it's clear they aren't too attached to nitty gritty technical side of things.
But hey... if it works smoothly on my 1500 USD company laptop, it'll work the same on real world hardware too, eh?
On-topic though, the prices for certain Amiga/PC ports to the MD are still pretty good :rock:
Been enjoying Bloodshot.
We can all be Waste Disposal Engineers.
The word Engineer gets thrown around way too much these days. What we used to call a computer programmer, is now a Software Engineer.
Oh, if only you knew how bad things really are.Quote:
Originally Posted by eukara
For example:
https://github.com/jonschlinkert/is-...aster/index.js
This "module" gets over a hundred thousand weekly downloads on npm. It's parent, is-odd.js gets over half million.Quote:
'use strict';
var isOdd = require('is-odd');
module.exports = function isEven(i) {
return !isOdd(i);
};
You're exactly right. Companies seem to think that by calling their guys 'engineers' (regardless of the job they do) it makes people look better, when in fact they're just undermining the people who really are engineers. Hell, I used to work with a guy who called himself a qualified engineer because his previous job was repairing lawnmowers and his employer called the lawnmower repair team 'engineers'. I don't want to denigrate people who work hard at their jobs in any particular field, but if your job is to sweep the floor in a warehouse somewhere then you are not a 'cleanliness engineer'.Quote:
Originally Posted by gamevet
Yeah, engineer is bad, but now everyone is a consultant, too.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mad Moham
In other news, retro prices are still going up while we live in a pandemic. I'm debating starting to unload lots of stuff at this point because as long as I'm getting paid for it now I'll take it to the bank.
I getting a bit burned out by it all and don't really feel like it's my job to police how people are (mis?)spending their money if they'll throw it at me for stuff I've had this long.
Legit some of the stuff has exploded.Quote:
Originally Posted by xelement5x
Nobody is going to bring this up?
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/...er-mario-bros/
Move over collectors, now it's time for companies to grab up all the games.
It's been brought up before. Just forgot where. Oh and...Quote:
Originally Posted by Sik
https://i.imgur.com/Vc55zRY.jpg
This depresses me.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sik
I remember 20+ years ago as a young teen being conscious that I was the only one snapping up the clearance mega drive games from the computer shops and market stalls. Then through the 00s I felt I was doing my own little thing to help preserve the mega drive and games as nobody I knew had kept their old systems - friends found it peculiar that I hadn't moved on to the modern consoles (and probably laughed!). Now we have this shit. It's a shame - I'd rather be the strange one buying the old, cheapo games than battling with investors.
Only an Enron ash tray ($0.10, $6) and a Gmail invite from the closed beta period (free, $40).Quote:
Originally Posted by turboxray
Why would I suddenly decide to sell something? If I have any severe health issues, my game collection won't pay for it, even at the most crackhead prices. I've only ever sold one game, Tecmo Super Bowl, for $11 in 2004, but I paid $15 for it when I bought it. Someone wanted it more than I did, and I was never going to play it again. When things leave my collection, it's normally because they were stolen from me, or because I gave them away to someone who couldn't afford reseller prices just to play games they had as a kid. Classic games I bought on ebay were at the regular prices they sold for at garage sales.Quote:
You're telling me that if you bought a game for $10, 15 years ago, and then decided to sell.. you'd still sell it for $10 even if it's going for $200 now? Excuse me if I don't believe that bullshit.
There's something strange about people who don't believe others can think and behave differently from them.
There's a certain company out there right now that republishes games on all major platforms and has done some scummy things not too long ago the same way. This was about 3 years ago.
It came to my attention because their CEO posted an image of themselves on twitter, with a TON of new-old-stock/vg copies of this game from ebay, They didn't get the rights, then went on to try and sell the copies for 60-80 USD a piece to get rid of them. Once negotiations seemed to have fallen through, of course. Dropped like hot potatoes!
They're not considered resellers, they're actually regarded a 'respected' republisher of videogames. It seemed to me that they tried to squat those copies so that once they put up their own digital storepage for this title, people couldn't go and get physical releases and were forced to go to them instead. They couldn't have sold them as their own anyway because the old publisher info would have still been on the packaging, disc and everything.
It just seems odd. Like this seems so inefficient - by why do it otherwise? Maybe one of you has an idea.
They are playing with fire as nobody know how much new old stock is still out there in mint condition, given how much was produced and how many were still unsold. Anyway jcontra did a video on itQuote:
Originally Posted by Sik
Wow, that's ridiculous. It'll be interesting to see how that goes. See, a lot of the other things they sell shares in, sports cars and the like, make good talking points. If you stand to make a little money back too, all the better for you. Sealed video games though... outside of a very small group, a sealed copy of Super Mario Brothers doesn't exactly give the owner the same cachet as owning a Ferrari does. To most people, saying you're a shared owner of a Ferrari sounds a damn sight more impressive than saying you're the part owner of a copy of Mario. As such, I can see interest in this being a lot more limited.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sik
The whole scheme seems like a nice way for those running it to make money, but I hope there aren't many collectors who put money into this. They'd only be hurting themselves in the long run.
Can someone tell by why Zelda: A Link to the Past complete in box now goes as much as a SNES with Mario bundled did in 1995? I mean the game wasn't exactly rare, did most everyone just toss the box and manual away?
Besides the general prices going up. Yeah SNES games people tossed the box a lot. SEGA was more forward thinking. Boxed SNES games always went for more.
I've just seen Battletoads for the mega drive posted on eBay for BIN £49.99. It's a distinctive box and manual as it's ex-rental with stickers on. The guy who has listed it bought it less than a week ago for £30. Annoys the hell out of me so I've put in an offer that is of the exact total including postage as to what they paid for it and let it be known in the accompanying message. I somehow doubt he'll accept my offer....
If anyone is interested here's the link: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/184419362580
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spendle
Last year my sister found someone selling an old toy that had obviously been customised. Sadly the scumbag seller wanted huge money but he wrote in his description that he: 'didn't know if it was original or not'. So my sister messaged him with a link to his Flickr account where he had documented the entire customisation process. She never got a reply but he took his listing down pretty quick.
Haha that's good work. In this case my offer was declined and there was no response to my message - probably didn't help that I ended it with "dick move". Needless to say, he knows and I know that he'll sell for a profit no troubleQuote:
Originally Posted by Mad Moham
If I ever part with any of my collection, which I can't see happening, but if I did I'd sell at the current market value of each game and I'd happily entertain reasonable offers. I can't stand scammers and rip off merchants, they have no conscious.
I don’t sell my shit on eBay. I usually sell them at gentleman’s prices (usually 20%-30% less than ebay) to forum members I know.
That sounds like a good plan. I think I'll do the same if/when I ever sell.Quote:
Originally Posted by gamevet
People may be interested in this latest eBay posting:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133505294731
The guy is advertising every PAL CIB game plus console(s) etc. for £40k. Not sure this is the sort of thing you can sell in one hit due to the asking price unless a crazy, wealthy person sniffs it out.
Stuff looks to be in very decent nick though!
This is one of the best examples of cashing in on retro games I've seen for a while on eBay:
First link is to Mega Turrican without a manual being sold for £149.95 by a seller called leolondinium - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224154813411
The second link is to a Mega Turrican manual being sold for £94.95 from, you guessed it, seller leolondinium - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224154841001
I'm surprised I haven't noticed other obvious splitting of games to date! FWIW PAL Mega Turrican will sell for around £150 in its complete form
I've been waiting to see examples of this as I've seen it happen with other collectables (photo portfolios split, for example). I'm surprised that it doesn't seem to be happening as much as it could be.Quote:
Originally Posted by Spendle
It happens a lot. I’ve seen people selling the discs for Final Fantasy VII, and the same seller selling the case and manual separately. One guy had the nerve to sell each individual disc for Panzer Dragoon Saga.
Probably because most collectors are busy looking for CIB copies and so they tend to overlook these "incomplete" ones that got split (because it isn't interesting to them at a glance).Quote:
Originally Posted by Spendle
I can't believe how many random games are becoming $100 and $200+ games this year. This shit just keeps getting more bananas. Remember back in the early 2010s when it felt absurd that there were a handful of NES games that sold for few hundred each? That was nothing. There's like 50 PS1 games over that sell for over $100 now. Gamecube, PS2, the madness continues to spread. I swear there's at least a handful of random bargain bin titles that go from dirt cheap nobody cares to "holy grail" status every month. All you have to do is flash something in front of a collector's face and say "it's RARE" and they'll give you whatever you ask, and consequently so will everyone else from that point forward. I don't see how these arbitrary spikes will sustain their values over time. This shit got old 10 years ago, and I can't believe so many people are still THIS hyped about collecting plastic/paper shelf-porn.
Rule of thumb: if it's older than the PS3, it's ULTRA MEGA HYPER RARE worth going for at least $150 and escalating every month.
Actually I'm not even sure "rarity" is even a factor anymore, nowadays all the eyes are on the word "retro" so merely being old automatically makes it a Must Have Because Expensive Museum Piece Artefact™. I don't think the damage will ever get undone either, the collectors who fell into that are not going to want to admit that they spent a shitton of money on some old crappy game that nobody wants and will keep trying to pretend that it's some precious gem when they eventually sell it away.
I don't think it's just retro, this can happen to games that are recently released too. If for some reason it's R@RE then it'll automatically skyrocket. Like people scalping Mario 3D Allstars just because Nintendo made a comment about how they would eventually stop print on it. Or people going apeshit over the recent Cooking Mama game when they had to cease print for a short bit to sort of a legal dispute. The assholes of the collecting world are always on top of any scheme to milk the collectibility of video games at any given time for any given reason and sadly, a game collector and their money are soon parted. It doesn't take much. They are very weak. They'll give you their paycheck for that R@RE game so can you really blame these scalper assholes for targeting such fools?Quote:
Originally Posted by Sik