2854

Think of all the fun you could have.

2855

This was a major motivator for me when I was getting my PhD. I dreamed of the day when I’d be attending some swank opera and they’d have to stop the show due to a medical emergency. The lights would come up and the diva would call out “Is there a doctor in the house?”

I’d immediately stand up and yell “Yes, I’m a doctor! Have you tried rebooting?”

2856

I’ve had film crews book flights using the title “Dr” for me, and twice now I’ve been asked mid-flight if I’m a medical doctor because some passenger was having a heart attack or something. It’s actually slightly embarrassing. One day, though, there’ll be a serious crocodile-related problem on a flight and I’ll be able to declare “Stand back, I’m a doctor… of crocodiles!”

2857

More likely someone bearing the world’s worst cold sore will sidle up real close and ask for a consultation.

2858

You should take people up on medical emergencies next time, krayzkrok. “Your skin is disturbingly smooth and your temperature, well, it’s just off the charts! I recommend having a couple raw chickens and call me in the morning.”

2859

My first job out of college, I worked with a guy who had a doctorate in Math. He sat in his cubicle all day and did the crossword puzzle (this was a government job, to forstall the inevitable questions). To us and to his friends, he was Larry. When he called the power company or people he wanted to bully he was “Doctor So-and-so.” He was a bad person.

2860

That’s pretty much in line with my impression. I tend to look at it thusly:

The process of getting a doctorate in my chosen field has more or less impressed upon me not only how little I know, but how damned much work it would be to rectify my lack of knowledge in other areas I know even less in. With the title comes, I feel, a certain amount of responsibility for knowing all sorts of shit. Therefore, I try not to use the title if at all possible.

(In an amusing turn of event, I’m currently working on putting together a presentation to try and move up the academic rung somewhat. So I went to my prof to ask his knowledge about things I need to know. In the way that can only indicate all is right with the world, he knew even less than I did. I’m pretty sure this means that the presidents of universities are, ipso facto, literally drooling morons who couldn’t flip a light switch with explicitly written instructions! :) )

2861

COD: Advanced Warfare releases imminently and one of the first reviews is up from VideoGamer.

Disclaimer up front is interesting:

Note: This week Activision held a review event for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. VideoGamer.com was not invited to this event. We were told we would receive a copy of the game on Monday, November 3, after the game had been released. Instead we bought the game ourselves and present this review without any form of embargo to adhere to.

So it seems review embargoes until release day are just going to be a more common nowadays? Has it always been that way? It seems recently this has occurred for a few big titles where in the past there has been several reviews ahead of release.

2862

Not that i have status to support it, I thought it used to be pretty rare. Now it seems to happen anytime a large company feels they aren’t certain about the reception. I mean when was the last time a game had an embargo that also received very high across the board reviews. Some of the big series seem to be doing it even when he game gets mostly good but some criticism type reviews.

2863

How did they buy it if it’s not released yet? I’m confused at that.

Odd… Steam says the 13th. I just looked in a “certain place” and the warez is already out on the street. How the hell did that happen? It truly mystifies me how the steam version of this is out in the wild right now. Did they pre-load it and someone decrypted it or something?

2864

Google “Advanced Warfare Day Zero Edition”.

rezaf

2865

Oh, so they could get it on the 3rd at midnight? So, they’ve had it almost 3 hours now? Hell of a review turn around time.

Pick up your copy of the Call of Duty®: Advanced Warfare Day Zero Edition on November 3rd at retailers worldwide at no extra cost* versus the standard edition, and start playing up to 24 hours early.

2866

I would say big games have a 60% chance of having a total embargo, and a 30% chance of having a conditional embargo (ie. “you can release the review before, only if the score is 8.5 or better”).

2867

I was just trying to point out the street date isn’t the 13th and also how the warezgroups probably got their hand on the data.

As for why they have it this early, who knows? If a game has a streetdate of November the 3rd, it has to be in a store earlier than that (saturday the latest). And it’s not unheard of that the clerks in such stores would assemble the piles in the store on that very day, so they can start selling monday morning without any delay. If someone stumbles across such pile on saturday and grabs himself a copy, many will just shrug and finish the purchase, streetdate be damned.
And this is talking about the reviewers in question, the warez dudes maybe have someone sitting in the warehouse? I can only guess as don’t know any particulars about that stuff, though.

rezaf

2868

The only place I’m been workwise where last names were used regularly was the military- and even then, it was first name basis shopwise if it was same tier of enlisted.

2869

My understanding is that they reach out to people at the disk duplication plants.

2870

Yea, but.

Are women enough represented at disk duplications plants. Are these womens title job “Disc Reproduction”.

And more important:

Are they called by her first name?

Apparently, if you do that, you are worse than Adolf.

2871

Steam says today for me. People were unlocking it yesterday through NZ proxies.

2872

It’s possible that they have good wholesale connections or close personal ties to a bigger retailer. One that did grant access to a copy once they received them through their distribution partner. Not unheard of. After all, retail versions ship well ahead of the official launch date.

2873

The SP campaign is like four hours long. All they needed was the Day Zero edition through a proxy and the review could be done. Now, did they put in enough time with MP to actually review it? It’s possible. There have been Twitch streamers that were given very early access to MP for a week now.