Originally posted by: Idontcare
Originally posted by: GaiaHunter
IDC: Is nVidia paying to add AA to the game or are they paying to not allow AA on AMD hardware?
And even if it is the first case, the line between both situations is a slim one.
I'm sorry but I just don't see what the problem is if it is the former.
AMD pays Intel so AMD can add certain ISA's to their CPUs, and they do this without even thinking once about broadening the license to include VIA. VIA is on their own when it comes to paying/negotiating their access to the market.
So what if NV pays a developer to go the extra mile and incorporate a featureset into the game on NV's dime and in support of NV's hardware? If the developer wasn't going to incorporate the feature otherwise, and the only reason it was implemented was because NV sponsored it, I just don't see what the deal is here.
I would think the first stop on the ethics train in that scenario is with the game developer themselves, for whoring themselves out to the highest bidder in exchange for "locking down" their game's AA support. Who controls the game? The developer. They are the monopoly in this context and they are deciding who gets to have an exclusive in their game, for a price.
If you really have a bone to pick, boycott the game and the developer house's other games.
We aren't about to punish Dell or HP or any of the other Intel customers who knowingly took rebates from Intel to the harm of the consumer, those poor resellers were just trying to keep an edge over their competitor. NV did no different, here is a developer who wanted to exploit the hardware guys, and presumably was willing to take the highest bidder if we really believe sinister motive were afoot, so NV did no worse than DELL and offered themselves up for exploitation in hopes that at least that was the lesser of the evils.
See, if we put our collective intelligence to work on it we can paint just about anyone or anything to be the villain or the victim. Is the world a better place yet? Or are we just needlessly making hot air again?