To be fair the model 1 Euro = 1 DM also never went away and the official course is nearly 2 DM : 1 Euro - which means we Germans are used to this unfair practice ;)

Well, except that there is no official course anymore, is there? It's just in the heads of some of us oldtimers who never really got used to replacing the old currency with the new one without constantly comparing the rates that were only relevant at the time of change. By now, we don't really now what the exchange course would be because the DM is dead and gone while everything else is fluctuating. Something I noticed about myself: I only ever think "1 Euro = 2 DM" when it comes to paying prices, I never think: "Oh, the Euros I just got paid are actually twice as much in DM! Sweet!". Do you? ;)

It "works" to the extent that people are generally buying games but in no stronger positive sense. The market is an oligopoly, and customers in Europe can't* go and buy a specific game cheaper, and so a point of comparison doesn't really exist. "Let's charge Europeans more" sounds good to a suit, and suits will hold onto anything that sounds good.

*Also, "They're stupid because they don't quit gaming" is a stupid thing to say in the first place.

The course still is official (1,95583) and it is a fixed course. But like you said there is basically no DM anymore so nearly nobody still has money he could exchange if this even still is possible (afaik it is still possible to exchange DM is some special banks but I am not sure about it). Regarding the question if I still do think about prices in DM ... sometimes. I tried hard to not get remined that everything in Germany has become double the price only because every store jumped on the bandwagon 1 DM = 1 Euro - even though politicians told us otherwise (not that I am surprised btw ;)). Most of the time I manage to forget about this but there are still some times when I realize how expensive everything has become because of this.

Agreed. If there would be alternatives that would include still buying those games it would not work at all.

No, I don't when looking at my paycheck.

See, I don't do that either. But the relation between paycheck and prices is much more relevant than the exchange course of a currency that isn't in use anymore for 15 years or so. ;)

But for me that is the same. Important is always the relation between money and the things you can buy for it. I don't think that my payckeck would be higher but I still I do think that I could buy more things for my salary if it weren't for the Euro. I cannot see the difference here.

So, here it is: the companion to Wishbone's Tale:

GR00T's RETURN HOME ODYSSEY

So I was having trouble with the time difference from home to Warsaw and wasn't getting a lot of sleep. I'd end up going to sleep at midnight and waking up around 4AM. Not a huge deal, as I can generally operate okay on little sleep.

However, Tuesday night (I flew out Wednesday morning), the lack of good sleep finally caught up with me and I had to call it a night at around 8PM. I have a shower, and set my alarm for 4AM, as elcook had arranged a cab for 5AM to take me to the airport. I packed my stuff up, except for a few toiletries, as I planned a shower in the morning and then toss the few toiletries into my bag and away I'd go.

So, off to sleep only to awaken at midnight. *sigh* I tossed and turned for a bit, dozing for 15 minutes or so at a time, but eventually 4AM rolled around and I knew I had to get up. So I turned my alarm off (I caught it just before it went off) and lay there for a couple minutes, hands behind my head, thinking about the upcoming day: have a quick shower, head to the airport, connecting flight in Frankfurt, maybe grab some food there...

Next thing I know I hear a phone ringing. I'm completely disoriented and thinking "What the hell is that?" and don't manage to answer it before it stops. I look at the time and to my horror, I discover it's 5Am. So, I dive into my clothes, rush to the washroom, frantically throw my stuff into my travel bag, stuff that into my backpack and make a frantic check to see if there's anything I've forgotten. No, looks like I have it all (thank <deity> I had almost everything packed the evening before). It's now 5:10 AM and I rush out with a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, expecting to see no cab. Wonder of wonders, he's still there!

I drop off my key with the security guard (I'd moved hotels to one that was behind a gated courtyard and front desk/reception didn't work overnight - it was actually more like apartment rentals than a hotel), then run to the cab. I'm counting my lucky stars that this cabbie was patient.

At this time I should mention that my plane tickets had errors in that my full name, consisting of four names was compressed into two names: my first two were amalgamated into one first name and my third and surname were amalgamated into one surname. I was also listed as female (Miss, to be exact). This had caused some concern, as one can imagine, but the night before I printed out my boarding passes anyway (the fine folks at GOG had tried to get things corrected, but it turned out it wasn't possible in time) and just hoped there wouldn't be any issues.

No incidents at the Warsaw airport. I go through security, board the plane, it takes off on time and it's a short flight of just under 2 hours to Frankfurt. Arriving at Frankfurt, I marvel at the small city that is the Frankfurt airport (makes Vancouver's look very small) and I get through customs to my proper area to wait for my next flight. I have a 4 hour layover here, so no rush and I take the opportunity to grab something to eat.

After eating and enjoying a nice cold beer, I wander over to the information board to check flight departures. Find my flight to Toronto... delayed. By 2 1/2 hours. I had a 2 hour layover in Toronto before catching my connection to Vancouver. Doing the math... well, that ain't going to happen. Hmmm, better find a Lufthansa service counter to see what's what.

Luckily, there's a service counter on my level nearby. Unluckily it's closed 'until further notice'. So I track down an airport employee and ask where the nearest open LH service counter may be. He informs me it's down those stairs, and through those doors. But wait, that's outside the security area, isn't it? Why, yes. Yes, it is. Yeah, well thanks, but I ain't doing that. My luck's already started turning sour and I'm not pushing it.

So the waiting game starts. I find a spot to park my butt and do some reading. Cleverly, I chose a vantage point where I could see the closed LH service counter and about 90 minutes before my flight is supposed to depart, a couple LH employees appear there and open up. Yay! A line immediately forms and I grab my spot. In short order, i get to speak to the nice lady at the counter who informs me my oddly amalgamated name and switched gender won't be an issue.

*Relief*

She also tells me she can't give me any info here and I'll have to check with LH when I land to find out about what's going to happen with my connection.

*Worry*

Finally, we take off. For my 8 hour flight I manage to have the astounding luck of being stuck beside a woman who incessantly complains to her husband about the flight, decides she needs to use more than the width of her seat (I kid you not, she actually elbowed my arm out of the way no less than 4 times, forcing me to lean to the right of my seat), AND she has a nervous tick where she constantly bobs her leg up and down. For eight freaking hours. I was almost ready to go postal on her.

Anyway, finally we touch down in Toronto and taxi in. This is also a large airport so we have to disembark on the tarmac and take a bus into the terminal. Aaaaaand we get an announcement that we arrived early (hooray!) but due to that, there's no bus currently available (boo), so we'll have to wait about 10 minutes. 25 minutes later, the bus arrives and we finally deplane.

Remarkably, there are no issues getting through customs. So I follow the directions for connecting flights and finally end up at an Air Canada counter (my final flight was Air Canada). No worries, they have me covered! Woo hoo! However, it's the last flight of the night and I have 3 hours to wait. Oh well.

Eventually the time passes and we board - and this is the first time in the whole journey that the airline employee stops me to ask about my name and what's up with the ticket! for a second I think I'm not going to get on the flight, but she listens to my tale, has a bit of a chuckle with me about the gender switch, and lets me board. I actually have my row to myself and can relax. Maybe I'll sleep. Yeah, no. Oh well, I'm almost home. We land, my wife meets me at the exit - am I glad to see her! - and we head home. I finally walk into my house at 2AM Vancouver time, 34 hours and no sleep from the time I got up in Warsaw to catch my first flight.

I'm so amped up that I don't get to sleep until 3AM. The alarm goes off at 6AM and I stumble out of bed to get ready for work. Nope, not going to happen. I think my head's ready to explode and my stomach's not at all happy with me. I text a co-worker to advise that I won't be in. Go back to bed, only to realize this is useless - I'm not going to go back to sleep. To hell with it, I'll go into work. I make it in time and last until noon, at which point our branch BBQ begins, I can't tolerate the thought of food, so I go home. That night I sleep for a solid 9 hours and by the next day, I'm feeling good.

Finally back on track.

But how can you tell? Do you think prices today would still be the same as prices in 2002, if it weren't for the Euro?

I think you should keep in mind that the Euro was introduced more than 15 years ago. That means 15 years of inflation. Even without the Euro things would have gotten a lot more expensive.

Of course but not as much as it is now. Also you usually get a bit of additional salary to compensate such inflation (not enough to actually compensate that for real but it is still there). Turning the intended 1:1,95583 course into a 1:1 course (supposedly because it was easier to calculate) was basically fraud but since everybody did it there weren't any alternatives left. Might be that some people who really earn muich money don't care but I am quite sure others won't forget. Whenever I buy something for munch I still see the DM value of it I just payed. We cannot change it at all though so no need to derail this thread any further.

Like I said, no - of course not. But they would never be that high.

But please: if you want to continue the discussion let's do this in chat. This is just completely OT and probably for most non German users not interesting at all.

Wow! You are like Superman! Unbelievable. I don't know if I could have done this. Glad you got home safely after all (and got some sleep in the end) and yes, I also thought that Frankfurt airport is gigantic when I went through it on my flight to Warsaw. And I thought I would live in a big city but our airport (Hamburg) is a joke compared to this. A collegue of mine told me that they actually have several motorway exits just for the airport - it is that big.

The host here is GOG, which is a business. The guests are customers of GOG. The (primarily) purpose of the event was to discuss business related matters, not to socialise. Within this context, GOG mentioned its customers that were invited and didn't attend to those that did in ways that can uniquely identify them - let me say it one more time, customers were mentioned to other customers by uniquely identifiable names. That's a violation of their privacy if done without prior consent/permission, perhaps even a violation of business code, and certainly bad practice for a business, and no amount of NDAs changes this.

So, we'll have to agree to disagree.



I've not overlooked your earlier post, I actually had it in a different tab with a reply along the lines of the bit you quoted, but apparently closed it and logged off without hitting the post button; apologises for that.

Regarding what you added, see my point above - no NDA makes it OK to mention specific customers to other customers in ways that can identify them.

As for not naming anyone in this thread until they identified themselves - technically you (plural) didn't, but there has been said enough to identify (some of) those that didn't come forward, if bits are put together. But enough said about this.



You're making my point, PaterAlf, difference is that I see a problem with all this, and you don't.

Anyway, I've said all I had to say on the matter.

This does actually make me curious. Can you please link me (preferably in chat) the posts where this happened? Just to see if I can identify people through those posts.