#7. I think you're missing the big picture here. 39.99$ for me is about 30 minutes of work, for someone in a poor country in Asia it could be a months work. Of course, if they have the computer to run the game, they should also be able to pay for it. Some flexibility in the pricing should of course be encouraged. I'd also like to see some sort of "reward" system, or discount. Say, now that the game has p
Even though Starforce is by far the most intrusice Copy Restriction out there, if you want to make a stand regarding copy restriction you should cover all of them in your user boycot (Starforce, safedisc, Securom, Fade, Laserlock, Tages, JOWOODs internal one, etc etc). Basically, Anything that requires cd-in-drive, do-not-buy. I kinda feel sorry for the StarForce guys being under siege by everyone now. Sure, their software is evi
I crashed because my computer got to hot. Opening the "hood" helped solve the problem.
You forget that this is not MOO2.
Stardock also uses a kind of copy protection. "Mutual Respect" for lack of a better word. They respect their customers enough to not implement any copywrong measures on their software, and as a result their customers respect them enough to a) Tell other people to buy it b) Tell their pirate friends to buy it after they've tried it c) Advocate it In short: Stardock is not AGAINST Copy Protection, they are using
I bought GalCiv1 and the TotalGaming.net package because I supported your stance on "no cd in drive to play" and no DRM lockdown. The fact that I also got GalCiv2 and every game I've gotten through TotalGaming have been great is a huge bonus. Regarding the CD-IN-DRIVE as Dongle issue: I decided back in 2004 that I would never again buy a game that r
Thanks, very interesting article. The sad thing about you releasing GalCiv 2 is that I did'nt feel I had completed Galciv 1 + Altarian Prophecy yet.. And there is not enough time in the world to play both (or all three) at the same time
Its become apparent from discussions around the web that the starforce supporters feel threatened by your move and the starforce forums are not the only place they have posted such links. If there are any effects by this, I'd think that you'll sell even more copies by those who are opponents of Starforce's methods and want to support you, as you have become a target of theirs.
Hopefully you are being rewarded for creating a great game as well as the fact that you have taken the stance vs. DRM/Copyrestriction that you have. You can still see the old blog postings from Brad regarding copy restriction being linked in "pirate" forums and hopefully those with some sense left have managed to cough up the necessary $ to reward you for your stance. If Stardock was to go under, or turn to DRM/copy restriction it would be t
Aha! This could explain why the updated GalCiv2 crashed yesterday and my computer was hotter than it has ever been before (and thats hot.. 2 x SLI 6800 ultra cards..)... How I can fix this issue is another measure.. You said FPS throttling.. is that implemented or do I need to do some stuff?
In addition: If the downloaded copy proves to be a good demo for said product, chances are that the downloader will either purchase it, or the next game in the series. Possibly also the entire back catalogue of games [As has occured with books and audio cd's]. Quality sells by itself and does not require lockdowns.
P2P networks provide their users with something the rest of the software industry never did, thanks to whatever idiotic beliefs that run them. - Software available world wide on launch day - Software that did not require cd-in-drive after installation, that could be taken as many backups of as you wanted, that you could run on more than 1 of your home computers (if you had such), that did not install drivers to ruin your system - G
I think developers should focus more on making a great game that delivers what it promises without any game critical bugs, Provide feature updates through their web page, provide a demo-purchase-unlock version of their titles that can be moved to any system the user controls without having to re-activate over the internet, not require activation on offline copied products, ship games on dvd if they are multi cd, have a forum/web page available where cu
Though, I spend so much time IN the game that I should instead replace "Explorer.exe" with "Wow.exe" _as_ my desktop.
Looks nice
Well, I only care about the sales they loose/gain through my actions. As should everyone else. Am I willing to give up my "personal freedom" to get gaming 'satisfaction' or will I find venues to still play great games (like Totalgaming.net) without having to give up on my "principles". The world needs people to question "how much am I willing to sacrifice to get x.y.z". <img src="../images/smiles/smile.gif" border=0 ALIGN="ab
And while I wait for more publishers to take the StarDock route.. I will be saving money! :-] Its a win/win situation for me. UT2004 got purchased AFTER they removed the cd-in-drive check. More publishers follow that route. More sales. Its a winning recipe. Although, actually I should not have purchased it after they did that, since they initially had a cd-routine on the game.. which is inexcusable. Anyway.. WoW is calli
Interesting article, and a nice plug you guys got there as well
I am already a subscriber at Stardock / Totalgaming because of their stance. So some of my 900-1000$ (thanks Yarlen) go to them.. (well... over time.. hehe) as well I am sending a message - although it will be ignored I am sure - [and in statistics they'll blame such as this on piracy] to the publishers/developers. They can choose to ignore that message of course, or t
It should come as no surprise to anyone who have in the past read my "blog" or to anyone I have talked with on other forums that I have a ... issue.. with regards to games requiring cd-in-drive, games that install hidden drivers on my operating system(s) or offline games that require internet authentication/validation and contain time-consuming validation processes to
If I made something, the more people using it the better. Of course I would love to see everyone pay me for the product I created, but if only some of them do, then that is better than pissing off a lot of them and ensuring that they will NEVER return. A quality product should be able to survive on its own merits in the computer market, without being loaded with DRM lockdowns that ensure that many of those purchasing the product will NEVER bu
Uhm.. the above posting was made by me... I kinda typed the wrong here and there
Well, with cheats I was also thinking Trainers, and they do "MODify" the game. But what you mean by modding community is probably creating some new content or alternating existing one.. [something you could also do with a trainer, although most trainers usually end up giving you some sort of advantage (or disadvantage) in the game, instead of creating new 'options and methods' ...] One thing I have noticed is that you are allowed to upload che
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When I have problems with IIS or antying else, and I suspect it has something to do with permissions i start with FILEMON from www.sysinternals.com, do a IISRESET and try the web page. Everything will be made clear in the log from filemon (just make sure you configure the filters before you do a IISRESET, or test your thing, as filemon logs EVERYTING and sometimes a wee bit too much..)
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