15 hours?? On a game small enough to install within 10 minutes? o.O Huh. How slow is your internet connection? I mean, if you were on a 7mbit (what I was on until just recently going to 15mbit), even larger games would be downloadable in much less time.
lol I really feel bad for you having that slow of a connection. >.<
It also depends on your country. Some countries (like Ireland) have bad DL servers that limit your DL speed and only allow for a very small ammount of people to DL.Ofcourse if you change your country to Ukraine or something you download from their Ukraine server which is almost always empty and you get 0 problems.
You're really gonna refuse to buy a game that you want to buy just because you don't like the company that's selling it? Why?
I think you've got something backwards here.
Yes, of course I refuse to give money to a company I don't approve of. How can you even ask that question?
That's like asking why I don't buy some awesome electronic gadget that I want just because it's made out of squished Asian babies. The end does not justify the means, and I certainly don't want to support those people so they can keep doing it.
Besides, the gaming industry pumps out like 500 games a year, so if there's a game I want, but I don't approve of the people making it, I'll just wait till the fad is over and get the next big thing. And if something is good it'll get copied by others anyway.
I don't need instant gratification of my gaming impulse.
I hereby put forth the declaration that, outside of not having regular internet access, those who claim to dislike Steam have no real motive or reason or have never used it. "I don't really own it" doesn't count as a valid reason because you do own it. Digitally. Just as much as you would if you bought MI2:SE from the TTG store.
I dislike Steam intensely and I have both reason, motive, and prior experience.
Mostly, their insistence on wrapping extra DRM layer around every game is something I oppose on principle. I don't like not owning a game I buy, and I especially don't like the way companies make more and more elaborate schemes to criminalize their customers, rather than focus on making a good game.
I'm amazed how they can even justify spending so much money and resources on adding something that is completely unnecessary, has absolutely no effect on piracy, and only adds more bugs, complexity, support calls, rootkits, and general idiocy to the whole thing.
In retrospect, it's only taken us 10 years to start moving from "well, we KNOW you can fit 600 of these games on your 1TB disk, but you'll still need to put all the CDs in when you play!" to "oops, our servers are down, I guess you'll have to go read a book instead!"
Or my favorite "since we think you're a criminal by default, why don't you call this number that only works for people in the US and maybe we'll activate this for you?"
What progress!
How about spending that money on, oh I dunno, making the game better? How about using your resources on satisfying your customers instead of using it on people who are clearly not your customers in the first place?
How can any manager approve a business plan like that?
"Well, Mr. Johnson, here's the plans for the next electric beard trimmer we're going to make, and as you can see we've allocated a sizeable budget to make sure women can't use it. It automatically installs cameras in every room of the customer's house, keeps an eye on everything that's going on and streams live video to our central server, just to make sure a woman doesn't go near it. It's obviously necessary in order to protect our investment, and as for the complete lack of our customer's privacy and all the data that's ripe for abuse, well that's a price we're willing to pay."
Hire another programmer. Fix all those bugs that every single game ships with these days. It's gotten to the point where we actually expect to have to patch every game a couple times in the months after release.
Also, "I don't really own it" is a perfectly valid reason. If I don't really own it, why can't I get my money back when it stops working?
Steam is big enough to shut down any account on a whim, and have shown so repeatedly in the past. Usually with the ham-handedness of a big corporation that doesn't give a crap about their customers. They clearly don't care about all the bad press they get every time they shut down thousands of legitimate customer accounts, or they wouldn't keep doing it.
At least when I have the game on my shelf I can take it out and play it when I want to, regardless of whether the servers are still online, or if the company still exists.
The way I see it, that's all of the benefits and none of the drawbacks of Steam.
It all comes down to trust. Any business person will tell you this is the foundation of any professional relationship. You can't do business with someone if you don't trust that they won't turn around in the middle of the deal and run off with all the money.
You can try to protect yourself with lawyers and whatnot, but in the end you have to believe that you're not wasting your time with the other party.
And I don't trust Steam to do the right thing, when it all comes down to it. I don't believe they care about me in the slightest, and I don't think they would help me if I needed it.
That's where they differ from Telltale, despite these guys for some inexplicable reason still insisting on using DRM with all the dvd releases.
I believe that I can get on the forum and contact a real human being whose best interest it is to solve my problems.
The rest of my reasons are mostly nitpicking.
Steam has exorbitant prices with no grounding in reality or traditional market forces. In a store, shelf space has a value and therefore the price of a game that isn't sold declines to the point where they can get rid of it, including going in a bargain bin.
There's no such thing in a digital store, which means that 3 year old game that's still 30 EUR on Steam is 5 in my local store.
I had this experience with a game where the expansion pack was only ever released in digital format (which makes sense), but it didn't follow regular market forces, so 2 years after the game's release I could get the game in a bargain bin for 10 EUR, but the online expansion pack was still 45 EUR, just like when the game was released.
Also, I don't expect Steam to be around forever, which means that eventually all my games will disappear. No company will exist forever.
I know, shocking, right? A software company that goes bankrupt? Perish the thought!
Hire another programmer. Fix all those bugs that every single game ships with these days. It's gotten to the point where we actually expect to have to patch every game a couple times in the months after release.
Games, and hardware, are infinitely more complex now than they were 20 years ago, meaning there is an insanely higher possibility of unforeseen consequences, they can't just keep hiring programmers because they don't typically have unlimited budgets to throw at things.
Steam has exorbitant prices with no grounding in reality or traditional market forces.
That must be why I've spent < $200 to get over 70 games on Steam in the past few months alone. :rolleyes: Everyone knows you don't buy on Steam unless it's on sale, and typically things go on sale for 50% off or more extremely regularly.
Also, I don't expect Steam to be around forever, which means that eventually all my games will disappear. No company will exist forever.
I know, shocking, right? A software company that goes bankrupt? Perish the thought!
By the time Valve goes under, every game currently on Steam will have passed into public domain. Feel free to quote me on that.
That entire argument is meaningless to the topic at hand, even buying it through TTG, there is a SecuROM online activation check.
I'm sure you intentionally ignored my whole trust argument because that's the only thing that's really important.
TTG is the lesser evil, at the moment.
That must be why I've spent < $200 to get over 70 games on Steam in the past few months alone. :rolleyes: Everyone knows you don't buy on Steam unless it's on sale, and typically things go on sale for 50% off or more extremely regularly.
I'm very happy for you that you've discovered the secret trick to getting extremely regularly cheap games.
The price is not really my prime concern, but just adds to the annoyance. I'd pay more for games without DRM if they were ones I expected I'd want to play again and again over the next 20 years.
Perhaps I should consider myself fortunate that the whole industry is currently focused on making whizz-bang flashy graphics rather than games you'll want to play again.
If I'm lucky then by the time DRM is finally discarded as the blight it is, it'll coincide with game studios starting to make games with replay value.
By the time Valve goes under, every game currently on Steam will have passed into public domain. Feel free to quote me on that.
And you can quote me that as long as Mickey Mouse exists there will never be such a thing as expiration of copyright. I can hear you don't plan to be around in 100 years to be proven wrong, so your opinion on this doesn't really mean anything to me.
Games, and hardware, are infinitely more complex now than they were 20 years ago, meaning there is an insanely higher possibility of unforeseen consequences, they can't just keep hiring programmers because they don't typically have unlimited budgets to throw at things.
You read the post right? Instead of buying "INTRUSIVE SYSTEM X" they could surely hire a programmer. Or 2. Or 10. And still have $ left.
That entire argument is meaningless to the topic at hand, even buying it through TTG, there is a SecuROM online activation check.
But once you activated once, there's no more need to later (unlike Steam). That's not even including the DVD at the end of the season, WHICH WITHOUT I WOULDN'T BUY HERE. They screwed up with W&G though.
They strung me for Puzzle Agent and the SE's, but if there wasn't a S&M disk I would have never become a costumer.
Steam Fan: "BUT OFFLINE MODUS!!!111!one!!!"
Yeah, you know, it doesn't really work like it should. You can say all you want they fixed it since, but it was already supposedly fixed by then...
That must be why I've spent < $200 to get over 70 games on Steam in the past few months alone.
Just buying them in the shop at the same price or cheaper. And that's with disk, and box and printed manual.
Steam doesn't really care for European costumers it seems...
I'm amazed how they can even justify spending so much money and resources on adding something that is completely unnecessary, has absolutely no effect on piracy, and only adds more bugs, complexity, support calls, rootkits, and general idiocy to the whole thing.
Rootkits? Really? Are you just throwing tech terms you've heard out there or do you even know what that is? They do NOT install rootkits on your computer. That is a blatant lie. Stop using FUD to sell your point.
Okay, so it seems like the only reason you don't want to buy the game from steam is because you want to boycott them. That's futile, though. Steam aren't going to miss your $20 (or however much it is). They aren't gonna look at their charts and graphs and say "Oh, shit! There's a very significant portion of humanity who aren't buying our games! That can only mean one thing! Gentlemen, we're being boycotted. Our only line of defence is to stop running this company in a way which some people perceive as less than ideal and start doing things properly".
They aren't purposefully running things contrary to your idea of a good business plan. They're not chilling out in their underground volcano lair smoking cigars and laughing at their customers while they think up new ways to screw them over. They're a business. They want to please their customers because it's in their best interest. Your boycotting them is going to do absolutely nothing to effect change in their business model because they have no idea you're boycotting them. They don't have a statistic for "people who would have bought our games but didn't because they don't like us".
If you actually do buy Monkey Island 2, however, LucasArts will notice it. They DO have a statistic for "people who bought our games", and every time that statistic rises, they're given the incentive to make more games in the same vain (i.e., adventure games or remakes of adventure games).
In conclusion, buy the Monkey Island 2 Special Edition. It's hella sick. It's got idle animations and everything. They're rad and they're extreme.
Just buying them in the shop at the same price or cheaper. And that's with disk, and box and printed manual.
Steam doesn't really care for European costumers it seems...
I am fairly certain I couldn't have purchased Alien vs Predator Classic 2000 for $1.75 in a store with the disc and box and printed manual, or a copy of Deus Ex for $2.50. Could I have gotten Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion GOTY with all the DLC for $8 with disc, box, and printed manual? Please tell me where I can buy Thief: Deadly Shadows for $3 including disc, box, and printed manual. Do they sell Left 4 Dead 2 with disc, box and printed manual for $10? Maybe I can find a bundle including Armored Fist 3, Comanche 4, Delta Force, Delta Force 2, Delta Force Land Warrior, Delta Force Black Hawk Down, Delta Force Black Hawk Down Team Sabre, Delta Force Xtreme, Delta Force Xtreme 2, Delta Force Task Force Dagger, F-16 Multirole Fighter, F-22 Lightning 3, Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising, Joint Operations: Escalation, MiG-29 Fulcrum, and Tachyon: The Fringe for $35 including the disc, box, and printed manuals for them all. Oh hey, can you tell me where they sell Commander Keen, The Ultimate Doom, Doom II, Master Levels for Doom II, Final Doom, Doom 3, Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil, Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders, Hexen, Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel, Hexen II, Quake, Quake Mission Pack 1, Quake Mission Pack 2, Quake II, Quake II Mission Pack 1, Quake II Mission Pack 2, Quake III Arena, Quake III Team Arena, Wolfenstein 3D, Spear of Destiny, and Return to Castle Wolfenstein for $35 including disc, box, and printed manuals for them all? Where can I buy Broken Sword II and Broken Sword III for $3, including the disc, box, and manual for both? I guess paying $5 for MISE through Steam is outrageously expensive too, and $5 for Loom, Indy: Last Crusade, Indy: FoA, and The Dig is just far too expensive.
Furthermore, it's freaking $10. You'd spend more money seeing a movie once in a theater, and that is less than 2 hours of enjoyment typically, whereas with MI2:SE you'll be able to easily invest 6 hours replaying it and listening to all the dialogue, not to mention have access to the game with one click for the entire foreseeable future, and in the unlikely event that Valve somehow goes out of business while making millions of dollars a year in profits, there is always going to be a way for you to find and play the games via methods of questionable legality. There's really no point spending so much time worrying about what might happen in 10 years to something you've spent a single Mcdonald's value meal's worth of money on.
If you actually do buy Monkey Island 2, however, LucasArts will notice it.
I will... FROM TTG.
LA will notice, and hey, when I do it does have a sign to Steam. Instead of caving in to Valve.
Yes, I am willing to wait X months to get it here instead, and so do other people. Hopefully LA will take the hint and take even less time next time.
And we all live happily ever after, without Steam.
I highly doubt that licensing DRM is as expensive as paying the salary of a programmer.
You would be wrong. They have to feed their own programmers too you know.
Unlike popular demand DRM is not created by crushing souls of cute animals or children...
Dunno for most titles what the shopprice is, but on what I can comment on:
or a copy of Deus Ex for $2.50.
1 euro. 3 YEARS AGO.
Could I have gotten Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion GOTY with all the DLC for $8 with disc, box, and printed manual?
You can in the Netherlands. Not sure why anyone would want though.
Furthermore, it's freaking $10.
And I happily spend it... here at the TTG STORE. How many more times do we have to say so before people get that in their frickin' minds?
It's not just the price... although it certainly plays a part (9 euro vs. 9 dollar).
not to mention have access to the game with one click for the entire foreseeable future
Not really, with Steams way of work. Now if I bought it here, then yes, I would be guaranteed I could do so.
there is always going to be a way for you to find and play the games via methods of questionable legality.
Or you know, just play it from the TTG version.
There's really no point spending so much time worrying about what might happen in 10 years to something you've spent a single Mcdonald's value meal's worth of money on.
I replay my 10 year old games though. Often. More often than the stuff produced these days.
So I damn well care about being able to replay my older games 10 years from now.
while I prefer to have everything physical, digital means aren't bad. STEAM is a great way, and Gabe him self has said that if the company goes under they're going to remove the DRM from all the games from STEAM
Also, as someone who is working on his own game right now I plan to sell it through STEAM as they have the best way for small budget comapnes, I guess the right word, to make money off their games and get them out to the public better. Since PSN, WiiWare, DSiWare, and other digital distribution sites require you to have atleast 2 published games before you can get onto their service. XBL requires you to pay a yearly fee, and those requirements (last I checked).
You would be wrong. They have to feed their own programmers too you know.
Unlike popular demand DRM is not created by crushing souls of cute animals or children...
... SecuROM is licensed by HUNDREDS of publishers, it's 100% guaranteed that they do not charge anyone who licenses it the full cost of developing the technology, because if so, no one would bother licensing it and would just develop their own instead. I have no idea what you're even talking about anymore.
I will... FROM TTG.
LA will notice, and hey, when I do it does have a sign to Steam. Instead of caving in to Valve.
Yes, I am willing to wait X months to get it here instead, and so do other people. Hopefully LA will take the hint and take even less time next time.
And we all live happily ever after, without Steam.
Then at least pirate it in the meantime. It's really good.
You can in the Netherlands. Not sure why anyone would want though.
Oh, an additional reply to your post:
I don't know where the heck you're shopping, but the cheapest I can find Deus Ex complete in box for online is $7.25, which is almost 3 times more expensive than it was when I bought it on Steam.
As for Oblivion, just buying the DLC included in the deluxe pack on its own costs more than I paid for it on Steam, regardless of where you buy from.
... SecuROM is licensed by HUNDREDS of publishers, it's 100% guaranteed that they do not charge anyone who licenses it the full cost of developing the technology, because if so, no one would bother licensing it and would just develop their own instead. I have no idea what you're even talking about anymore.
Doesn't mean jack. Windows is licensed by millions, doesn't make it cheap. CAD costs $1500,- to use. I don't know the exact cost, but I fully expect SecuROM to be more expensive than paying 3 programmers for 3 years.
I don't know where the heck you're shopping, but the cheapest I can find Deus Ex complete in box for online is $7.25, which is almost 3 times more expensive than it was when I bought it on Steam.
Local Free Record Shop. If you just browse about I am pretty sure you can find pretty much everything cheaper than Steam. Maybe it's different in the US though, I don't know (also, online? Get out there !). If you find it of course, I have to admit those older titles are hard to find, so in that case the little additional $ might have been worth it.
Well, if it wasn't steam that is. If I would ever go DD, I would go to GoG, but I rather stick to boxes and stuff... most oldies I am interested in I got already anyways :P.
Doesn't mean jack. Windows is licensed by millions, doesn't make it cheap. CAD costs $1500,- to use. I don't know the exact cost, but I fully expect SecuROM to be more expensive than paying 3 programmers for 3 years.
You realize that it would cost probably $120,000 absolute minimum to hire 3 programmers for a year? You think it costs more money to license some software than to pay $360,000 in salary? I would be honestly surprised if SecuROM charged more than a few hundred dollars per license.
Local Free Record Shop. If you just browse about I am pretty sure you can find pretty much everything cheaper than Steam. Maybe it's different in the US though, I don't know (also, online? Get out there !). If you find it of course, I have to admit those older titles are hard to find, so in that case the little additional $ might have been worth it.
Well, if it wasn't steam that is. If I would ever go DD, I would go to GoG, but I rather stick to boxes and stuff... most oldies I am interested in I got already anyways :P.
There is only one used game shop in my town (beyond Gamestop :rolleyes:), and their selection is terrible, at best.
You realize that it would cost probably $120,000 absolute minimum to hire 3 programmers for a year? You think it costs more money to license some software than to pay $360,000 in salary? I would be honestly surprised if SecuROM charged more than a few hundred dollars per license.
Holy Shit, a programmer earns $40,000 a year? I think you overestimate their sallary a bit.
I think that amount of money would be nice (or well, any job really, unemployed and all), but I can get perfectly around from my government support thingie ($2400 a year. Which is like minimum wage. Which makes me believe your numbers are absolute bullshit), so I have no idea what I can possibly do with the multitude of fantasy money I would receive then...
There is only one used game shop in my town (beyond Gamestop :rolleyes:), and their selection is terrible, at best.
Who says anything about used? That 1 euro copy of DX was brand new...
I can get perfectly around from my government support thingie ($2400 a year. Which is like minimum wage. Which makes me believe your numbers are absolute bullshit)
What dollars are these? (And I assume you mean 24,000?)
When I worked full time at minimum wage (in Paris), I earned 1,000 euros a month, or 12,000 euros a year. My husband and I lived on that ok although I'm glad he earns more now.
40,000 a year for a programmer doesn't shock me. I don't know how much they do earn, but if they earn that amount I don't think it's outrageous or anything. I wouldn't be surprised if they earned more.
But really, I'm bad at estimating that kind of stuff so I don't know.
Holy Shit, a programmer earns $40,000 a year? I think you overestimate their sallary a bit.
I think that amount of money would be nice (or well, any job really, unemployed and all), but I can get perfectly around from my government support thingie ($2400 a year. Which is like minimum wage. Which makes me believe your numbers are absolute bullshit), so I have no idea what I can possibly do with the multitude of fantasy money I would receive then...
Who says anything about used? That 1 euro copy of DX was brand new...
Er... programmers are typically pretty well paid, given the amount of school and skill required to perform the job, and minimum wage in the US will still typically earn you ~$15,000 a year.
And trust me, if I could find a copy of DX for $1.27, I'd be all over it.
What dollars are these? (And I assume you mean 24,000?)
When I worked full time at minimum wage (in Paris), I earned 1,000 euros a month, or 12,000 euros a year. My husband and I lived on that ok although I'm glad he earns more now.
40,000 a year for a programmer doesn't shock me. I don't know how much they do earn, but if they earn that amount I don't think it's outrageous or anything. I wouldn't be surprised if they earned more.
But really, I'm bad at estimating that kind of stuff so I don't know.
My friend just got a job at Gear Box and is looking at about 70k+ a year.
On the one hand, it makes me sad that I haven't earned that much yet if you add all the wages I've ever earned ever, on the other hand I'm really, really glad I'm not doing their job.
I would get a bit more info on my 'salery', but my bank's internet site is down for the moment, so you guys have to wait. But it's nowhere near even 1/2 of Avistew's "minimum wage". Of course they do cut it a bit and as a result I don't have to pay rent, but I doubt rent would be $5000,- yearly.
I didn't pay rent, there is no way I could have in Paris (a one bedroom would typically cost 1,000 euros a month, that is, 100% of my income then) so we lived at my parents'.
If we had been willing to share a 100 square feet studio, then the rent would have been reduced by half, as these only cost 500 euros a month. But for two adults and a cat... no way we'd live in such a tiny place.
5,000 dollars a year for rent is only 400 dollars a month. That's incredibly low, unless you're only renting a room and not a whole apartment.
I guess it all depends where you live. Many things can be double or triple from one place to the next. This being said, I'm in a super small town right now, that has very low cost of living, and my rent is still 750 dollars a month (Canadian, mind you).
It is a two bedroom, to be fair. The one bedroom apartments here only cost 650, 100 less.
Comments
It also depends on your country. Some countries (like Ireland) have bad DL servers that limit your DL speed and only allow for a very small ammount of people to DL.Ofcourse if you change your country to Ukraine or something you download from their Ukraine server which is almost always empty and you get 0 problems.
I think you've got something backwards here.
Yes, of course I refuse to give money to a company I don't approve of. How can you even ask that question?
That's like asking why I don't buy some awesome electronic gadget that I want just because it's made out of squished Asian babies. The end does not justify the means, and I certainly don't want to support those people so they can keep doing it.
Besides, the gaming industry pumps out like 500 games a year, so if there's a game I want, but I don't approve of the people making it, I'll just wait till the fad is over and get the next big thing. And if something is good it'll get copied by others anyway.
I don't need instant gratification of my gaming impulse.
I dislike Steam intensely and I have both reason, motive, and prior experience.
Mostly, their insistence on wrapping extra DRM layer around every game is something I oppose on principle. I don't like not owning a game I buy, and I especially don't like the way companies make more and more elaborate schemes to criminalize their customers, rather than focus on making a good game.
I'm amazed how they can even justify spending so much money and resources on adding something that is completely unnecessary, has absolutely no effect on piracy, and only adds more bugs, complexity, support calls, rootkits, and general idiocy to the whole thing.
In retrospect, it's only taken us 10 years to start moving from "well, we KNOW you can fit 600 of these games on your 1TB disk, but you'll still need to put all the CDs in when you play!" to "oops, our servers are down, I guess you'll have to go read a book instead!"
Or my favorite "since we think you're a criminal by default, why don't you call this number that only works for people in the US and maybe we'll activate this for you?"
What progress!
How about spending that money on, oh I dunno, making the game better? How about using your resources on satisfying your customers instead of using it on people who are clearly not your customers in the first place?
How can any manager approve a business plan like that?
"Well, Mr. Johnson, here's the plans for the next electric beard trimmer we're going to make, and as you can see we've allocated a sizeable budget to make sure women can't use it. It automatically installs cameras in every room of the customer's house, keeps an eye on everything that's going on and streams live video to our central server, just to make sure a woman doesn't go near it. It's obviously necessary in order to protect our investment, and as for the complete lack of our customer's privacy and all the data that's ripe for abuse, well that's a price we're willing to pay."
Hire another programmer. Fix all those bugs that every single game ships with these days. It's gotten to the point where we actually expect to have to patch every game a couple times in the months after release.
Also, "I don't really own it" is a perfectly valid reason. If I don't really own it, why can't I get my money back when it stops working?
Steam is big enough to shut down any account on a whim, and have shown so repeatedly in the past. Usually with the ham-handedness of a big corporation that doesn't give a crap about their customers. They clearly don't care about all the bad press they get every time they shut down thousands of legitimate customer accounts, or they wouldn't keep doing it.
At least when I have the game on my shelf I can take it out and play it when I want to, regardless of whether the servers are still online, or if the company still exists.
The way I see it, that's all of the benefits and none of the drawbacks of Steam.
It all comes down to trust. Any business person will tell you this is the foundation of any professional relationship. You can't do business with someone if you don't trust that they won't turn around in the middle of the deal and run off with all the money.
You can try to protect yourself with lawyers and whatnot, but in the end you have to believe that you're not wasting your time with the other party.
And I don't trust Steam to do the right thing, when it all comes down to it. I don't believe they care about me in the slightest, and I don't think they would help me if I needed it.
That's where they differ from Telltale, despite these guys for some inexplicable reason still insisting on using DRM with all the dvd releases.
I believe that I can get on the forum and contact a real human being whose best interest it is to solve my problems.
The rest of my reasons are mostly nitpicking.
Steam has exorbitant prices with no grounding in reality or traditional market forces. In a store, shelf space has a value and therefore the price of a game that isn't sold declines to the point where they can get rid of it, including going in a bargain bin.
There's no such thing in a digital store, which means that 3 year old game that's still 30 EUR on Steam is 5 in my local store.
I had this experience with a game where the expansion pack was only ever released in digital format (which makes sense), but it didn't follow regular market forces, so 2 years after the game's release I could get the game in a bargain bin for 10 EUR, but the online expansion pack was still 45 EUR, just like when the game was released.
Also, I don't expect Steam to be around forever, which means that eventually all my games will disappear. No company will exist forever.
I know, shocking, right? A software company that goes bankrupt? Perish the thought!
Games, and hardware, are infinitely more complex now than they were 20 years ago, meaning there is an insanely higher possibility of unforeseen consequences, they can't just keep hiring programmers because they don't typically have unlimited budgets to throw at things.
That entire argument is meaningless to the topic at hand, even buying it through TTG, there is a SecuROM online activation check.
That must be why I've spent < $200 to get over 70 games on Steam in the past few months alone. :rolleyes: Everyone knows you don't buy on Steam unless it's on sale, and typically things go on sale for 50% off or more extremely regularly.
By the time Valve goes under, every game currently on Steam will have passed into public domain. Feel free to quote me on that.
TTG is the lesser evil, at the moment.
I'm very happy for you that you've discovered the secret trick to getting extremely regularly cheap games.
The price is not really my prime concern, but just adds to the annoyance. I'd pay more for games without DRM if they were ones I expected I'd want to play again and again over the next 20 years.
Perhaps I should consider myself fortunate that the whole industry is currently focused on making whizz-bang flashy graphics rather than games you'll want to play again.
If I'm lucky then by the time DRM is finally discarded as the blight it is, it'll coincide with game studios starting to make games with replay value.
And you can quote me that as long as Mickey Mouse exists there will never be such a thing as expiration of copyright. I can hear you don't plan to be around in 100 years to be proven wrong, so your opinion on this doesn't really mean anything to me.
They strung me for Puzzle Agent and the SE's, but if there wasn't a S&M disk I would have never become a costumer.
Steam Fan: "BUT OFFLINE MODUS!!!111!one!!!"
Yeah, you know, it doesn't really work like it should. You can say all you want they fixed it since, but it was already supposedly fixed by then... Just buying them in the shop at the same price or cheaper. And that's with disk, and box and printed manual.
Steam doesn't really care for European costumers it seems...
Rootkits? Really? Are you just throwing tech terms you've heard out there or do you even know what that is? They do NOT install rootkits on your computer. That is a blatant lie. Stop using FUD to sell your point.
They aren't purposefully running things contrary to your idea of a good business plan. They're not chilling out in their underground volcano lair smoking cigars and laughing at their customers while they think up new ways to screw them over. They're a business. They want to please their customers because it's in their best interest. Your boycotting them is going to do absolutely nothing to effect change in their business model because they have no idea you're boycotting them. They don't have a statistic for "people who would have bought our games but didn't because they don't like us".
If you actually do buy Monkey Island 2, however, LucasArts will notice it. They DO have a statistic for "people who bought our games", and every time that statistic rises, they're given the incentive to make more games in the same vain (i.e., adventure games or remakes of adventure games).
In conclusion, buy the Monkey Island 2 Special Edition. It's hella sick. It's got idle animations and everything. They're rad and they're extreme.
I highly doubt that licensing DRM is as expensive as paying the salary of a programmer.
I am fairly certain I couldn't have purchased Alien vs Predator Classic 2000 for $1.75 in a store with the disc and box and printed manual, or a copy of Deus Ex for $2.50. Could I have gotten Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion GOTY with all the DLC for $8 with disc, box, and printed manual? Please tell me where I can buy Thief: Deadly Shadows for $3 including disc, box, and printed manual. Do they sell Left 4 Dead 2 with disc, box and printed manual for $10? Maybe I can find a bundle including Armored Fist 3, Comanche 4, Delta Force, Delta Force 2, Delta Force Land Warrior, Delta Force Black Hawk Down, Delta Force Black Hawk Down Team Sabre, Delta Force Xtreme, Delta Force Xtreme 2, Delta Force Task Force Dagger, F-16 Multirole Fighter, F-22 Lightning 3, Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising, Joint Operations: Escalation, MiG-29 Fulcrum, and Tachyon: The Fringe for $35 including the disc, box, and printed manuals for them all. Oh hey, can you tell me where they sell Commander Keen, The Ultimate Doom, Doom II, Master Levels for Doom II, Final Doom, Doom 3, Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil, Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders, Hexen, Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel, Hexen II, Quake, Quake Mission Pack 1, Quake Mission Pack 2, Quake II, Quake II Mission Pack 1, Quake II Mission Pack 2, Quake III Arena, Quake III Team Arena, Wolfenstein 3D, Spear of Destiny, and Return to Castle Wolfenstein for $35 including disc, box, and printed manuals for them all? Where can I buy Broken Sword II and Broken Sword III for $3, including the disc, box, and manual for both? I guess paying $5 for MISE through Steam is outrageously expensive too, and $5 for Loom, Indy: Last Crusade, Indy: FoA, and The Dig is just far too expensive.
Furthermore, it's freaking $10. You'd spend more money seeing a movie once in a theater, and that is less than 2 hours of enjoyment typically, whereas with MI2:SE you'll be able to easily invest 6 hours replaying it and listening to all the dialogue, not to mention have access to the game with one click for the entire foreseeable future, and in the unlikely event that Valve somehow goes out of business while making millions of dollars a year in profits, there is always going to be a way for you to find and play the games via methods of questionable legality. There's really no point spending so much time worrying about what might happen in 10 years to something you've spent a single Mcdonald's value meal's worth of money on.
LA will notice, and hey, when I do it does have a sign to Steam. Instead of caving in to Valve.
Yes, I am willing to wait X months to get it here instead, and so do other people. Hopefully LA will take the hint and take even less time next time.
And we all live happily ever after, without Steam. You would be wrong. They have to feed their own programmers too you know.
Unlike popular demand DRM is not created by crushing souls of cute animals or children...
Dunno for most titles what the shopprice is, but on what I can comment on: 1 euro. 3 YEARS AGO. You can in the Netherlands. Not sure why anyone would want though. And I happily spend it... here at the TTG STORE. How many more times do we have to say so before people get that in their frickin' minds?
It's not just the price... although it certainly plays a part (9 euro vs. 9 dollar). Not really, with Steams way of work. Now if I bought it here, then yes, I would be guaranteed I could do so. Or you know, just play it from the TTG version. I replay my 10 year old games though. Often. More often than the stuff produced these days.
So I damn well care about being able to replay my older games 10 years from now.
Also, as someone who is working on his own game right now I plan to sell it through STEAM as they have the best way for small budget comapnes, I guess the right word, to make money off their games and get them out to the public better. Since PSN, WiiWare, DSiWare, and other digital distribution sites require you to have atleast 2 published games before you can get onto their service. XBL requires you to pay a yearly fee, and those requirements (last I checked).
... SecuROM is licensed by HUNDREDS of publishers, it's 100% guaranteed that they do not charge anyone who licenses it the full cost of developing the technology, because if so, no one would bother licensing it and would just develop their own instead. I have no idea what you're even talking about anymore.
Then at least pirate it in the meantime. It's really good.
There is popular demand for crushing the souls of cute animals and children? I've missed my calling!
That's how I plan to do DRM.
Oh, an additional reply to your post:
I don't know where the heck you're shopping, but the cheapest I can find Deus Ex complete in box for online is $7.25, which is almost 3 times more expensive than it was when I bought it on Steam.
As for Oblivion, just buying the DLC included in the deluxe pack on its own costs more than I paid for it on Steam, regardless of where you buy from.
MI2 SE is very enjoyable on steam as well
Im not sure how anyone can think the App store is better than steam
Well, if it wasn't steam that is. If I would ever go DD, I would go to GoG, but I rather stick to boxes and stuff... most oldies I am interested in I got already anyways :P.
You realize that it would cost probably $120,000 absolute minimum to hire 3 programmers for a year? You think it costs more money to license some software than to pay $360,000 in salary? I would be honestly surprised if SecuROM charged more than a few hundred dollars per license.
There is only one used game shop in my town (beyond Gamestop :rolleyes:), and their selection is terrible, at best.
I think that amount of money would be nice (or well, any job really, unemployed and all), but I can get perfectly around from my government support thingie ($2400 a year. Which is like minimum wage. Which makes me believe your numbers are absolute bullshit), so I have no idea what I can possibly do with the multitude of fantasy money I would receive then... Who says anything about used? That 1 euro copy of DX was brand new...
What dollars are these? (And I assume you mean 24,000?)
When I worked full time at minimum wage (in Paris), I earned 1,000 euros a month, or 12,000 euros a year. My husband and I lived on that ok although I'm glad he earns more now.
40,000 a year for a programmer doesn't shock me. I don't know how much they do earn, but if they earn that amount I don't think it's outrageous or anything. I wouldn't be surprised if they earned more.
But really, I'm bad at estimating that kind of stuff so I don't know.
Er... programmers are typically pretty well paid, given the amount of school and skill required to perform the job, and minimum wage in the US will still typically earn you ~$15,000 a year.
And trust me, if I could find a copy of DX for $1.27, I'd be all over it.
My friend just got a job at Gear Box and is looking at about 70k+ a year.
I only love programmers.
I would get a bit more info on my 'salery', but my bank's internet site is down for the moment, so you guys have to wait. But it's nowhere near even 1/2 of Avistew's "minimum wage". Of course they do cut it a bit and as a result I don't have to pay rent, but I doubt rent would be $5000,- yearly.
If we had been willing to share a 100 square feet studio, then the rent would have been reduced by half, as these only cost 500 euros a month. But for two adults and a cat... no way we'd live in such a tiny place.
5,000 dollars a year for rent is only 400 dollars a month. That's incredibly low, unless you're only renting a room and not a whole apartment.
I guess it all depends where you live. Many things can be double or triple from one place to the next. This being said, I'm in a super small town right now, that has very low cost of living, and my rent is still 750 dollars a month (Canadian, mind you).
It is a two bedroom, to be fair. The one bedroom apartments here only cost 650, 100 less.
S'up sexy? I do plan to apply to TellTale.