The only thing that worries me with downloaded content VS CD media is the future... the thing like: what happens in 5 - 10 years if I want to play this game again?
Most of the people here are die-hard adventure fans, who made their debuts on Lucasarts and Sierra classics. Today, LucasArts only writes Star Wars games, and Sierra has become a game brand, the studio having closed down.
If I want to play Sam & Max or Monkey Island today, I can't buy it from the Lucas store. If I want to play Space Quest 5, I can't go to Vivendi Universal and ask them for the game.
The only way I'm able to play the LucasArts games, is to grab my CD, and use ScummVM or DOSbox to play them. As these games were not written for modern PC's, LucasArts doesn't sell them anymore - so they don't have to support the users the games are protected against abandonware downloads. With Simon the sorcerer games, it's different, because Adventure Soft still sells the CD's from their store, and they even released XP-compatible binaries of their first two games.
Sierra games? Well just the same, I fire up the CD and play them with Dosbox or Sarien or something else... as VUG doesn't have the games anymore. The sierra games are not abandonware-protected, and there are also a few remakes of the early king's quests, but that's about it.
As I had hours of fun playing those games, I'm sure my kids will like them as well, and that it will help them learning english (as long as they don't use the swordfighting insults with their english teacher :P).
So, if a game is distributed online only, how can I ensure that I will still be able to play this game in front of my kids in a few years, if I'm not able to authenticate the game?
Who knows if the activation server will still be running in 10 years? If the Bone game will still be playable on whatever operating system will be the default one in 10 years!
ScummVM or Dosbox can only emulate games because these games do not rely on authentication either on a central server, or via the star-force way. If you know that distributors have to release a patch for every star-force protected game to make it work on Windows x64, because the encryption isn't compatible by default, you can easily guess that they won't necessarily write a patch for every star-force protected game that went out!
If the Bone game will still be playable on whatever operating system will be the default one in 10 years!
Uh, who knows that about any game? Why are we talking about its potential compatibility with a fan-made emulator a decade down the line? How did SCUMMVM even enter the discussion?
As for the activation question, I'm sure Telltale will alllow it to be activated for as long as they exist.
I don't get this. From looking at the first episode of bone we cut out the middle men in terms of box production,publisher, retailer etc but yet we pay MORE for a game then we would at a retail store
Consider this - how many boxes can you realistically fit into the "PC Games" section of your local Electronics Boutique? - Now - consider how many games EA, Ubisoft, and Vivendi have turned out in the last year...
We're running out of space already - and those guys *will* get priority, because they can afford to *buy* it...
Add a few more games, and a little-known adventure game being sold for $20 isn't going to stay on the shelf for longer than a month... barely anyone would buy it, and it would disappear into oblivion... the company would go down the pan... and you're back to playing Need for Speed.
- I *do* think $20 is too much for Telltale's tentative first step into the entirely unexplored realm of episode-based digital-distribution.
They really need to use this first twelve months building a die-hard fan-base... not starting off by alienating some of their existing supporters with the prospect of paying potentially $60 on 8-15 hours of gameplay, assuming this episode is indicative of future ones.
Digital distribution = good
- this game probably wouldn't even have been *made* without it.
Price = questionable
- and questionable is bad - they really don't want to be instilling doubt in the minds of already wary customers - a lot of people still have this idea in their heads that a physical disc is somehow more worthy of their money than simply the data it contains. Giving people a reason not to test the water is a bad idea.
It's foolish to doubt online distribution for niche genres.
With few exceptions, the only way to gain a profit using the existing model is the first three shelves of Electronic Boutique, and if your title isnt a huge phenomenal success your game only stays on the shelf for barly 1 week.
Adventure games dont have the pull that Halo or Doom does, even with a high profile license like Sam and Max. Hell, even Revolution Studios found it difficult with Broken Sword III.
Adventure games are a niche genre at best and a dead genre at worst. Only 1 in 10 mainstream triple A titles make a profit, ie more people are losing money than making it. The current model is broken and unless your Square, Blizzard, Microsoft, EA, Valve etc then your powerless.
Online distribution gives independant developers a sustainable and profitable platform, and in the end would you prefer no adventure games at all or high quality independantly produced adventure games via online distribution?
Your call, I mean no one gets tired of FPS and RTS right?
Comments
Most of the people here are die-hard adventure fans, who made their debuts on Lucasarts and Sierra classics. Today, LucasArts only writes Star Wars games, and Sierra has become a game brand, the studio having closed down.
If I want to play Sam & Max or Monkey Island today, I can't buy it from the Lucas store. If I want to play Space Quest 5, I can't go to Vivendi Universal and ask them for the game.
The only way I'm able to play the LucasArts games, is to grab my CD, and use ScummVM or DOSbox to play them. As these games were not written for modern PC's, LucasArts doesn't sell them anymore - so they don't have to support the users the games are protected against abandonware downloads. With Simon the sorcerer games, it's different, because Adventure Soft still sells the CD's from their store, and they even released XP-compatible binaries of their first two games.
Sierra games? Well just the same, I fire up the CD and play them with Dosbox or Sarien or something else... as VUG doesn't have the games anymore. The sierra games are not abandonware-protected, and there are also a few remakes of the early king's quests, but that's about it.
As I had hours of fun playing those games, I'm sure my kids will like them as well, and that it will help them learning english (as long as they don't use the swordfighting insults with their english teacher :P).
So, if a game is distributed online only, how can I ensure that I will still be able to play this game in front of my kids in a few years, if I'm not able to authenticate the game?
ScummVM or Dosbox can only emulate games because these games do not rely on authentication either on a central server, or via the star-force way. If you know that distributors have to release a patch for every star-force protected game to make it work on Windows x64, because the encryption isn't compatible by default, you can easily guess that they won't necessarily write a patch for every star-force protected game that went out!
Uh, who knows that about any game? Why are we talking about its potential compatibility with a fan-made emulator a decade down the line? How did SCUMMVM even enter the discussion?
As for the activation question, I'm sure Telltale will alllow it to be activated for as long as they exist.
From Telltale's Kevin Molander;
And that clears that up...
We're running out of space already - and those guys *will* get priority, because they can afford to *buy* it...
Add a few more games, and a little-known adventure game being sold for $20 isn't going to stay on the shelf for longer than a month... barely anyone would buy it, and it would disappear into oblivion... the company would go down the pan... and you're back to playing Need for Speed.
- I *do* think $20 is too much for Telltale's tentative first step into the entirely unexplored realm of episode-based digital-distribution.
They really need to use this first twelve months building a die-hard fan-base... not starting off by alienating some of their existing supporters with the prospect of paying potentially $60 on 8-15 hours of gameplay, assuming this episode is indicative of future ones.
Digital distribution = good
- this game probably wouldn't even have been *made* without it.
Price = questionable
- and questionable is bad - they really don't want to be instilling doubt in the minds of already wary customers - a lot of people still have this idea in their heads that a physical disc is somehow more worthy of their money than simply the data it contains. Giving people a reason not to test the water is a bad idea.
With few exceptions, the only way to gain a profit using the existing model is the first three shelves of Electronic Boutique, and if your title isnt a huge phenomenal success your game only stays on the shelf for barly 1 week.
Adventure games dont have the pull that Halo or Doom does, even with a high profile license like Sam and Max. Hell, even Revolution Studios found it difficult with Broken Sword III.
Adventure games are a niche genre at best and a dead genre at worst. Only 1 in 10 mainstream triple A titles make a profit, ie more people are losing money than making it. The current model is broken and unless your Square, Blizzard, Microsoft, EA, Valve etc then your powerless.
Online distribution gives independant developers a sustainable and profitable platform, and in the end would you prefer no adventure games at all or high quality independantly produced adventure games via online distribution?
Your call, I mean no one gets tired of FPS and RTS right?