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| 14 MAR 2007 at 10:42pm |
Lucien21Guild Master
Posts : 4876
Joined: 9 JUL 2003
Location: 0
Status : Offline | Online games are not the end of adventure games or any other type of information/entertainment. :
It's just another method of delivery.
Maybe not to everyone's taste, but hey they said CD's would never replace vinyl or MP3 sales replace CD's.
Things change.
Anyway....
Preventing Piracy.
Harware Dongle have been used before in professional software like Autocad. Not sure that works either and would be hideously expensive.
Propiatory formats work to a certain extent. Like the UMD for the PSP or the small gamecube discs. Make your console only read these formats and not formats like CD and DVD which have writable hardware. Piracy on the PSP only works because it allows memorycard programs to be run. The Gamecube games can be copied but you can't burn the discs so you can't play them on a gamecube.
Online registration doen't really work as HL2, Windows XP, Sam nMax have all been copied.
I think the only way to minimise piracy is to make the product so desirable and cheap that piracy is not worth the effort.
That or Quantum Encryption.
Dear Diary, My teenage angst bullsh*t now has a bodycount.
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| 14 MAR 2007 at 10:44pm |
Agustín CordesGuild Master
Posts : 5696
Joined: 23 OCT 2002
Location: AR, Buenos Aires
Status : Offline | The article doesn't clarify whether they're aiming for online distribution or MMO style gameplay. If they're switching from offline to online distribution because of piracy, then that's pure non-sense. Any game that becomes available, no matter the medium, can be pirated just as easily. Thus, online validation could be used in offline distribution as well... therefore, I can only conclude this is some kind of lame excuse to defend online distribution.
The excuse probably should be: "it's cheaper" :
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| 14 MAR 2007 at 11:18pm |
qriousPrivate Detective
Posts : 524
Joined: 8 AUG 2003
Status : Offline | As some user from adventuregamers very nicely said
Traditional PC Gamer drops Funcom
so long
[b][size=19][url]www.adventureadvocate.gr[/url][/size][/b]&&[b][size=10]The biggest adventure source in Greece[/size][/b]
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| 15 MAR 2007 at 1:55pm |
AyaGrand Inquisitor
Posts : 7277
Joined: 16 OCT 2002
Status : Offline | like i've said before, leave it to funcom to embrace everything that is hated by the majority of the adventure gamers... good ridance is what i say... end of adventure games? why? cause we won't see zoe kicking butt again? :
as for all these hardware crap, in order for them to work, there needs to be code implemented that checks for them... code that of course can be removed by any small-time cracker, leaving a highly expensive product for the paying customer... once again, DROP THE STUPID COPY PROTECTIONS, YOU WILL GET CRACKED ANYWAY... spend your money and time for better content instead... ffs...
You have gotten the attention of the mysterious lady. She turns to face you. Her face is devoid of any flesh. You are frozen with horror as she begins ripping your body into a bloody mess.
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| 15 MAR 2007 at 3:18pm |
AkhillesPrivate Detective
Posts : 581
Joined: 21 JUL 2003
Location: US
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By Agustin (14 MAR 2007 10:44pm)
The article doesn't clarify whether they're aiming for online distribution or MMO style gameplay. If they're switching from offline to online distribution because of piracy, then that's pure non-sense. Any game that becomes available, no matter the medium, can be pirated just as easily. Thus, online validation could be used in offline distribution as well... therefore, I can only conclude this is some kind of lame excuse to defend online distribution.
The excuse probably should be: "it's cheaper" :
Funcom is all about MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) games. They're not considering distributing games via online, just making/selling/hosting MMO's, which are subscription based with an initial client sale.
@Aya: Maybe we'll see Zoe kicking about town under a Telltale label
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a small mailbox here.
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| 15 MAR 2007 at 4:13pm |
jamarchandSchattenjger
Posts : 1665
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Status : Offline | Studios and corporations are free launch whatsoever product, in whatsoever distribution method..depending their commercial interests.
Consummers (the market of people who buy those products)...is who decide if A way is better or worse then B.
 &&&&[move]Actually playing SHIVERS and Rhem 2[/move]&&
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| 26 MAR 2007 at 10:28pm |
ScarecrowIntergalactic Janitor
Posts : 28
Joined: 26 MAR 2007
Status : Online | It mystifies me that people have already accepted online shopping, online music, online job applications and everything else that we now do on the web, and yet balk at the idea of online game distribution. It's simpler, it's cheaper, and aside from not having any kind of hard copy to call your own (which, really, saves a lot of space), it provides exactly the same experience that we're enjoying now.
Oh, and I don't think it's fair to lump all adventure gamers together in a "We hate Funcom and Dreamfall" category. I, for one, have never played a better game (adventure or otherwise) than Dreamfall. Adventure game forums remind me a lot of music forums, with the adventure gamers becoming painful analogues of indie music lovers. To demand that each and every adventure game follows a strict and rigid formula is to miss the point of video games entirely. Evolution is never as bad as people think it is; it's just that they convince themselves that anything different must necessarily be bad.
Anyway, my two cents.
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| 26 MAR 2007 at 11:08pm |
Joe_MolotovSpace Cadet
Posts : 153
Joined: 4 OCT 2003
Status : Online | The thing about online distribution of games is that publishers want to charge the same price for a downloaded copy as a hard copy that you buy in the store. Most people would rather have the hard copy, especially when the download is several gigs and it's going to take you a few hours to download anyway. You could drive to the store and buy it before it gets done downloading. Personally, I wouldn't mind downloading games too much (I downloaded Runaway 2 on Steam), but there's really not much incentive to do it.
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| 27 MAR 2007 at 1:33am |
ScarecrowIntergalactic Janitor
Posts : 28
Joined: 26 MAR 2007
Status : Online | I agree that the system isn't perfect yet (or even close), but it's a good thing that some companies are aiming for that epitome. Ragnar stated that he wants (which is as good as he can offer) to do the right thing with his downloadable content. Eventually, if the product is priced fairly and we're given a good chunk of the game with each update, then I don't see a problem. It's working towards that ideal that is going to take a while, but no progress will ever be made without some developers making an attempt.
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| 19 APR 2007 at 4:47am |
jalexSchattenjger
Posts : 2503
Joined: 5 MAR 2003
Status : Offline | It sounds to me like they are blaming PC piracy for something that was an inside job. That would be about the only way it could be coppied before the game was releised unless there security was so bad they let some one hack into there computers. I would never download a game off the net or any software that requires me to be connected to the internet to use it. That's not buying it , it's renting it.
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| 19 APR 2007 at 5:21am |
MarkGuild Master
Posts : 3803
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Location: US, Georgia
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By jalex (19 APR 2007 4:47am)
I would never download a game off the net or any software that requires me to be connected to the internet to use it. That's not buying it, it's renting it.
Ja!
And anyway...I like the purdy boxes. You can't download a purdy box. [img]http://www.mindspring.com/~markparrish/BattingEyes.gif[/img]
Please proofread your posts carefully to see if you any words out.
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| 19 APR 2007 at 7:39am |
gameplayerIntergalactic Janitor
Posts : 98
Joined: 25 AUG 2004
Status : Online | I myself prefer having the game in hand then downloading a very long game on the internet. I don't like having to download long files on the internet and not everyone has broadband, besides there are times you think you got the file towards the end the connection is lost. No matter what and how they try to protect the software there be a person out there to crack the code its like a game for them, look how many times the super big companies software has been breached. Just my two cents too.
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| 19 APR 2007 at 1:59pm |
papillonSorcerer Apprentice
Posts : 340
Joined: 3 JUL 2003
Status : Online |
I would never download a game off the net or any software that requires me to be connected to the internet to use it. That's not buying it , it's renting it.
I agree that 'you must be connected and verified to play the game' completely sucks. Often I want to play a game because my net connection is down, so I can't get any work done!
I would urge you to reconsider the possibility of buying downloadable games that allow you to burn backup copies, though. While I agree that it's BETTER to have a disc in hand particularly for a big game, buying only retail means that you automatically reject small independent producers making innovative games that don't have a retail deal yet. (It's not like you can make a game and instantly someone will publish you and put you in stores. Many games will NEVER reach retail, printing hard copies is expensive.)
It also means that if the PC-retail market continues to dwindle, and the adventure market continues to be thought of as dead, you can easily end up with _no new adventure games in stores_. Refusing to buy them until they show up on the shelf won't do any good if the few companies that CAN put them on the shelf have already given up and stopped retail publishing.
[url=http://whineaboutgames.blogspot.com]I Whine About Games[/url]&&&&[url=http://www.hanakogames.com]Anime Games[/url]
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| 19 APR 2007 at 4:34pm |
SirDaveGuild Master
Posts : 4941
Joined: 17 OCT 2002
Location: US
Status : Offline | People who think that an 'online-only downloadable' available game provides exactly the same experience as a hard copy game has not thought this through. As the Sam and Max series experience has shown us, not having a hardcopy version of the game means that the way in which one will be able to use the downloaded game will be potentially limited by all the ways the online vendor can come up with to restrict its use in the name of preventing piracy. And as many people have pointed out, people bent on piracy will find a way to get around the locks, verifications, limits or what-have-you, but the average joe will be stuck with the limitations. What bothers me most is the fact that one will be tied in one way or another to the life-expectancy of the vendor/developer.
P.S. I wish people would try to avoid giving this sort of title to threads.
The future ain't what it used to be!
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| 19 APR 2007 at 8:53pm |
CarolineJA+ Overseer
Posts : 16540
Joined: 28 JAN 2007
Location: AU
Status : Offline | If you download a game and your computer dies - you don't have the CD to reinstall from. >
Online shopping isn't quite the same catergory because the actual goods do arrive. And music files are so small that the connection isn't likely to time out during download.
Recently Microsoft have been pestering me to download an update for my Windows that will verify if it's a genuine copy and alert me if it isn't. As it is genuine, I don't need such a thing but what would it do if it found a pirate copy? Fry my motherboard? Bill Gates is putting his spy camera into everyone's computer.... Big Brother... (and I don't mean the TV show, I'm talking about 1984)
Plus, I agree with Mark. The pretty pictures on the boxes are nice and it helps to remind me which games I have, seeing them all stacked up.
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| 20 APR 2007 at 2:22am |
Randy-JAJourneyman
Posts : 1351
Joined: 11 OCT 2002
Location: US
Status : Offline | Since we are opening an online store in a few weeks that will only offer digital downloads of adventure games, I guess JA will soon be accused of the death of the genre
From what I have heard from varying sources, it is only a matter of time until the majority of European publishers will only sell their products via digital download. Funcom was just the tip of the iceberg. From what I understand after having spoken with many European developers and publishers over the years, the piracy problem in certain countries is decidely worse than it is in North America.
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| 20 APR 2007 at 3:39am |
| Deleted User | Originally Posted By Mark (19 APR 2007 5:20am)
And anyway...I like the purdy boxes. You can't download a purdy box. [img]http://www.mindspring.com/~markparrish/BattingEyes.gif[/img]
You can't?! Damn...
Originally Posted By gameplayer (19 APR 2007 7:39am)
I myself prefer having the game in hand then downloading a very long game on the internet.
I have no problem downloading games or other software packages (I have a good connection). But when I've payed, download, and it's registered, that should be the end of it.
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| 20 APR 2007 at 5:02pm |
papillonSorcerer Apprentice
Posts : 340
Joined: 3 JUL 2003
Status : Online |
If you download a game and your computer dies - you don't have the CD to reinstall from.
You do if you burn the install file to a backup CD. That's why I'm differentiating from games that DO let you make backup copies and games that DON'T.
Many digital download services also let you order the file on CD (for an extra charge). This gets you past all the annoying downloading. It just won't have the fancy retail packaging.
Retail packaging is nice. I'm just saying that an individual cannot finish a game on Monday and have it in stores on Tuesday. They may not be able to have it in stores AT ALL. They have to find a company who will agree to publish them, and that company has to find stores that will agree to carry the product, and so on. So far we've been lucky in that specialist publishers have generally been willing to pick up small independent adventure games. That's not a guarantee for the future though.
I know as a game developer I'd prefer to be able to make my games available in as many methods as possible, so it's not like I'd ignore a retail option if it were offered to me. (I'm currently working on my first retail item... no idea when it will finally be out though. I filed all the code last month and haven't heard back since...)
[url=http://whineaboutgames.blogspot.com]I Whine About Games[/url]&&&&[url=http://www.hanakogames.com]Anime Games[/url]
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| 20 APR 2007 at 8:43pm |
Jenny100Guild Master
Posts : 3510
Joined: 12 OCT 2002
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By Caroline (19 APR 2007 8:52pm)
Recently Microsoft have been pestering me to download an update for my Windows that will verify if it's a genuine copy and alert me if it isn't. As it is genuine, I don't need such a thing but what would it do if it found a pirate copy? Fry my motherboard?
It would give you a certain amount of time to buy a legitimate version and after that time would make your Windows stop working. As to whether your Windows is genuine or not, how can anyone know for sure that someone with a pirate copy hasn't used a key generator to generate a key that's the exact same as yours, and that MS doesn't misidentify your legitimate version as the pirate version?
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| 20 APR 2007 at 9:04pm |
Terry PenrodGrand Inquisitor
Posts : 6693
Joined: 16 OCT 2004
Location: US, Texas
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By papillon (20 APR 2007 5:02pm)
If you download a game and your computer dies - you don't have the CD to reinstall from.
You do if you burn the install file to a backup CD. That's why I'm differentiating from games that DO let you make backup copies and games that DON'T.
Many digital download services also let you order the file on CD (for an extra charge). This gets you past all the annoying downloading. It just won't have the fancy retail packaging.
Retail packaging is nice. I'm just saying that an individual cannot finish a game on Monday and have it in stores on Tuesday. They may not be able to have it in stores AT ALL. They have to find a company who will agree to publish them, and that company has to find stores that will agree to carry the product, and so on. So far we've been lucky in that specialist publishers have generally been willing to pick up small independent adventure games. That's not a guarantee for the future though.
I know as a game developer I'd prefer to be able to make my games available in as many methods as possible, so it's not like I'd ignore a retail option if it were offered to me. (I'm currently working on my first retail item... no idea when it will finally be out though. I filed all the code last month and haven't heard back since...)
As a consumer I also want as many viable options as possible for purchasing games including;
1. Direct downloads at a discounted price that allow for legal back-up copies (otherwise no sale here)
2. Online purchase of CD/DVD "jewel-case" versions to be delivered at a reasonable price including shipping
3. Online purchase of full retail boxed versions with all the extras at full price + shipping
4. Brick & mortar purchase of CD/DVD "jewel-case" versions at a discounted price
5. Brick & mortar purchase of full retail boxed versions with all the extras at full price
6. Used, bargain bin, re-released and specially packaged / bundled games of all kinds purchased online and off
Cheers, Terry
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