Frogboy

Good to see you emerged from these difficulties relatively unscathed. Yet another blow against the "We need DRM to keep profitable" argument

If there's one thing I learned in highschool, the people who pirate invariably won't purchase the game.  If they can't get it for free, they'll find something else to pirate.  Even if you do stop them (that'll take a miracle in the age of the torrent), they'll just go off and play something else.  DRM is a waste of your time and effort, and I'm glad to see there's at least one rational publisher in the industry!

I remember reading just a few weeks ago about a Neverwinter Nights expansion pack that got delayed for two years because they had to re-engineer the DRM to work properly on it.  Even forgetting time value of money, can you imagine how many sales they lost because people have moved on or forgotten NWN?  It's just crazy, and the thing will be on torrents within a few days anyways!

But you are nice guys (and girls) as well

if you’re one of those people on Hamachi or GameRanger playing a pirated copy and have been for more than a few days, then you should either buy it or accept that you’re a thief and quit rationalizing it any other way.

I totally agree with you. The one thing I hate most about pirates is the way they constantly try to justify their actions -- trying to lay the blame on anyone but themselves. "Oh, I pirated it due to the DRM" or "I pirated it due to there being no demo" or "I pirated it because it's too expensive" or "I pirated it because it's crap!" and so on.

We all already know the first claim is false, look at games like World of Goo --  an indie game with no DRM and the pirates are still all over it. In cases where there is no demo, why can't they simply wait for one? (And note to developers, that don't put out demos; start putting them out.)

If it's too expensive, then either save up or buy it when the price goes down. The price of the game is never a valid reason to steal it -- and don't start on the "it's not theft, it's copyright infringement" argument. By not paying for the game and playing it, you're stealing income the developers should have gotten from you. That's theft. And in the final case, if it's too poor in quality to pay for it, then simply don't play it.

Why do pirates always assume that they simply MUST play every game even if they can't afford to buy it or are not willing to buy it? That's what I hate about *those* people. And please, don't try to use your geographical location as a way of justifying piracy either. Don't try the, "it's not sold where I live, so I had no choice" argument; *I* live in a country where PC games are not sold domestically, yet I manage perfectly well to purchase games. Thank you very much.

So yeah, I agree. These thieves need to stop trying to explain how they couldn't possibly be thieves and accept the simply fact that they are.

I also don't think, on the publisher's side, that DRM is a valid solution. Legitimate customers should be rewarded for their purchase, not treated like they can't be trusted. I really hope that with Demigod, we will see some additional content which is simply never going to be accessible to the thieves. But I'm not an idiot, I expect they will still find a way to steal the additional content too . I really hate pirates. They ruin it for the rest of us.

I agree to most of it but I have to disagree (and Im sure im not alone) that the game has been rushed out a little bit.

As a beta tester I didnt have much problem with the netcode but I seen others having. And we were still doing some networking test days before release that were not that successfull for some... and not to mention that the core basic of the game skill utilisation is having problem(mostly at single target skill) ex: With beast, use spit on a dmigod and try using foul grasp immediatly after without insuing a move command; your character will not move and the skill (even if we are in range) wont work at all.

This skill bug is a major character utilisation bug ;its easy to reproduce with many character and I think it shouldnt have been at release since I consider it major / evident bug and not to mention it as been reported several times. They are easy to reproduce with QoT (shielding other demigod),beast (foul grasp), Sedna (healing other demigod)Erebus (bite) etc.

I would say the problem we encounter at the first day of demigod release was hard to predict so I dont blame stardock or gpg on this one but the fack that the netcode is flacky at release yes they are to blame imo. I think the proxy should have been in place before release because even in beta doing a 4vs4 or 5vs5 was imposible and we were only a few beta testers.

So for me (and I shoud say i'm not alone thinking this). The game could have been more polished before release. so yes rushed a little bit.

BUT. since gpg / stardock have some kind of agreement for long supporting the game with patchs and expansion, I think its not a big problem that the game may have been rushed a bit because in the end mostly everything should get fixed.

So im not angry at them since they are commited to support the game after release and not let it die so its good thing in the end.

Oh and also. Nice job for making in the top 10 sales

P.S I may sound I talk a bit negative about the game but I wish to let know at Frogboy I do really like the game ( In fact one of my most favorite game since the last few years)and hope he can understand my point of view ;. Im only expressing my personal opinion here and I could be wrong on some point.

This I can get behind.

Imagine if the game was 10$ less like it should have been...

I know with the original Sins license, you were allowed to install it on another computer for LAN play. I don't think they wanted you to do that 8 times, but once or twice was okay.

I don't know if that's allowed with Demigod, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was.

I agree with you, though. Those copies were called "spawns" in the Blizzard installer. It would only let you play if the person who spawned your copy was in the game, but they led to a lot of fun and a lot of eventual sales.

The Demigod license, as written (I actually read EULAs when they're nice and short...), allows an install on one computer, and a second install on another computer, provided you're the primary user of that computer.  From the EULA itself:

"YOU MAY:
1. Install and use one copy of the SOFTWARE on a single computer.
2. Install a second copy of the SOFTWARE on a second computer only if you are the main user of this computer (home computer or laptop for example).
3. Install the SOFTWARE on another computer only if you change your main workstation. In such a case you must uninstall the software from the old computer.
4. Use the SOFTWARE via a network, only if you have purchased an adequate number of licenses. The number of users must not exceed the number of licenses you have purchased.
5. Make a copy of the SOFTWARE for archival purposes only."

So, one install for you, one install on another computer that's yours.  Third install requires taking it off the first computer, and playing on a network requires one copy per person--per the EULA.

Well, there you go!

I don't think the line is really as simple as that. There IS a pretty big group of people who overlap in between the pirates and the non-pirtates, I'm one of those people. The reason why I support Stardock and some of the more recent purchases I've made is that the games offer me something which make me think the purchase is worth it. More importantly it makes other people think the same way about my purchases thus resulting in them buying it as well.

We did have a variation on that problem where you couldn't open a shop/citadel after closing it if you didn't first move.  That was fixed, but somehow ended up with skill use in the release version.  I know the beta and gamma codelines were different so that is why we didn't see it.