Messages

1

General / Re: Aquaria on STEAM!!

« on: December 28, 2008, 04:51:54 am »

Can someone answer the question if we will be able to use our key code to activate it trough steam for the people that have already bought the game?

One of the problems with this is that Valve must be provided with a list of every CD-key printed for the game. That doesn't sound like the sort of info Alec has.

But speaking of Steam... Does anyone else see a problem with this? I hope this doesn't hurt your business.

I'm pretty sure all sales are agreed and negotiated well in advance. Look at bioshock, still worth about £20-£30 on sale for only £3.50.

2

General / Re: Applauding the DRM removal

« on: December 23, 2008, 07:46:40 am »

I don't think that I

I'm a fairly "extreme" anti-DRM guy, but that's mostly because it amazes me what freedoms people are willing to give up in exchange for... nothing.  What Alec said basically sums up my entire viewpoint very succinctly.  Well spoken.

was saying whether drm was effective against piracy or not, I believe my comment was that people who rant about drm are usually informed pirates which of course is just encouraging my conclusions here.

See, IMO and probably others that a dangerous statement, why? because as much as you are saying you don't agree with DRM you are saying those who stand against it are pretty much pirates, well informed ones at that. If thats the case why bother saying you support the view, when you are mocking them later on for it? Someone has to stay clued up on it otherwise the whole thing regarding DRM would have just floated under the bridge with bioshock and we'd all be having a horrible time with the smallest of games. Ignorance doesn't get you anywhere.

As I said since DRM is pretty much as pathetic as regular copy protection surely pirates are welcoming it as it often ends up cut through faster and they can keep their version until the world ends and never have to jump through activation hoops like legitimate consumers.

Theres plenty for people to disagree with DRM so branding everyone who disagrees with it as informed pirates is an utter joke. I'm sure if more of your average joe consumer caught wind of what they where buying with spore or (i'm assuming here) the sims 3 there would be a lot more who disagree with it.

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General / Re: Applauding the DRM removal

« on: December 23, 2008, 01:01:40 am »

This debate usually gets silly very fast, because people take it to either one extreme or the other, when in reality, there isn't much of an issue for the people/companies in between.

Extreme A:
Piracy is destroying the games/music industry
Not true, both industries seem to be surviving, especially the big companies. That's not to say piracy doesn't have an impact, in fact piracy probably hurts small developers the most.

Insane DRM is the answer!
Obviously not. This has proven to be wrong many times.

Extreme B:
All DRM is SecuROM, i.e. evil
While SecuROM is terrible, and I wouldn't personally want to install a game that has it, only certain games use SecuROM. And Aquaria certainly wasn't one of them.

DRM has no positive effect for anyone
Light DRM causes hardly any annoyance to customers, and prevents casual piracy.

Piracy has no effect on game sales / the music industry / etc
Obviously its having an effect. To deny any kind of negative impact is silly.

Pretty much summed it all up.

Just a few points I would like to add on to though:

Securom used to be reasonable, I never had an issue with it and when bethesda said fallout 3 would only use it in its traditional form of copy protection not DRM I was happy... Until I got fallout 3 and it stopped me installing... then playing the game... Thank god bethesda put the loophole in. At that moment in time my system was fresh after a format with only the basics loaded (drivers, etc). Not even sony have a clue what triggers securom off. I'm generally more impartial towards securom's "darker" side for me its more about the playablity and limited activations.

Even securom isn't alone in being whacked out, TAGES used to be reasonable, now they require a driver to be installed. A driver which is known to cause BSOD's on x64bit operating systems and speaking from experience its quite a nasty experience.

I agree with the point on light DRM, look at steam. Its much more agreeable with its DRM implementation, its as simple as owning the account and logging in, none of this "authorise this pc" "deauthorise that one" "contact support because its used up all the activations" etc. I own many games on steam (hence my question in other threads regarding activating aquaria thats a different matter for a different thread though ).

As much as I would like to comment on piracy its hard to. It is obvious it has an effect, the question is how much of an effect. I think the worst offender for playing UP piracy is ubisoft by far, just look at all the lengths they go to its stupidly ridiculous:
Delay PC game releases
Horrible form of DRM
Suing people (granted more of an issue outside the US)

Although the bottom one SOUNDS fair, its not, just look up davenport lyons. Its somewhat of an issue thats out of control. While doing all this against PC versions of their games the others go on in the background, leaked before release and ubisoft ignoring it.

Well, here are the results I'd like to see:

* Bitch at the companies that use insane DRM. Make them change their policies. (this is already in progress)
* Support indie developers, because they're awesome.

Done and done, especially the 2nd. If only braid would hurry up with its PC version... (even though I already have the 360 version).

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General / Re: Applauding the DRM removal

« on: December 22, 2008, 11:03:34 pm »

anecdotal observation has led me to conclude that most people who go on the most about DRM are not honest customers, but informed pirates. I don't think there's much wrong with DRM and I've sailed the high cd's yarrr, it's just where it's abused. if there was a legitimate reason to reactivate this game it probably wouldn't be an issue but in cases like with MS products where if you change your hardware profile then your copy of Windows becomes inactive, that's where it's anti-customer. just because a developer attaches some copy protection on their product dosn't make them anti-customer. 

If you want to think that way then go head, its a stupid short sighted ignorant opinion.

If you where paying attention which I guess you aren't when you come to dumb conclusions like that you would notice DRM does NOTHING to stop piracy. In the end run it just hinders the end user in more ways than one. DRM doesn't fair any better than basic copy protection and basic copy protection is less of a hassle all over, its a simple as keeping the disk in the drive until the point the developers patch it out.

DRM however limits you to what you can do with your PC, since its somewhat resident it kicks up more of a fuss over what applications you use on your PC. If I want to use nero or roxio to burn whatever I feel I will, even uninstalling them doesn't guarentee i'll be able to play the game without DRM kicking up a fuss. Not to mention DRM limits how I upgrade my PC, change a part of two and whoops i've used an activation.

All this even before you go on to the legality of securom and it violating several license agreements including ones its built upon (OpenSSL for one). Then theres consumer rights and civil rights, even homeland security in the US says its illegal for DRM to be install without the user being aware and there securom is rootkitting the living bejebus out of peoples PC's then pulling a hitler deciding how they run their PC.

Developers in the case of EA/Ubisoft are stupid for thinking it will reduce piracy, infact do they? Personally I think they're more after the second hand sales, think of the times they've gone on record saying second hand sales are at "epidemic"  levels. You think they aren't "anti-consumer" when they're more willing to push higher priced console versions which run better? Think of all the bad ports which hit the PC with the latest being GTA4. Not to mention how quick and helpful their customer support is, incase you haven't used it i'll give you a hint, it sucks, pray you never have to use it.

If you think this is just for pirates then go ahead. Just remember the difference between windows and a quick game is some 300-500 dollars/pounds/euros and you can do far more with windows and the activation of it is far more relaxed than what we are seeing on games. You aren't going to buy windows then take it back to the store and part exchange it for value towards the latest new version are you?

The movie industry tried DRM, it failed and backed out. The music industry is noticing DRM is failing and is backing out, offering clean music. The gaming industry is jumping late on the bandwagon of failure which is riding straight to failure town, the only route it knows.

Theres far more at stake here than just "protecting" a game, you are dictating how people use THEIR PC's and what they can do. I'm the one putting the cash up to buy the PC, why should I the honest consumer allow some corporate suit dictate what I can do on it to humour their paranoid ideas.

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General / Re: Apply Aquaria?

« on: December 16, 2008, 09:26:12 pm »

A few people including myself have asked this in the steam topic.

This is a better place though, with it being a separate topic and all.

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General / Re: Aquaria on STEAM?

« on: December 16, 2008, 04:39:23 am »

I've just seen the announcement on steam and think its awesome that it happened .

With it being on steam its bound to get more recognition.


Although I share the same thoughts/questions as others, will we be able to use our regular keys on the steam version at some point in the future?

I preordered World of Goo before it was announced on steam and thought it was great that they allowed people to activate it on steam and get all the benefits like the achievements too. It took a week or so to implement but the wait didn't matter.

It'd be great if this was implemented too for aquaria as well.

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General / Re: Aquaria needs to be on XBLA!

« on: December 11, 2007, 06:00:23 pm »

Given the amount of people who own a 360 vs a PS3 and the costs involved in both it would be far more cost effective to go with microsoft if it where to happen at all, not to mention the PS3 is awkward to develop for, if you are new to it it could be a very long road ahead.

Also hasn't anyone considered the price point and how it would be delivered on a console? if you think about it microsoft arcade titles are on average 800 points, few pushing it to 1200 (like luminies was and the xbox original titles), 1600 microsoft points costs about $20, the game is retailing on pc for $30, so either the game would have to come down in price or it would have a high microsoft point price tag to match the pc version cost which would reduce its likely hood of people buying it.

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Gameplay / Re: A La Carte - Recipe tool-tips

« on: December 09, 2007, 08:03:04 pm »

I agree, I was kind of disappointed when I was stuck needing a quick heal recipe and couldn't tell what each cooked item did.