Why i like stardock

Legion · 05-04-2009, 10:25

Yes i'm a pirate. I have a pirated version of demigod because i wanted to test it. But not due to the game being really good and that the developer has also no DRM protection on it i will buy it as soon as i get some cash. So is piracy a bad thing? Well read the article below.. and also from me getting this game and later on buying it, and playing it with my friends i have generated about 10 more sales of the game. And one more reason why i'm going to buy it is due to that stardock is a developer that cares about their customers and that understands the new times.

Quote:

Stardock is developer behind titles Galactic Civilizations II and the new role play Demigod. In order not to pose a burden for their paying customers, the company has chosen not to copy-protect their games with DRM technology, which has had some unexpected side effects.

When online servers opened expected Stardock around 50 000 online users, but it turned out that more than 140 000 clients trying to connect to the same time which of course caused major problems. An analysis of the traffic indicated that around 12 percent of calls came from legitimate copies, the rest from piracy.

The company quickly went out with an apology to their paying customers with blame, interestingly, not the problems of piracy. Instead came the rapid upgrading pointing on legitimate copies to the new servers. While Stardocks forum filled with posts from users who "confessed" that it had downloaded an illegal copy to test the game but that they would buy a legal version because they liked both the game and the company's attitude. Indeed Demigod has also sold very well the last time.

As a further sign of Stardocks consumer friendly attitude is a contribution from the company's CEO.

- Book in general does not seem to understand that there will always be players who are willing to pay and players who do not pay. Focus on a business must be to increase sales. Although we do not like illegal copies, but my job is not to bother me over the pirates. Instead, I focus on making its customers happy.

Angel of Death · 05-04-2009, 16:30

It doesn't surprise those who pirate when stats like that are thrown around. Piracy will go down as the greatest thing to ever happen to music....as soon as the RIAA gets their head out of their ass.

In my opinion, the same things needs to be said about game developers.

Developers have lost track of what should be important. What happened to demos? I'll tell you what happened, people got to test the game first, realized it was crap and then didn't buy the game.

There are definately two sides to the demo argument. If a game's quality or fun factor just isn't there, it will be blatently obvious by the demo. But without a demo, people will pirate the game to try it.

It's a lose lose situation for developers, but as far as I'm concerned, a demo should be released prior to gold release if they want to avoid insane piracy rates. After a player has downloaded a game, chances are they are going to keep playing the pirated version.

Choose the lesser of two evils, release a demo FIRST

Skam · 05-04-2009, 17:34

I like stardock because when you enter the ircchannel there, you can occationally hear "Frogboy" (a dev.) ranting about patches that doesnt work out the way its supposed to do. Last time I think he was a millimeter away from throwing the computer out the window and break down in tears (if he didnt.)

I think the last I heard of him he was saying he would never, ever, develop another p2p game, EVER.

- But yes, in spite of the connection issues they had in the beginning which was caused by the piracy, and caused alot of problems for the people who had actually preordered the game (such as myself.) I think they have handled the piracy issue very well.

The connection problems is still a issue though. And it bothers me in particular since my computer is crap and every game has to go by my simspeed for everyone else aswell. Which really sucks for the others. Im used to it, but its a pain listening to people complain about it..

Angel of Death · 05-05-2009, 12:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skam

I like stardock because when you enter the ircchannel there, you can occationally hear "Frogboy" (a dev.) ranting about patches that doesnt work out the way its supposed to do. Last time I think he was a millimeter away from throwing the computer out the window and break down in tears (if he didnt.)

Stardock is one of the most in-touch with the gamer developers I have ever seen. It's purely awesome.