[Madfish]

First of all, Steam makes it harder to mod. Ok, but what's good about that? Mods and custom content are part of what kept IL-2, no almost any decent game out there, alive. And even if you don't like mods... no game makes it necessary to be modded so that's not a point really.

Steam has disappointed me many times already. Also I don't like buying not a product but a very questionable download license that can be revoked at any time. Not happening. On top of all you basically get spy and adware installed on your system AND steam is dangerous because if it'd succeed we would have a total monoculture when it comes to distribution. If you like that, fine, I don't.



When it comes to DRM and piracy. Piracy is not a problem at all. A ton of research has been done on that topic and even games companies, mostly indie ones, admit to these facts. In fact many people wouldn't buy they game anyways, they pirate it, yes, but they wouldn't buy it if they couldn't pirate it. So usually it's NOT stealing a sale, all it does is making the game more popular so more people WILL buy it.
Secondly it was estimated that most pirates download 4-5 games per month in average. Valid players buy 2-3 games per year in average. Most pirates don't even play games seriously or at all. Many of them start a game and quit it after 3 days. Only a very few amazingly popular games are being pirated and played. And if that is the case then mostly because of DRM. Which means many people, myself included, needed to actually crack or download a "clean" version just to be able to play a game they BOUGHT. On the other hand side I haven't seen any of these games coming out with under at least 10 million profit. So there can't be much harm done here. Remember what economy is like: We can't generate absurd amounts of profit from material and physical labor and transfer it to effortless digital copies of the same bits and bytes. That will essentially draw out all money from the real industry and transfer it to a bits & bytes bubble. No one can eat games. No one can sleep on them or drive them to work. Game studios and publishers seriously need to throttle down their shareholder revenues. Look at Blizzard Activision, Ubi, EA, even SEGA! A company that everyone thought was dead - they're raking in absurd amounts of money and that with tinkered financial reports!

Yes, this game is different. It's a niche product and I tried to make suggestions on how to get it out of there (game modes). But seriously, simmers are hardcore fans and they will not pirate a game that easily. Only people who cannot pay for it anyways will. That's not really a lost sale.

Asking for a DRM free game is far from blunt. I said I will pay so what right do they have to DRM me for this? None. On the other hand side I will not pay a penny and maybe grad it after years for a few bucks if they do DRM it. It's their choice.


One sidenote on your mention of music. Music has gotten sick. Originally music was inteded to be copied. It was made to be sung and copied and performed. That is how it originated, how it integrated into the culture and how it grew. Nowadays artists usually steal. They steal the techniques, they steal music theory and research, they even steal inspiration or simply cover the hell out of "forgotten glory". But they expect everyone to pay? I don't think that will happen. Ever. People don't have to be computer smart to dislike that industry. They just have to be intelligent. The music industry doesn't do anything for the user. They even hinder him. I can't count the number of broken CD's I have. They won't give me a cheap exchange either. Copying the CD as my personal backup is illegal though and the industry hates lossless standards just so they can sell the same song over and over again.
Your friends are probably just bad at promotion or music or their music is so niche that they just can't live off of it. Big deal, get real and get a job. I do art as well but can't live off of it. So I do a normal job. What's the problem with that? I dislike the princess syndrome - not everyone can be that lucky to earn millions in their sleep!
If they need help I could lend them a hand. You can PM me and I can look over their marketing strategies and overall quality of covers, artworks, promotion, website, viral marketing etc.

Next is eaglydynamics. I don't see a game that hasn't been cracked from them. Note: Multiplayer usually doesn't work. Rarely pirated titles support multiplayer but in general I don't see where they had more success fighting piracy than anyone else out there. And please keep in mind: Hardcore flight sims are a niche product! No one... plays them. A very small minority. So the fact that even their stuff has been cracked means that it's basically pointless to be an ass to your customers just for your own profit.


We could go on about this for days but usually the defenders are not reasonable anyways. I could tell you for example what costs are added just for copy protection. Copy protection that usually does nothing! At least nothing good.
The fact for me is: if this title will get released under reasonable conditions I will pay, play and promote. If it doesn't I will not pay, not play and warn everyone to stay the hell away from it.
There are a ton of other games out there and there's also real life. I don't have to pay money for being kicked in the butt. Paying customers should be treated with respect. That's an imperative in the material world, where people would sue you to death if you deliver such low quality and intrude into their personal lives and it shouldn't be any different in the digital sphere either.


Sorry for that lenghy post and the strong language but I hope I made some understandable points. If this discussion goes on I might add another post with good research material and statistics and then just drop it, wait and eventually stay away from the game. I will only play this if it's not intruding my computer, rootkitting it, spying on me, my hardware, my software and habits as well as not employing some messed up server side authorization crap that prevents me from playing it should I not have an internet connection or something like that.
When I buy a game, I want to get a disc or download, install it and forget about it. Not worrying about what might happen if there is bad weather, if an earthquake takes out the authorization servers or if someone just doesn't like me and blocks my account for no reason.
On the other hand side I do know that I bought a number (more than 10!) of games even multiple times already. Even sims (For example Freespace etc. I bought that about 3 times, along with Freespace 2) and SoW could be one of them because I'd want to get my girlfriend to try it out and fly with me I suppose. That said it's up to them and I really hope people would rise their heads and not accept that slavery. I was hoping slavery is a thing of the past but recently it got more and more popular again with the media industry.

Best regards,
Madfish