Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Micro102]

And if someone has to get a new computer?

EA has sickened me even more......The only possible upside to this would be more people will start looking for freeware games and play DF.

[LeoLeonardoIII]

And, the online component is expected to be a paid service if the company runs the servers.

This is why I'm surprised that Battle.Net doesn't cost anything.

But if you are signed up for a game service like XBL, that should be your only fee for online play. Unless you're in an MMO setting, in which case you should not have to pay for an XBL subscription. (Though they will of course demand it).

But if the game has servers hosted by the player community, like with a lot of FPS out there, then there is no reason to have to pay a subscription or even company-server activation. With those games, once the company has sold it, it's out of their hands. The player community handles the rest. The company just has to do bugfixes and sell the occasional expansion pack.

[buckets]

I'm pretty big when it come to anti EA, not too much of a fan and all that.

But I'm ok with their current thing, I don't buy EA games. Because they're shit.

[Micro102]

It seems like everything EA does also has an attempted assassination of the used game market.

[LeoLeonardoIII]

I rather liked SSX3. It's a snowboarding game. Good for the occasional romp when you don't want to think. But it's really a lot less fun when you get good at it, because all the jumps and such are just these long funky tricks. I'd say the first third of the game is good.

[Micro102]

And was that worth your one time installation that you cannot resell?

[Soulwynd]

And was that worth your one time installation that you cannot resell?

That's called Steam.

[Sensei]

This really strikes a foul note with me. Nonetheless, considering EA pays to keep their servers up, it's not absurd. However I predict lots of issues where reinstalling etc is concerned.

[Micro102]

And was that worth your one time installation that you cannot resell?

That's called Steam.

You have to pay 10$ every time you want to install it on another computer? I don't think so.

[Nirur Torir]

I don't generally support EA, but I see nothing wrong with this, if it works without harming the original buyer. I've haven't tried to sell a game I bought over Steam or Impulse, but I don't remember seeing any way to do so.

I haven't checked in a few years, but I remember Stardock linking CD-keys to an account, and only allowing people to download updates with the account that had the unique CD-key. Without updates, it's hard to play online.

I don't have a GoG account, but I'm pretty sure that GoG doesn't let people re-sell games after giving the them the ability to burn them to CDs. I've never seen a complaint about them not allowing people to sell games from their account.

How is that better then EA's new policy (the theoretical idea, not counting implementation errors)? The ease with which patches can be pirated for PC games and people not being forced to play over official servers? The ease with which account information can be given to friends to download and play the games? The ease with which digital copies can be made over physical copies? Or is it just because EA games aren't as valuable?

[Micro102]

Well someone confirm this too me. You get 1 installation per code? If your computer breaks or you change a piece of your computer and it registers it as a different computer (works like spore DRM) then you have to pay 10$ for a new code so you can install a game you already paid for?

[Zai]

And was that worth your one time installation that you cannot resell?

That's called Steam.

...No. Steam doesn't limit you to one installation. I've installed several games I bought on it on both my desktop and my (currently dead) laptop, and even includes "Steam Cloud" support in a lot of games, which means your in-game settings and/or saves are linked to your account (I typically just disable this feature because I couldn't play much on my laptop before it died and right now I only use my desktop). It does however limit you to one account. This means if you want to resell a single game you'd have to sell your account (and I'm unsure if that violates a Terms of Service or not).

[Volatar]

Steam has no install limits. If you want proof of this: I have my steam games installed on no less than 5 computers at this very moment.

[Tilla]

I don't generally support EA, but I see nothing wrong with this, if it works without harming the original buyer. I've haven't tried to sell a game I bought over Steam or Impulse, but I don't remember seeing any way to do so.

I haven't checked in a few years, but I remember Stardock linking CD-keys to an account, and only allowing people to download updates with the account that had the unique CD-key. Without updates, it's hard to play online.

I don't have a GoG account, but I'm pretty sure that GoG doesn't let people re-sell games after giving the them the ability to burn them to CDs. I've never seen a complaint about them not allowing people to sell games from their account.

Literally every one of these things you stated is at least theoretically false. You are allowed to gift your Steam games to other players it just doesn't have a built in mechanism for transferring payment to the sender, GoG has no lock-in of any sort being 100 percent DRM free, and Stardock only ever checks keys for downloading Patches. They will not restrict you in any way from doing what you want.

Of course the main difference is this: the mechanisms in Steam and Impulse are mostly anti-piracy. This is anti-resale, which if I remember correctly is probably illegal.

[Sensei]

It's firmly in Dubious territory. With Gamestop backing it, I doubt litigation against this would be successful.