Venym

[quote who="Annatar11" reply="17" id="1872676"] ... you aren't winning any friends among all those "lied to" consumers you claim to represent [/quote] It's a good thing I don't count my friends on this forum, wouldn't you say Annatar? Regarding Impulse not being a "lock-in" mechanism, please feel free to brush up on what customer "lock-in" means (for starters, customer "lock-in" doesn't mean that Impulse checks the CD key before the game starts). Also, I'm not goi

[quote who="Frogboy" reply="15" id="1872473"] Venym, I will happily give you a full refund. Say the word. Otherwise, give it a rest.[/quote] Maybe you misread what I said. I'm not talking about refunds (though that is partially a good option at this point). I'm talking about you baiting customers with your false claims of being anti-DRM (now anti copy-protection). Cheating on your customers' trust is morally bankrupt--in other industries, it's called false adv

[quote who="Frogboy" reply="10" id="1871718"]Sins of a Solar Empire has no copy protection whatsoever. Not even activation.[/quote] Right, but that still relates to what I said in my post--you're "anti copy-protection", but pro-DRM (Impulse). Please refer to reply #5 for elaboration. [quote who="Frogboy" reply="10" id="1871718"]But to get updates, yes, we insist that we can verify who is getting

Nice public relations save, Brad Wardell. In the past, you've been able to bolster your sales by appealing to disgrunted gamers. You have done so by "taking their side" and criticizing DRM--this in turn makes them supportive of you and thus more likely to buy your games. I should know, that was a significant factor behind my purchase of SoaSE: Collector's Edition. Recently though, you performed a complete 180 on us</st

Traise713's post brought up some good points (see points #3, #7, and #10), though I think he overinterpreted the "Gamers Bill of Rights" when he brought up a possible union of delegates that represent the entire body of gamers , among other things. There is a big difference between a genuine democratic process and "new" industry standards, at least in current society. <

Steam and Impulse, both being DRM, fall in exactly the same dilemma. When they go under, where will all their games/updates go?

Fair enough, Frogboy. For a redirect of the Impulse/SoaSe discussion started here, please refer to [link="https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/317632"]this thread[/link].

[quote]The Ironclad Games team is who should really be thanked for such high quality updates. It is their dedication to making Sins a great game that has made the real difference. I for one salute them.[/quote] [B]Agreed![/B] Most of us here acknowledge the sheer excellence of SoaSe. As I have said before (in Post #121 on Page 5), I think this patch in and of itself is one of the most impressive patches I've ever seen released for any game. With that truth in mind, our posts

No further hijacking of this thread to debate online delivery methods.

[quote]Sins manual, page 75: Updated versions of the SOFTWARE made available after the release will [color="#FF0000"][B]require Internet access[/B][/color] to activate the update. Alternatively, users may send an email with a special code to be sent back the file needed to activate the Registered Version on a machine without direct Internet access. Please see https://www.stardock.com/StardockActivationInfo.asp for more information. Updates [B][color="#FF0000"]can be obtained[/color][/B] fr

[quote]There is nothing shameful in making money doing what you love.[/quote] Of course not. [quote]We didn't have to release this much free content this late after release.[/quote] True, you didn't, but if you didn't nobody would buy your games anymore. So making the assumption that Ironclad wants to exist beyond SoaSe, you DO have to patch it. After all, patching is a very important selling point. This is evidenced by the many patches in Starcraft, Warcraft 3, Tea

[quote]How does them requiring you to download the patch via Impulse lead to not producing the same quality / quantity of patches?[/quote] As mentioned before, a company has two ways to increase revenue--increase market share and/or "lock-in" its existing market share. [B]Option A: Increase Market Share[/B]) There are multiple ways to increase market share--make an excellent product, advertise to new customers, and/or bankrupt competitors. Seeing as how advertising to new cus

[quote]Stardock still updates Galactic Civilizations -- 2 years later ...[/quote] That is quite misleading--you no longer update the Galactic Civilizations you released 2 years ago, you update the 2nd expansion pack that you released a month ago. I haven't played Galactic Civilizations 2, but from what I've read the statistics seem to be: [B]Galactic Civilizations 2: Dread Lords[/B] Game Release Date (USA): February 21, 2006 Latest Patch Release (1.4x): Octob

[quote]It has nothing to do with "copy protection".[/quote] You're right. It has much more to do with "locking-in" your customers with exclusive distribution schemes instead of winning us over by improving the game. There are two ways that companies generally tend to make money--either appeal to new customers by improving their products and/or "lock-in" their existing customers to guarantee/increase revenue. This is widely documented in many industries, and these "lock-in" sc

[quote]Note that all of updates for these games are available only through the Steam distribution platform, and none of the doom-and-gloom scenarios you painted have happened.[/quote] Steam and Impulse are both obviously good ideas and boast a superior method of distribution; however, they can just as easily be used for malicious purposes. The reason why these "doom-and-gloom" scenarios haven't occurred yet is because these games that you listed (Counterstrike, Team Fortress, etc.) a

[quote]I imagine only a person who is a pirate would have a problem with using Impulse. Stop making waves over nothing.[/quote] Not true. I have Impulse, and I bought Sins of a Solar Empire: Collector's Edition. And I DO have a problem with using Impulse as the exclusive means to deliver patches. And being a customer, I'd like stand-alone patches as an alternative to Impulse. Don't get me wrong, I think Impulse is a very good idea. However, it [I]could[/I] also turn out to

[quote]This beta update will be available only through Stardock's new Impulse platform sometime in mid-July. [B]We will no longer be providing standalone patches for future versions of the game.[/B][/quote] And previously, regarding how Stardock shouldn't "punish it's customers for piracy": [quote]The reason why we don't put CD copy protection on our games isn't because we're nice guys. We do it because the people who actually buy games don't like to mess with it. Our customers