Wow what a day for drama yesterday in the PC Wargaming world. First we get news that John Tiller is going to strike out on his own, open a new online store and offer his first title for digital download. Then the entire stink flared up about only allowing one install of the game with the serial key method. After taking a 6 page forum thread beatdown on the Wargamer.com (which I accidentally started by announcing the entire affair) it seems that John Tiller and crew have relented a bit on the installation scheme:
This is from Glenn Saunders off the Blitz.Org:
Who says crotchety old wargamers cannot have INTRAWEBZ drama? Give me a break. I make one post on the Wargamer and the fucking DRM Nazi's come out in full force. Then I get yelled at on the Matrix boards. Hey Erik Rutins how about you police the assholes on the boards that degenerate every thread into a DRM argument? Many of us have been around these boards for a while but this is getting ridiculous. I'm not the only one either, it kicked up quite a stir apparently:
http://wargamerwithoutcause.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/the-week-in-whining-wargamer-hobos-and-the-anti-drm-taliban-strike-again
Just shut my post down then or move the DRM people into a permanent sticky. I'm almost afraid to post any wargaming news thanks to those people and they are running your boards Matrix
In further news the lead designer of Kharkov 43 wants your questions at the same site on The Blitz.Org
http://www.theblitz.org/message_boards/showthread.php?tid=57489
UPDATE TWO:
This is from Glenn Saunders off the Blitz.Org:
Guys:
John has decided to alter the DRM Code to allow for two PC instances so players who move between a main PC and a laptop will be able to do so.
The code for this has been written but it needs to be tested and we'll start that tomorrow with the idea being to make it available later in the day if all goes well. The change doesn't affect the copy of the game that people may have downloaded already - the change is on John's server end
If you have already got your game installed and want to be one of the first to try a second install on your other PC, drop me a line and I will contact you when the code is ready to go.
Thanks for all your comments today - rest assure we read them all and respect the opinions of the community.
Glenn
Who says crotchety old wargamers cannot have INTRAWEBZ drama? Give me a break. I make one post on the Wargamer and the fucking DRM Nazi's come out in full force. Then I get yelled at on the Matrix boards. Hey Erik Rutins how about you police the assholes on the boards that degenerate every thread into a DRM argument? Many of us have been around these boards for a while but this is getting ridiculous. I'm not the only one either, it kicked up quite a stir apparently:
http://wargamerwithoutcause.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/the-week-in-whining-wargamer-hobos-and-the-anti-drm-taliban-strike-again
Just shut my post down then or move the DRM people into a permanent sticky. I'm almost afraid to post any wargaming news thanks to those people and they are running your boards Matrix
In further news the lead designer of Kharkov 43 wants your questions at the same site on The Blitz.Org
http://www.theblitz.org/message_boards/showthread.php?tid=57489
UPDATE TWO:
Hello all,
Forgive the intrusion, but we wanted to make this one time mailing to alert you to the fact that we have made an alteration to our licensing.
Effective immediately you may use the serial number you received with your order to install on a second computer - so 2 activations without the need to deactivate or uninstall from either.
We hope this enhances your enjoyment of the game and please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any problems or concerns.
The John Tiller Software Team
Two installs, hey? That's laughable. Russian simulators/wargames are already a hard sell with their limited Starforce lifetime activations and deactivations(!)... like you're supposed to trust your luck that in, say, ten years time those guys and yuplay.com or whatever will still be around to answer your e-mail about not being able to play your game anymore on your latest computer. And anybody who thinks that's not something anybody needs to worry about, just to think about all the dozens of thousands of people who still play Il-2 today, ten years after the original game came out, with no hassle.
ReplyDeleteNow an honest to God Western game developer comes and manages to do it even more restricting than in "soviet" Russia? It's either a laughing matter or a crying matter. Mr. Tiller, we're in 2010 going on 2011. Get on with the times, man! Google Steam, or Impulse, or any of the other Digital Distribution stores that have their own DRM (way friendlier for customers, and much more secure than yours will ever be), automated patching, and sometimes even some other goodies like "cloud" savegames, multiplayer matchmaking with option for friends-only, and all sorts of stuff you'll never - in your lifetime - manage to code by yourself. They give all that stuff for free to game developers selling through their shops, so there isn't really any excuse for releasing games like we're in 1995 and the web just caught on.
I don't really know what's up with wargame publishers shooting themselves in the foot. Say, in the cardboard game world the publishers would restrict themselves to pimping their wargames through comsimworld.com an impossible to navigate website where a few thousand of loyal die-hard grognards hung out and completely ignored boardgamegeek.com where hundreds of thousands of mainstream gamers were - many of them dying to sink their teeth in meatier games - and which was a prime example of 2.0 Web if I ever saw one. It's got more social features (and they're all still about gaming) than facebook. It's like these people enjoy being stuck in a dying niche with other people that were born at least 4 decades ago; maybe they like to feel exclusive, or maybe they just enjoy whining about how nobody is interested in games like these anymore and they have nobody to play with? These days there's probably more people playing cardboard wargames than ever, thanks to boardgamegeek, even more than in the golden age of Avalon Hill.
It's about time hardcore PC wargames got sold through proper digital webshops instead of exclusively in niche shops only the grognards know about. Sure, their games' graphics and unfriendly interface might look like they were made last century, but at least you can sell them like we're in the 21st already, which we are! They'd probably get more sales in week on Steam than they'll ever sell in the game's lifetime in their niche website, or even - maybe - in a place like Matrix Games. Plus, you can't buy this sort of advertising for any price, not even on Google; just by placing a game on Steam, you're presenting the game and your company to dozens of many, many MILLIONS of avid gamers. All those sales and exposure for, like, 30% of whatever you make on their shop... sure that means you only earn 70% of the money, but it's going to be much more money, not mention that if you ever sold your game through brick'n'mortar retailers through publishers you're used to earning only 20 or 30% for yourself instead.
Really, I dunno what's up with these people. Wish they got their heads out of their order-of-battle research and see the world is happily moving on without them. There's a lot of potential customers out there besides the dozen or so grognards that you sold your last game to, and lots of money to be made.
Alright. First comment on my blog and that is a doozy! I agree with what you said especially about the way the digital age is here. I dont think John Tiller would let it get to the point though where he would vanish and not be able to play his games anymore. This is his first title and I have talked to the guy that launched the website. They know the fears that people have, I am sure that things will be smoothed over. Remember you get 10 downloads. After a year at Matrix or Battlefront if you do not buy their digital download protection scam you cant even download the title anymore without major effort.
ReplyDeleteSo honestly this is not that bad. The method is smooth, but perhaps he can let up on the amount of activations. Right now there is nothing that NEEDS you to be connected to the internet like trying to install Company of Heroes or anything like that either. Its simply a serial code to install it twice. I have one computer, I am not that worried.
It is not as bad as the fear mongers make it out to be. I do agree with your statement about moving into the digital download age. ALL my Matrix games are digital as are my Battlefront and I own over 36 titles on Steam. TO me its a nice thing now NOT TO HAVE TO HAVE A DISC in the drive for a Tiller Title since I swap between so many due to PBEM
Here is my thing. It got me so mad to see the thread degenerate from talking about a new game in the community to that 3 page cesspool it is now it pissed me off. Folks as wargamers we cannot AFFORD to FIGHT. We get so little new games as it is. So of course I am going to defend myself. Same thing on the Wargamer. That one is NINE PAGES. And it isnt about THE DAMN GAME.
ReplyDeleteBlunt Force -you should have left a link back here, I had to find it off of a comment you left elsewhere. I'll have to take some time to read through this- but -well ... bookmarked :)
ReplyDeleteGood point Steve! Well I just didnt get it at all. Did you know that Gettysburg Scourge of War also requires DRM activation through a serial key and server check? I dont see them bitching about that? There are plenty of ways it could have been much worse. A perfectly good thread was ruined in 3 places that I know of: Wargamer, Matrix and TheBlitz. Sure I hate certain DRM schemes as much as others, such as Company of Heroes and THQ but this scheme was unobtrusive I just could not believe the hatred it garnered.
ReplyDeleteI know that Strat-O-Matic products do (hockey in particular for me) -and allows all of 1 activation.
ReplyDeleteIt seems as if round 2 of the bitchfest has started, and I see where the target of this bitchfest -another blogger - http://kriegsimulation.blogspot.com/ has become the target, and it looks like he has decided to chuck in the towel.
The internet, well - I read the earlier comment, and see where it is coming from; I appreciate the sentiments behind it but am not so sure that the Internet 2.0 where "everyone is equal" isn't also counterproductive, as it gives voice to monkeys that fling poo for attention. (My theory- although I am reading a book at the moment called Cult of the Amateur or something like that -so I might be leaning that way).
I got one silly comment ... a testicle-less person who took advantage of my then liberal comment policy - posted anonymously to the same post you had - they wrote all of "lame" - well, yeah it didn't really take a rocket scientist to know that the trolls are getting their jollies. Considering the brief amount I wrote about was how JTS' business model was differing from HPS's.
Instead of being caught up in the silliness- I changed my blog policies to make comment poster's sign in. Frankly no one much ever comments on that blog of mine and it is only really there so that I can update the home page of my site without getting out Dreamweaver. . .
Anyways, it would be pathetic if this sort of behavior killed off a guy's desire to blog because there are some jerks out there.
I guess for me, (this sort of situation has hit me in the past), I has helped me to remind myself why I am doing things in the first place ... the answer is always - because of the hobby. So I go off and do something related to the hobby and the jerks can all jump in the lake for all I care :).
I got the blog bookmarked, I'll have to spend more time here.
Sigh. We cannot afford to lose that blog he is the one that got me started again after two years of not doing AAR's. What happened? I just ignore that thread now. I had enough for two days. Currently I am engrossed in a 2 hour game of Campaign Wagram and I am just relaxing but this news is very sad indeed. I really wish board moderators would just clamp down on these threads whether for or against and get back to having people talk about games
ReplyDeleteI did a double take as well...
ReplyDeleteI used to be a moderator at a couple of boards; and I am proud to say I am well and truly cured of it. The thing about being a moderator at sites similar to those is that the admins there never really care as long as whatever bs is being flung around is creating traffic.
Sometimes they aren't allowed to -it is the nature of that beast (and one of the reasons I am perfectly happy running my own show).