DRM

[gray100]

Am not the most technical of computer people but here's my 2 pennies worth. I want a game i can buy / download, play solo (without going online) or online. I do not want the c**p of anything like steam! bought empire total war and it's still in the box uninstalled. I don't want to run third party programmes (steam) every time I want to play and waste hours as friends have due to upgrades from slow / busy servers. I was so waiting for Silent Hunter 5 but have lost interest as can only play via UBISOFT servers so no thanks. I have waited long time for this game after years of fun with the MMG games and hope this is possible. If so Norb name your price! I want it and the mortgage only has 6 months to go! You alone know what it has taken to put all this together and I have no problem in rewarding you for your efforts, just tell me how to pay and the money is yours.

Gray

[norb]

I agree. I can't stand having to run some other app to play my game. Drives me crazy. I don't want to be online every time I play. I don't mind online activation once when I install. But nothing else.

[UglyElmo]

Norb you are man dear to my heart! My wife and 2 kids all have cell phones, but I refuse to get one. I too do not like people to have instant access to me wherever I might be.

I tell people when they ask me why I don't have a cell phone: "I save a lot of money by not having any friends who would want to call me!" hehe

[Rob Son of Paul]

Copy protection only gives grief to legit purchasers of a product. The warez crowd just cracks it and has no issues to play offline.

How about doing what the most successful games do? Have a key code to install and then a login/pw associated with the key to play online?

[Hancock the Superb]

It would be a good idea to, like Rob said, look at the best games, and copy those to the best of your abilities (in terms of selling).

[Flanyboy]

I don't have a new enough computer to run this game when it comes out.

I will surely buy it a year or two when I do have money!!!

Just a comment on pricing. I know most people are on tight budgets, as a College student I understand that all to well. Yet I really hope you don't sell yourself short Norb. I know it depends on the DRM system you use. (I have never used DRM but am willing to try for this game)

Just for a point of reference, I don't know how many people play the Matrix Games, "War in the Pacific" and "War in the Pacific Admirals Edition" but I would compare this game to those in its epic scale and repeatability level. I paid 60, and 80 dollars for those games and would fully expect to pay somewhere in that range... I know you said you expect it to be under 50 but I do hope it is near 50.

50 dollars just seems the standard minimum for most new and substantive games these days. Plus when inflation increases in a year or so as a result of all this spending by... (sorry didn't mean to get political).

[norb]

To look at a AAA title and follow the same criteria makes no sense at all. We won't be advertised on national TV like Bioshock2. We won't be on store shelves for 10+ years like Diablo & Starcraft. Please keep posts to making some sort of sense. Give us 30 million and we'll do the same as the best titles out there. Until then we'll do what we need to do to survive, and if you don't like it please go spend 4+ years of your free time writing your own game and then put it up on the net for people to download for free.

Just because people are going to shoplift anyway, doesn't mean that I'm not going to put in cameras and security. If you want to make it easy for people to steal your product, be my guest. Give it away, people have the right to do what they want with their own game. Just as we have the right to do what we want with ours.

This thread was not started to debate DRM, but to get an idea about what seems the least obtrusive to the community. Just because people are going to steal, doesn't mean that I have to make it easy for them.

[BOSTON]

What is "DRM"? Been following the thread, but not sure what DRM is.

[Little Powell]

BOSTON wrote:

What is "DRM"? Been following the thread, but not sure what DRM is.

Digital Rights Management.

[Flanyboy]

Norb if that was directed at my comment I don't think Matrix's War in the Pacific Admirals Edition is a AAA title. Granted I know little about the game industry but I do know that Matrix is the only place where I have seen it for sale via Direct Download. I know its a bigger budget game than yours but I haven't seen any ads outside of people talking about it on gaming websites. It is a very niche game, not many people are willing to play out every single day of WW2 in the pacific one turn at a time when you need to command every single warship, cargo ship, regiment of infantry, fighter squadron etc etc etc...

That said I understand your a smaller budget production I just don't want to see you selling yourself short. I would pay top dollar for this game when I can eventually play it because I know that the products you produce are just as good as any high end game if not better. I don't do marketing so don't get angry at me I am just saying my perspective. Most people on this forum will pay more than 20 dollars and I don't know how many more sales you will make by having a very under priced version of the game.

Just don't sell yourself short please. I want you to succeed and I want you to make more games because TCM2 was so fantastic!!!

Whatever you decide I will support your game and any future titles.