F*ck Off Shapnel, I'll Just Steal Your Games Instead!

No, this isn’t some sort of public meltdown post. The title refers to how not to win over hearts and minds at customer service. Specifically, recently we had an angry customer who in part said:

Yep, that’s a good way to handle things. Insult not only customer service but the wife of the owner of the company. Obviously this can only get better from here on out.

So what do you think happened next? If you said, “He’s probably going to talk about how much easier it is to torrent it,” give yourself a cookie.
Apparently though the torrent sizes are huge and he’s worried that they may contain more than a cracked game (oh come on, take a chance and let the Russian mob have access to all your passwords and accounts!). Yeah, we feel for ya.

The incident stems from someone who needed to reinstall one of our games multiple times in a very short period due to (supposedly) (a) accidentally deleting the original game and (b) then buying a new computer and needing a copy on that. Mind you, he was given the ability to download the game again after his first “deletion”, so what happened between that and the new computer is anyone’s guess.

Now some may see a policy of not allowing multiple downloads as restrictive. Myself, I’ve downloaded products from places that range from one time only downloads to a limited number of downloads so I’ve never seen an issue with it, but I can understand if someone does look at it that way. The thing is though even services that supposedly provide a lifetime of downloads may not always live up to the promise. If a service goes under so does your chance to download. Then there are licensing agreements, as shown by the most recent announcement by GOG:

It’s also important to keep in mind that many downloadable products are tied directly into a server based DRM scheme. Ask an Amazon Kindle user who recently lost their Orwell. Yes, Amazon should not have sold those novels in the first place (apparently there was some sort of licensing problem with the publisher), but the fact that Amazon could come into your Kindle and yank your files away on their whim should illustrate that online DRM can be a scary place.

Here at Shrapnel we don’t do DRM other than the occasional key gen that you need to enter at installation (and even then I can’t think of anything but Dominions 3 with that). We allow you to make back up copies of your downloadable purchases (or for that matter of the physical CDs). In fact, we encourage you do to so. Stick it on a CD, or a jump drive. Put it away someplace. Install it on a new computer, a second computer, your wife's netbook. Where ever.

We think our licensing agreement is pretty fair. Users may take their game and install it on any computer they want. There’s none of this BS limited activation checks that the AAA guys use, nor do you ever have to worry about not being able to play your game because our server is having a problem. In return all we ask is that you protect the files your purchased.

That’s what this all boils down to: personal responsibility. We know hard drives can crash. Which is why if someone contacts us politely we’re happy to provide a new download. We know CDs can become damaged. Which is why we will provide replacement disks for a nominal charge. But also understand this comes with the knowledge that we’re not doing this forever. There’s a big difference between being contacted once a year after a purchase for a new download and being asked multiple times in a span of a couple of months.

Look, computer game publishers aren’t evil bloodsuckers. Sheesh, if I lost my toaster in a move do you think GE would send me a new one? How about if I left a newly purchased GPS on the train, do you think the store would give me a new one even if I had the receipt? Just like anything else you buy in this world take reasonable care of your purchases. They are after all yours; this isn’t a rental or a lease. You own the game. Keep them safe.