Why Not Digitial Distribution?

[Ornedan]

Regarding the packaging: Since the part of the manual with the cdkey was intact, it didn't cause any real problems. It is, however, a problem with delivery by mail and was meant to illustrate the problem that people outside the US face with only being able to obtain the game by mail - it might not arrive quite intact.

[Gandalf Parker]

Actually thats one of the big problems with digital distribution. More than with the mail system (at least in my country). Ive been involved in sites trying to come up with their own controls on digital download. Its still an ongoing effort across the net.

The larger the product the more likely it will not arrive quite intact. So the system has to handle the purchase thru credit cards or paypal, then authorize a download, then remember the authorization in case the download breaks, then be able to allow the download again in a way that does not support someone else downloading it. And it has to do that without directly tying in the purchase information (you dont want credit cards stored forever on a download server). Usually its done with multiple servers. A hefty expense.

The purchase system has been ironed out for quite awhile. There are "shopping cart" packages available for installing on a server. But there are no good packages yet for DD. And the sites which offer only DD for their produts are being closely watched by everyone else to see how effectively they can manage the problems.

[Soyweiser]

Originally Posted by Edi

As far as pirates offering better service? Bull****. They have taken what others have done and are conveniently handing it out to anyone who wants it for free while the people whose work they are exploiting do not get paid for their efforts, at least as far as those copies are concerned.

Actually, getting free downloads and manuals is a better service than having to pay for it, and getting it mailed. That the creators are not getting paid is not relevant for service reasons.

Sure there are a lot of reasons why piracy is bad. (Mainly because developers are not getting paid). And the level of piracy will influence the service the developers will provide. But that does not make 'free download' a bad service. It just has other consequences. That these consequences are unwanted is a totally different issue.

Sorry for nitpicking .

[SlipperyJim]

Wow, I can't believe someone (Gandalf) revived this old thread. At least he was kind enough to also cast Gift of Reason on it, so that the discussion might be reasonable and polite.

Still, Shrapnel Games has clearly said that they won't offer digital downloads for Dom3 and that they aren't open to persuasion on the matter. The developers have said they're okay with Shrapnel's answer. Given those responses, I simply don't see how this discussion has any future to it ... no matter how reasonable and polite people are willing to be.

In other words, y'all are doing this:
So I'll do this:

[Edi]

Originally Posted by Soyweiser

Actually, getting free downloads and manuals is a better service than having to pay for it, and getting it mailed. That the creators are not getting paid is not relevant for service reasons.

Sure there are a lot of reasons why piracy is bad. (Mainly because developers are not getting paid). And the level of piracy will influence the service the developers will provide. But that does not make 'free download' a bad service. It just has other consequences. That these consequences are unwanted is a totally different issue.

Sorry for nitpicking .

If the overall service form the developers degrades and/or ends completely, those consequences are very relevant. It depends on whether you look at things from the point of contact perspective or from the perspective of the entire chain.

From the latter, which is what I'm using, pirates are nothing but parasites. The "service" they provide is entirely dependent on someone else having done all the work, it is completely incapable of existing on its own. Therefore it is by definition inferior.

Computer games are a luxury product, so there is NO excuse to not pay for them. Some solutions may not be the most absolutely user friendly from the end user point of view, but must be used due to practical considerations.

But as has been said, Shrapnel Games has made its position crystal clear, so there is nothing left to discuss as far as digital downloads of Dominions 3 are concerned.

[iceboy]

I was all for digital distribution until I discovered that if there are any new patches its almost impossible to patch a digitally distributed game because they are not compatible!!! I bought heroes v digitally and cant update the game to the new patch! Basically your screwed if you want a fully updated game especially if the game company comes out with a late patch....

[Gandalf Parker]

WOW that would totally suck with this game. I cant even begin to think what it would be like to go back at this point and play with the vanilla version right off the disc.

But Im not sure it would be true with all games. The difficult part is tracking whether or not a game is authorized to receive the patch. Minor patches might not be a big deal but full upgrades would be.

[thejeff]

Why would it be hard to track?
Or any harder than telling whether a CD install is authorized or not?

I may be naive about these things, but in the end there's an executable on the user's machine, to which you apply the patch. How it got there is irrelevant. Currently it's the CD-key that determines whether it's legit or not. Why not something similar with a download?

[iceboy]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker

WOW that would totally suck with this game. I cant even begin to think what it would be like to go back at this point and play with the vanilla version right off the disc.

But Im not sure it would be true with all games. The difficult part is tracking whether or not a game is authorized to receive the patch. Minor patches might not be a big deal but full upgrades would be.

It has nothing to do with authorization. The store bought and digital bought are two different versions of the game. So any new patches cannot be applied!

See this thread about the new heroes v patch:

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/t...6431050186/p/4

[Szumo]

Originally Posted by iceboy

It has nothing to do with authorization. The store bought and digital bought are two different versions of the game. So any new patches cannot be applied!

See this thread about the new heroes v patch:

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/t...6431050186/p/4

That depends on the game. There are games where store and digital bought executables are the same.

If you go with digital distribution, the best way to do it is like Stardock does it. I've bought Space Empires V on Steam and was dissapointed to find it installs in strange directory and can't use the same updates as normal version does.
On the other hand, Galactic Civilization II bought from Stardock worked much better.

Of course, Dominions is better game than either of those, yet still i had to buy it from an internet shop in England and wait for delivery. Well worth though, since i got Dominions i bought only one more game (and that was very disappointing Spore) as i haven't got bored with Dominions 3 yet