Wednesday, 17 December 2008
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| An open letter to EA............ John Lewis 19:55:26 |
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From: John Lewis
To: Electronic Arts
Dear Sir/Madam,
I note that your company lost $310 million last quarter and that the
loiss was significantly greater than the previous quarter.
Over the course of a year, I purchase many PC games. 2-3 months ago,
you introduced draconian DRM into all your single-player/multiplay PC
game offerings. This DRM means that after either 3 or 5 installs it
mandatory to call EA Support and request a DRM reset. I have had
dealing with EA Support in the past and have not been impressed. I
have zero wish to be hanging on the end of a phone for an hour... You
also promised an authentication-recovery tool, which has not yet been
released in spite of the DRM being exactly the same flavor as that on
Bioshock, which has had an authentication-recovery tool for the past
year. (BTW, 2K Games lifted the authentication count-limit entirely on
Bioshock in June 2008. On-line authentication is still required on a
new install, but the authentication-recovery tool is no longer
necessary )
As a consequence of your actions, I have decided to cease purchasing
all EA games with this style of DRM. Since the DRM was released, I
estimate that EA has now lost at least $150-worth of sales from me.
I have never pirated any computer-games, and have no intention of
doing so. I shall just make different purchase choices - simply
avoiding EA as a publisher if limited-authentication DRM is present
and no authentication-recovery tool is provided.
The only winners in this stupid DRM exercise are the pirates -- those
that get a kick out of cracking your stupid DRM and those who acquire
the pirated AND DRM-FREE copies at no cost. The only downside for the
pirates is that the MP component of these games cannot be activated
due to the lack of a valid MP key. In many of these games this is no
loss, as the focus is frequently on the single--player component.
Alienating honest customers by treating them as pirates is certainly
not good for your sickly business.
John Lewis
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| |  32 answer | Add comment |
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| Dominions 3 videos Gandalf Parker 19:46:21 |
| | The YouTubes on Dominions 3 have generally been of such poor quality that
they are not worth viewing. But lately the expert gamers on the
SomethingAwful forums have posted some to an alternate site which are much
higher quality. In case you have ever wanted to see more of what the game
was about.
http://www.vimeo.com/928446
This is one of the deepest strategy games I know and tends to live years on
peoples machines. Well worth the price. But check out the demo first since
it is not the type of game that everyone can get into.
WARNING: this game is NOT suitable for students, interns, apprentices,
or anyone else who is expected to pass tests on a regular basis. Do not
think about Dominions strategys while operating heavy machinery. The
demo has built-in protections which should not be bypassed. They are for
your health as much as for monetary reasons. Do not begin on the full
version without first making arrangments for someone to check on you
daily. If you find that your game has continued for more than 36 hours
straight then you should consult a physician immeadiately (Do NOT show
him the game!)
Gandalf Parker
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| | 7 answers | Add comment |
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| New Online free game - eRacer - invite for testing.. Zac 10:14:11 |
| | Hello everyone..
On this way I want to invite all players to try a new online free game,
eRacer, which is in testing mode..
In the order that I can remove all failures and bugs, I need maximum number
of players, which can give their thinkings....
All what you need is IE7, because all game is worked for IE7, and now I
working and for other browsers..
link for game is http://www.eracer.com.hr/
Thanks..
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Saturday, 13 December 2008
Friday, 12 December 2008
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| HOI2 yet again Michael Emrys 01:24:46 |
| | Okay, so the Strat Pac arrives a few days ago and I have been fiddling
around with it a bit. As expected, there is a *lot* to learn, and the
lack of a printed manual is somewhat of a handicap. Yes, there is a pdf
manual, but it is both long and casually written, so that it is hard to
actually find what I am looking for.
But those whines aside, I believe I am liking this version much better
than the previous one of three or four years ago. After doing the
tutorials, I started off with the USA in the 1936 scenario as I mostly
want to get a grip on production and diplomacy at this stage. These are
complex enough to form a game in their own right.
A few more gripes: the sliders on the production page are a total PITA
to use. It's impossible to control the sliders at all precisely by
moving them with the cursor, so one is reduced to interminable clicking
on the left and right arrows. This is made worse because for the most
part, I find that I cannot simply click rapidly on them. Trying to do
so makes them unresponsive for some reason. I have to move the cursor
off the button and then back on before I can click effectively again.
Since each click only moves it one percentage point when I might need
to move it several hundred, you can see how my dissatisfaction might
arise. This part at least is not a user-friendly interface.
There are also a lot of things going on that I do not understand, but I
will not bother you with that in hopes that it will be explained
further down in the manual, or I will figure it out. But perhaps
someone can tell me this: associated with various figures in the
government are bonuses either plus (+) or minus (-). I began by
assuming that a plus was good and a minus was...well negative. But I am
not quite convinced that this is uniformly the case. Could a minus be
something to be desired in some cases? Or a plus to be dreaded? Not
knowing the answer to this leaves me a bit bewildered.
Well, enough for now. I will return to the game and try to absorb as
much as I can and hopefully will have something more interesting to
post before too long.
Michael
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| | 15 answers | Add comment |
Wednesday, 10 December 2008
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| Hired Guns: The Jagged Edge David T . Bilek 11:49:17 |
| | Matrix Games seems to be putting out what is clearly a non-official
sequel to Jagged Alliance. Hell, the word Jagged is right there in
the title.
http://matrixgames.com/products/364/details/Hired.Guns:.The.Jagged.Edge
Has anyone tried it yet? I'm very interested but have blasted way
through my games budget already, so it needs to be pretty good for me
to buy it before January.
-David
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| | 1 answer | Add comment |
Sunday, 7 December 2008
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| Dungeon Keeper 2 woes: How do I earn points? Peter Knutsen 21:39:41 |
| | I'm playing Dungeon Keeper, especially the My Pet Dungeon series of
levels, and I'm stuck at the 3rd level, "Bottleneck", because I need to
amass 20'000 points to win, and I have no idea *how* I earn points. They
just seem to happen randomly and in chunks, and then stop happening
again - before I reach 20k.
I have the maual (PDF with 87 half-pages) and the reference card (also
PDF) and I did read through them some days ago, but I don't recall any
mention of points or score. A page reference would be most welcome.
If there isn't one, then any advice on how to earn points is
appreciated. I tried triggering hero invasions, and the first time
around it seemed to do something, since I went from around 8k points to
around 16k points, but later on a second hero invasion only gave me
about 500 more points.
Also, the Combat Pit is difficult to use. Monsters placed in it often
end up near-dead, and even though I have many imps (as many as 40
imps(!) created with the 1st level spell, later replaced instantly by 20
faster imps created with the 2nd level spell and then gradually
increasing their numbers to 25 and then 30) the unconscious monster
isn't always dragged to the Lair before it dies. I can micro-manage Pit
fights with the Heal spell, of course, but micromanagement sucks.
I can easily use the Pit to train half a dozen different monsters to
level 7 or even 8, but beyond that it gets very tedious.
--
Peter Knutsen
sagatafl.org
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Wednesday, 3 December 2008
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| Re: Recommendations? 4X TBS Game for My Wife Vincenzo Beretta 02:41:08 |
| | Any ideas? I'd offer her Disciples II Gold (which I've been playing off and on), but there's no city building in it. And that's what she really misses from MoM--the chance to actually build up an empire from scratch rather than just conquering existing cities.
You could consider some of the "Historical City Building" games, like the
"Caesar" series or "Children of the Nile". I liked a lot CotN and it's
spiritual predecessor, Pharaon.
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| | 12 answers | Add comment |
Monday, 1 December 2008
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| Re: Talisman cancelled Doug Jacobs 22:26:02 |
| | Jonah Falcon <jonahnynla@mindspring.com> wrote:
...(heavy, heavy sigh) Was really looking forward to this game.
But the points they bring up are valid. It wouldn't really be much of a
game if you just sat there waiting for the others to finish their turns.
Now, maybe if they turned Talisman into a single player type game, that
may work.
--
It's not broken. It's...advanced.
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Friday, 28 November 2008
Monday, 17 November 2008
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| When Starcraft II is released in Korea Rich Billionaire 03:32:40 |
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I bet it will be like the second coming of Jesus Christ.
It will be like an atomic bomb hit the whole country.
I've seen the gameplay videos of Starcraft II and I must say,
it is breathtaking.
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| | 1 answer | Add comment |
Tuesday, 11 November 2008
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| Some Install Keys for Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 Missing Characters John Lewis 19:26:03 |
| | EA's solution: Guess the last character..............
See:-
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3171094
No doubt the game also includes EA's 3-strikes-and-you-are-out DRM....
Nice to know that EA lost $310 million dollars last quarter, Could not
have happened to a more deserving company.
John Lewis
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| | 26 answers | Add comment |
Saturday, 8 November 2008
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| Tropico Shari 22:55:21 |
| | Any Tropico players out there?
I can't figure out how to pinpoint a rebel. The blurb will tell me that
so and so has become a rebel, but I can't figure out how to find the
person so I can click on him and do something to him.
I've looked at all the lists. I've tried looking at the color of the
exclamation points over everybody's head.
How do you locate this one person?
Also, are we stuck with the name given to us as dictator? I'm so used
to picking a name that will show up in the High Scores.
And is there a way to clear the High Scores?
I've been all over and haven't found one. Surely there's a way?
--
Mac and Windows shareware games
http://www.gypsyware.com
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| | 19 answers | Add comment |
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| Nostalgia Michael Emrys 07:01:38 |
| | I've been going back and re-reading the posts from five years ago about
EU2. It's entertaining and almost amazing to read how much excitement
and interest that game aroused. There was a great deal of fun in
sharing the discoveries we all were making in it.
Good times...
Michael
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| | 13 answers | Add comment |
Wednesday, 5 November 2008
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| Looking for best Mac Gin Rummy game Edward M. Baum 17:33:56 |
| | I'm running System 10 (10.5.5) on a Mac Pro and my old favorite Gin Rummy
game needs Classic.
Can anyone tell me of another good version?
Thanks!!!
Ed in Dallas.
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| | 1 answer | Add comment |
Monday, 3 November 2008
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| World of Goo MetalGuru 06:37:44 |
| | I'm not sure what group to post this to since this game defies
categorization but one thing is certain: it's one the the most amazing games
I've played in years.
It's also gorgeous, beautifully scored, inventive, fun and addictive - in
short, the reason why I play video games. Thank you Kyle and Ron from the
bottom of my heart, you guys are beyond genius.
There's a PC demo version out, get it and see for yourself.
http://2dboy.com/
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| | 23 answer | Add comment |
Saturday, 1 November 2008
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| Galactic Civilization 2 Carl 08:15:32 |
| | Any of you played this, and could you give a review? I am thinking of
purchasing it, but I like to hear some user feedback. I've played Rise of
Nations/ Legends, C&C etc, now I would like to try something a bit more
involved. GC2 got a good review in PC Zone (UK). TIA.
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| | 10 answers | Add comment |
Thursday, 30 October 2008
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| Re: Moo3 worth the hassle now? Raymond Martineau 21:34:58 |
| | On Sat, 27 Sep 2008 12:29:11 -0700 (PDT), Llertnac
<ecantrel@gmail.com> wrote:
I was digging around and came across my copy of Moo3. I can't believe I bought that tripe when it came out. Anyway, every now and then i pull it out. I see there are a boatload of fan mods out there and an official patch.
I believe the official patch is 1.02 or 1.2... in either case, it does
fix most of the problems with the initial version. There are some
issues still present, but the game is at least playable.
I haven't played Moo 3 in a while (my brother currently has it), but I
recommend looking for the mods that claim to be usabilty patches or
balance patches. Most likely, there's an faq stating which one is the
best.
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