Interview Geneforge 4 interview at RPG Vault

[Claw]

I must say that I don't understand your logic then...

What does logic have to do with anything?

What?

I'd have to agree. It's conceivable if idiotic to not play any games that don't come in a box, it's even more irrational to claim you couldn't finish a game for this reason.

By the way, I understand you can order a hardcopy of JV's games, although I don't know what kind of packaging you'd get.

 

[Texas Red]

At least he has a mental block against piracy. There is always a positive side, eh?

 

[Sir_Brennus]

I must say that I don't understand your logic then...

What does logic have to do with anything?

What?

I'd have to agree. It's conceivable if idiotic to not play any games that don't come in a box, it's even more irrational to claim you couldn't finish a game for this reason.

By the way, I understand you can order a hardcopy of JV's games, although I don't know what kind of packaging you'd get.

Okay, I have to clarify this.

I don't buy shareware online.

I don't buy digitaly distributed games.

I tried BLADES OF EXILE and I found it not to be my cup of tea.

So: I don't want to play it.

Reason left to buy: nice box and the possibility to try out again sometime in the future.

If there is no box (opposed to say "DARK SIDE OF THE SUN", which is shareware too) I won't buy it.

Finally: No need to play shareware free episodes or demos, because I won't buy them.

P.S.: Digital distribution ruines PC games and the art of gaming in general, as MP3 did ruin music. Records and even CDs were art - MP3 is nothing. I won't spend any money on "nothing", may it be music, movies, games.

Stop the virtualization of our physical world!

 

[Jasede]

[rant]

+1

 

[The Public Enemy]

-1

Burn it on a CD you stupid retarded cocksucker

 

[Jasede]

It's not the same, man. It's just not the same.

 

[Hazelnut]

By the same token I think we need to take the Codex off the internet and start doing it the old way - pen and paper chain letter FTW.

 

[Dire Roach]

Downloading games and burning them to a disc is like visiting a Rekall clinic to get a memory implant of an adventurous vacation. That said, I think digital distribution is a nice option to have, and I would certainly pay one of those clinics a visit if they existed.

 

[dagorkan]

Burning games to disc is awesome and I do it all the time. I have almost all my games on rewritable DVDs including gigabytes of abandonware, hundreds of games that would normally have a CD each on one disc. I also have gigabytes of savegames, mods, UI preferences on another CD which can be updated automatically in a few minutes. If I ever need space (all the time) I can just delete a game and not think twice about it. When I want to play another game on a whim I can do it in a few minutes.

The only problem is manuals. I could print them out but it can sometimes cost as much in ink cartridges as buying a book which is stupid.

 

[Jed]

I throw away everything except the discs which I cram recklessly into a dusty CD wallet. If the manual is included on the disc in .PDF, then I toss the manual as well. Gameplay is the only thing that matters to me.

Also, I would say the Digital Distribution will save PC gaming by allowing people to develop without shareholders breathing down their necks. For all their shortcomings, give me more Jeff Vogels and Brad Wardells anyday.

 

[Sir_Brennus]

I throw away everything except the discs which I cram recklessly into a dusty CD wallet. If the manual is included on the disc in .PDF, then I toss the manual as well. Gameplay is the only thing that matters to me.

Also, I would say the Digital Distribution will save PC gaming by allowing people to develop without shareholders breathing down their necks. For all their shortcomings, give me more Jeff Vogels and Brad Wardells anyday.

@DireRoach
Piss off and die somewhere dirty.

@sheek
I also download Abandonware, but I surely want to legalise them by getting them physically. There is nearly no game on my "I-want-that-desperatly-list" that I don't have in some digital form. But it is NOT the same. Noone ever will think that taking a photo of the Mona Lisa is the same as having the original picture nailed to the wall.


@Jed
Before throwing away you couldn't send them to me, could you :D
I fight DD whereever I can, because it may be a way for other people, but not for me (thinking of meself as "old-skool"). By leaving the physical media to the corporate giants and barring ourselves up in the ghetto of DD, we'll leave the mainstream to lobotomized gaming, licence fuckups and Oblivionites. I don't want that to happen and so I buy every single CRPG that comes out in a box, especially when it's a low-budget product. I prefer to buy the big budget products used at ebay, so the suits don't get paid twice.

And time and time again a real gem is getting into public, as it is the case with "WORLD OF CHAOS". Very small developer, new and small publisher, low budget but big effort.

 

[Radish]

Noone ever will think that taking a photo of the Mona Lisa is the same as having the original picture nailed to the wall.

By that logic you shouldn't be settling for the discs that come in boxes, either. Only the gold master disc that those box discs were copied (yes, copied) from will do. No, wait, you shouldn't even settle for that. Only playing the game on the original computers the developers used, with all of its assets stored in their original files on the very drives that birthed them, untainted by the vulgarity of being copied in any way, only then can the game have any worth at all whatsoever.

By leaving the physical media to the corporate giants and barring ourselves up in the ghetto of DD, we'll leave the mainstream to lobotomized gaming, licence fuckups and Oblivionites.

So?

I prefer to buy the big budget products used at ebay, so the suits don't get paid twice.

And neither do the developers.

Just sayin'.

 

[Elwro]

BTW, it took less than a week for the Avernum Trilogy CDs to get from Seattle to Krakow, and a few hours after buying I got the unlocking keys straight from Vogel, so I could continue my voyage through Avernum unhindered.

 

[Tiavals]

I throw away everything except the discs which I cram recklessly into a dusty CD wallet. If the manual is included on the disc in .PDF, then I toss the manual as well. Gameplay is the only thing that matters to me.

Also, I would say the Digital Distribution will save PC gaming by allowing people to develop without shareholders breathing down their necks. For all their shortcomings, give me more Jeff Vogels and Brad Wardells anyday.

@DireRoach
Piss off and die somewhere dirty.

@sheek
I also download Abandonware, but I surely want to legalise them by getting them physically. There is nearly no game on my "I-want-that-desperatly-list" that I don't have in some digital form. But it is NOT the same. Noone ever will think that taking a photo of the Mona Lisa is the same as having the original picture nailed to the wall.


@Jed
Before throwing away you couldn't send them to me, could you :D
I fight DD whereever I can, because it may be a way for other people, but not for me (thinking of meself as "old-skool"). By leaving the physical media to the corporate giants and barring ourselves up in the ghetto of DD, we'll leave the mainstream to lobotomized gaming, licence fuckups and Oblivionites. I don't want that to happen and so I buy every single CRPG that comes out in a box, especially when it's a low-budget product. I prefer to buy the big budget products used at ebay, so the suits don't get paid twice.

And time and time again a real gem is getting into public, as it is the case with "WORLD OF CHAOS". Very small developer, new and small publisher, low budget but big effort.

I think you are a very, very strange man.

Sure, owning stuff is great, but to go to such extremes seems quite strange to me. I prefer to own the games I have physically as well, but it seems ludicrous to do it with such vengeance.

However, I don't think I understood your logic correctly. As I understood it, your stance should in fact approve of digital downloading of games as opposed to owning them physically, since digital distribution generally offers a larger percentage of the profits to the actual developers, whereas the box-version causes them to lose money(and if sold indirectly) also causes them to gain less money since the game goes through so many different people.

 

[Dhruin]

Wow, that's some screwed up logic. Just say you like the pretty box -- which is perfectly reasonable -- and leave it at that.

 

[Fez]

I like the pretty box, but over time I find that manuals and boxes end up as more junk that just sits there gathering dust, especially as most manuals I've seen were poorly written or even useless.

 

[Sir_Brennus]

Wow, that's some screwed up logic. Just say you like the pretty box -- which is perfectly reasonable -- and leave it at that.

No, it's just not like that. I will give you an analogy to understand:

In Germany the cinemas are divided into 3 groups: 1. The good ol' traditional movie theatre which has been there since ever. It hase two screens and a nice cozy atmosphere. 2. The giant multiplex cinemas that were built from the early nineties on. They have 15 screens and a bag of popcorn costs a fortune. 3. The art-house cinemas that are in some backyard of a bigger city. You can't buy coke there because it symoblizes American imperialism.

Small independent movies (or bigger, but unknown movies from 3. world countries) are only shown in the art-house cinemas these days. That was not always the case. In the days before the multiplexes those movies were shown on a regular basis in the local cinemas. Not anymore.

Why is it so? I watched an interview with the CEO of Germany's biggest multiplex chain: He said that the he WANTS TO SHOW THOSE MOVIES, but he can't, because the publishers and importers of those small movies won't deliever the 350 copies of the movie he demands, so he can show them in every theatre he manages on at least one screen. They won't deliever because they don't want to risk the amount of money they have to invest to produce 350 copies of the movie reels. Instead they just make 30 copies and the multiplexes can't show them, because the identity of their movie schedule in every theatre is part of their business model.

To compete with the blockbuster-only movies of the multiplexes, the small old cinemas will show also show mainstream only. So, the "small movies" are in effect only shown in art-house cinemas.

What effect does this have: There are no more "small movies" in traditional theatres and there never were in multiplexes. The old art form of "industrial films" or "short films" shown before the main movie has virtually died out or retreated to the art-house cinemas. Independent movies and short films were ghettoized by the stupid independent publishers and importer who avoid every financial risk. By avoiding that risk they only earn small, but sure incomes - they dwell on that business model and don't have the balls to expand from it.

Final effect: Young people (aka the xbox crowd) enter a cinema without knowing which movie to watch. The look at the pictures and then decide on an instant. They can't watch independent movies in multiplexes but are forced to choose only from maintream movies, because the independent movies are denied from the multiplexes by the publishers. The xbox crowd can't develop a different taste in movies.

End of story: DD is the same ghetto as art-house cinema is. The xbox crowd is denied the ability to develop a different taste in games, when indies don't show up in stores anymore, because daddy decides what to buy for his son from the shiny boxes in the shelves. With DD in effect he only can buy OBLIVION, but he won't have even the chance to buy a game like WORLD OF CHAOS (if it's DD only).

@Dhruin
No, this logic is not twisted. I thought you liked me, pointing rpgwatch.com to news about WORLD OF CHAOS.