you realise the internet was invented in the interim right?

Agreed 100%. I'm surprised that it is legal to describe such images as screenshots. When i release screenshots, I just press print screen and send the result to the press.
The worst gripe I have is that 99.9% of games release screenshots with the UI removed. That is NOT A SCREENSHOT. it is an engine render. A screenshot shows me what the game will be like when I play it, not what the art director wishes it was like.
I've worked places where they fiddle with screen shots to add and remove and correct stuff,. its a disgusting practice and it should be stamped out. Another reason to ONLY buy games that have free demos.

censorship is forbidding something from sale. This is preventing its sale to kids.
I guess you think hardcore porn and assault weapons should be sold to 9 year olds too, because otherwise its censorship right?

yahoo was the first. it didn't stop google slapping them down by doing their job better.

Competition is good. I'm a big fan of stardock and sell 3 games through impulse. I think they know exactly what they are doing.

It never hurts to buy direct from the developer though. Most of us who sell direct have even less bureaucracy and DRM than either of those portals.

I'd wear a bullet proof vest.
BTW if you don't fancy this game, but fancy some heavily discounted political gaming today, Democracy 2 is under half price for today:
http://positech.co.uk/cliffsblog/?p=178

Ha!
So much for us all wanting the PS3 so much we didn't care about the price. I bet nintendo are laughing till their ears bleed

Ah thats an interesting point. I'm collecting a few tweaks like that together for a forthcoming new patch. It also adds allsorts of stuff:

Married Tax Allowance now makes parents happier
University grants make parents happier
Increased probability of prison riot event
Reduced positive effects of legal aid policy
Bailing out company dilemma now costs money
Creationism policy now affects technological backwater and technological advantage situations
Oil prices now affect the chances of the petrol protests situation
Reduced effectiveness of free buss passes for retired people
New Space Program policy.

there are still slider bugs? or was this ages ago, in which case its surely fixed?

Wow, now you're just really reaching beyond the boundaries of imagination here. Someone finally does exactly what you're all asking for, DRM free PC game with good controls and a usable non-console UI. So what do you do? Make excuses not to buy it or why the piracy numbers won't matter. The backpedaling is remarkably amusing.

couldnt agree more. Either you want them to take the DRM out or you don't. you can't have it both ways.
No wonder games publishers don't listen to gamers, they can't win, so why play?

I don't spend as much time on console sites, so maybe you are right and console gamers have exactly the same attitude. I just find it a bit depressing.
I don't think that game developers (can't speak for publishers) think their customers are morons and thieves. There is a general feeling of despair by devs that nothing seems to stop piracy. World Of Goos was an awesome, cheap game with a free demo that was massively pirated. COD 4 was one of the best games in years and was also hugely pirated. It's incredibly depressing to work seriously hard for years on something and then see people not only take it for fre, but hurl insults and abuse at the people who made it.
TBH, the attitude of devs is one of resignation and despair. Its the publishers who are the ones who are still attached to DRM and refuse to budge.
I just wish gamers were more vocal about noticing games that treat their players really well. I agree with every criticism I've read about bundled-drm-infested-bug-ridden crap like GTA. There are lots of companies doing things differently, like stardock, 2dboy and lil old me, we just hate being lumped in with the dorks and bastards

read your post back, imagining someone is saying it to you, as a games developer who has worked all their lfie to try and make decent PC games and stay afloat doing so.
Now ask yourself if you want to make games for PC gamers, or for the console crowd.
PC gamers, especially here, hurl nothing but abuse at the people making the games. Would YOU listen to someone who spoke to you this way?
Not all PC devs are evil. How about being supportive of those who support PC gaming, rather than tarring everyone in the industry as some evil cackling stupid 'suit'?

"Developers today think making games is a license to print money"

I can assure you that is not true.

As for the sims being worth $320 to some people. Sure it is. How many months of World Of Warcraft is that? Including buying the original game and its expansion? Millions of people would suggest a game with ltos of content is easily worth hundreds of dollars. Nobody forces them to pay those subscriptions remember.
The add-ons and expansions cost money to make, you really think they should be cheaper?

I actually thought this might be a press release for oval office : commander in chief, which is a stripped down version of this:

http://www.positech.co.uk/democracy2

(which is mine :D)
Much better, clearly (and its out now with a free demo...plug plug...)

This comment was edited on Dec 8, 2008, 17:40.

that depends if the number of people paying money is rapidly decreasing whilst the number stealing is rapidly rising. You wouldn't tell a store owner not to worry about shoplifting, so what's the difference?
A lost sale is a lost sale, and its just retarded to say the 90% of world of goo players can afford a PC but not a $20 game, and don't enjoy one of the highest rated games of the year.

that's fine (if weird). but I presume those are the only games you play? this isn't at all relevant to piracy, unless you are claiming this allows you to pirate everything else.

agreed.
I removed DRM from my games, the number of copies sold didn't change much at all.
DRM makes no difference to sales, either way. people who say the industry loses tons of sales due to DRM are just WRONG. People who can do before and after comparisons have the data. You do not.

One thing is sure though, people who like the game and can afford the game and run the game, who go out and torrent it ARE a lost sale and ARE helping to kill off PC gaming entirely.
Nice work guys.

or at the very least game reviewers should be mentioning it

so I see, which frankly sounds weird. I like the style of COH as it is now. response amongst the COH forum crowd has been very negative too.

why do the dorks in marketing show screenshots in FPS mode. they are aware of the fact that its a fucking RTS played top-down right?

Unless your screens have the GUI, and show the game as you will experience it, please don't bother.

Despite all that, I do LOVE this game.

We have that.Its called indie games. Plenty of low budget fun stuff that doesn't try to outdo gears of war for polygons.