Giveaway of the Day Forums

1. 

   Dragonlair
   Member

   It always seems to be the same. A smaller, but excellent, game developer/distributor is bought out by a larger company. Those who already have the games by the original company are usually treated very badly. Why?

   Examples:

   Amazon.com bought out Reflexive and promised to continue the support of the games already in distribution. From all I've heard, they did not keep their promise and some people lost a lot of money because they games either quit working or could not be transitioned to a new machine.

   Digital Chocolate bought out Sandlot. All attempts to transition to a newer machine fail because the site itself no longer exists so unlock codes will not validate. Again, existing owners of the games are left out in the cold. In fact, the vast majority of Sandlot games have been totally abandoned. They are not even sold by Digital Chocolate. The only way to get some is through 3rd parties such as Amazon.com!

   A third example is one I found out just the other day. EA bought out PopCap. I noticed by accident a few months ago that PopCap no longer sells their own games but have outsourced that activity to another company. There was some deadline to make the transition with your own unlock codes. It was well past the deadline when I noticed it so I contacted them because I have several of their games. The answer came back that they will not help me because my games were free (they OFFERED THEM). They would help those who had purchased games.

   I felt betrayed since I thought they were an honorable company and did not state any limit on their games such as GOTD does. I have begun the process of replacing all my PopCap games with purchased versions but NOT from them or their new partner. I am purchasing CDs (through Amazon.com) to make sure I won't get stuck with an invalid unlock code.

   I just found out that they were bought out a few days ago while researching some of their games. NONE of their games has ever shown up on the freebie circuit that I know about. The buy out explains their use of the outsourcer as well as the change in attitude towards customers. The last of the founders of PopCap left the company earlier this month.

   Why are those of us who know the games and have enjoyed them always get the rough end while the "new" customers who don't know them at all get all the 'goodies'?

   Does anybody care anymore?????

   OK, I'm off my soapbox except to ask one question -- is there anything we can do?

   Posted 9 years ago #
2. 

   Whiterabbit-uk
   Games Guru

   I bought over 900 w games from Reflexive and that was when they cost $19.99 each. I remember being given some months to reinstall those games. They forgot to mention that when you reinstall windows or buy a new computer, you have to re apply for a new reg code.

   Thankfully I found one of those illegal generators online that allows me to register 95% of my games. Still lost about 35 to 40 games that I can no longer register.
   I also bought around 30 AAA games from Direct to Drive who were bought out by Gamelfy almost 3 years ago. now Gamefly have sold off their digital distribution. don't know what is going to happen to my games. already lost around 10 when they sold off the first time as they were never transferred.

   Same with Sandlot Games when they closed down. I'd bought around 30 of thir games which I can no longer register.

   Posted 9 years ago #
3. 

   Dragonlair
   Member

   WR - I knew you lost quite a few in the reflexive mess. I didn't know about the others.

   I'm in the process of trying to create "backups" of my install CDs because I have already had one master CD go bad -- it suddenly decided to warp! Fortunately, all 3 games on that CD are on the "freebie circuit" so I as able to get them back. I don't want to lose anymore.

   I don't have anywhere NEAR your total but I'm just over 1050 with about 23% of them actually paid for. That's a bit misleading since I got 74 games for a total of $9.97 recently and I threw away about 71 as not my type, duplicated or just didn't work!

   I've got about 17 more coming in on CD from Amazon using some ecards I had. The wait is terrible!

   Posted 9 years ago #
4. 

   ChrisS
   Administrator

   It's not just game companies, most companies seem to have contempt for their customers. They're already got your money, what the heck good are you now?

   Unfortunately, you have limited options:
   - install the game in VM #1, register it and capture the registry/disk changes, then install the game in VM#2 and apply the changes from VM #1 to see if the game registers. Once you have the needed entries, save them to disk/dvd and move on to the next game. You'll then be able to reinstall the game at any time you so desire. This is, of course, a huge PITA and it likely violates the DRM under which you actually have no rights. If you read the "agreement", all you bought was the right to use the product under terms specified by the seller and those terms can be changed at any time by the seller. You don't own the game at all, you probably don't even own the CD.

   - install and register the games in your brand new "Game VM" and use the VM in perpetuity. Build as many "Game VMs" as you have Windows licenses. Want to play the PopCap games? Just copy the Popcap VM from your external drive and you're good to game. A smaller PITA and requires a Windows license for each VM but you can get XP licenses for a song. The games stay installed and registered so you won't lose them.

   - only buy DRM free and registration free media

   A bigger question is: what happens when Steam decides that access to your account should cost $100 per year? They're not running a charity, don't ya know? And $100 seems too low, given the thousands of dollars in games that I'm holding hostage conveniently cataloging for you, so $500 per year seems more reasonable.

   Posted 9 years ago #
5. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   "It's not just game companies, most companies seem to have contempt for their customers. They're already got your money, what the heck good are you now? "

   Just FWIW I think there are 3 things going on Chris...

   1st, & this may be the most commonly cited, there was a revolution of sorts among publicly traded companies, as they came to see their sole responsibility as being to deliver returns to investors. Besides the stuff most people would imagine that also meant everything being geared towards stock pricing. One of the results was Windows 8. Windows 9 is supposed to be the correction -- we'll see in a couple weeks.

   2nd, marketing came into its own. Unless you're a cynic that also happens to be into psychology, it's hard [& depressing] to realize the levels of manipulation people are subjected to, & fall for, in most avenues of their life. If a company does something good nowadays, 99% of the time it's tied to their marketing. That means no company is going to do right by their customers unless there's a direct tie-in to increased sales.

   This is more pervasive than most realize, as it's come to dominate many [most?] portions of many societies. During the cold war we talked about some countries brainwashing their citizens. The same thing has occurred in societies through marketing. One of the things they've sold to the majority of people is to accept poor treatment, & not expect, or remember anything better.

   3rd, partly as a result of 1 & 2, the relationship between buyer & seller has become almost totally de-humanized & adversarial. The consumer perspective is usually out in the open -- sellers hide their contempt beneath a nice & friendly veneer. People tend to feel that biz owners & corporations are terribly rich so they have no qualms about being dishonest in their dealings, to the point that it's common to brag about it. Sellers do what they have to do to keep & gain new customers, but beneath the veneer consider them lower life forms. [It's common for sellers to consider customers animals -- it's typical for customers to behave that way.]

   So yeah, companies have contempt for you.
   You may not deserve it personally, but from their perspective most customers are contemptible, either because they're stupid & foolish falling for marketing, &/or because they're dishonest if given the opportunity. What to me is remarkable is the human capacity to compartmentalize all of this. The same person might have extreme contempt for customers at work, go out of their way to take advantage as a consumer, & yet idolize some people & companies putting on the most transparent con to take the maximum advantage of them.

   Posted 9 years ago #
6. 

   ChrisS
   Administrator

   I'd like to disagree with you Mikiem but I can't and, worse, I have other "issues" to add:

   Most sellers actually are customer driven but consider the modern corporation - you have the seller or the local office, which reports to the area office, which reports to the district office, which reports to the regional office, which reports to the divisional office, which finally reports to the head office. Anyone past the district office views the customer, the reason the company exists in the first place, as an annoyance. Their focus is strictly on the bureaucracy. It's office politics all the way up.

   Most of the people running the businesses don't actually know anything about the business. I recall a saying, can't find it anywhere, that went something like "The first CEO of a business is the innovator with an idea, the next CEO is an engineer to grow the business, the next CEO is an MBA to manage the vast profits, the final CEO is a lawyer to file bankruptcy". Most current CEOs are MBAs or lawyers who know nothing about why the company is in business. And, in case you're keeping score, Rodger Goodell, the big cheese of the NFL, is a lawyer...

   A lot of people will conclude that it's the seeking of profit that's the problem but non-profits aren't really "non-profit" they're just non-taxpaying entities. The real problem is the lack of accountability that was achieved by gaming the system.

   Posted 9 years ago #
7. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   I was chuckling over "lack of accountability" Chris, not because of what you said or how you said it, but because I was thinking about a particular group hiding under twin umbrellas, non-profit & religious. It's one thing to worry or not worry about the IRS over the non-profit status, but the other could maybe kind of be playing with fire, maybe even literally. :)

   Posted 9 years ago #

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