MMO's and digital downloads

roqua

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I would've bought LotRO if it had a digital download option, but it doesn't. I find it absolutley retarded that a game that requires an internet connection to play online, and you have to play it online, does not have an option to buy and download it online. I been to the store many times and say it, picked up the box, and put it back down. I won't do it. Its to retarded. I won't order it and have it shipped either. Turbine put DDO up for digital download ina reasonable timeframe. So did Blizzard and and dark crusade. I just can't bring myself to by it, and now my despise of not being able to purchase LotRO in a sensible way has made me decide I'll never buy it.

I beta'd LotRO and really didn't care for it, but my memory is short so I was willing to pay to give it another try. Not now.

When will these morons learn? Bethesda put Oblivion up on Direct2drive pretty soon after it came out I think. So did nwn2. I think vanguard went up right away. I think gothic 3 did as well.

I would've never bought nwn2 at the store. It was a compulsive buy because it was easy and there and I was weak and alone. I just would've never even came close to buying it at the store.

I can definitely see if there is some sort of exclusive deal with the publisher to not offer digital for a short time, but this is silly. Its a f****g online game. Its insanity. Whose with me on banning any developer who doesn't catter to sanity by just allowing us to buy and download online? Lets learn these bitches some manners.
 
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Ok, I get your point about the online game not being available online. It's the principle of it. A strange thing to make a stand on in my opinion, but to each his own.

Howevr, I'm wondering what it is again that's wrong with boxed games? I'm sure you have some reason for this stalwart stance, and I'm sure that youve beaten it to death before in class, but maybe I fell asleep during that lesson or forgot to take notes or something.

When i have the choice, I take the boxed game personally. You know, manuals, maps, the actual disk(s), to have forever, etc. You can put it on multiple computers if you should be so lucky to own multiple computers. What exactly is the reason for you being against this?

I would only get digital download as a last ditch effort, to get something that was not available on disk anymore. Even games that were primarily download like Fate I buy in the boxed edition, and get all the updates and bonus packs and everything on disk.
 
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Roqua, if you want to try LoTRO, I have a buddy key. Let me know if you want it.
On topic, I'm not with you at all on this, as I prefer a physical copy of a game, and I'd only go with a DD if there's no other option. Two days ago I purchased the Campaign Series compilation from Matrix games and I went with the physical shipment/digital download option, so I can play immediately and later get the disc with a paper manual. My main reason on choosing that option was to get the manual, and if I paid a little more for that I know that printing out a 140 page PDF file would have emptied my ink cartridge. So you see, everything evens out.

And by the way, you will need to download the LoTRO client to try it out.
 
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I dont have very fast internet connection so I always buy DVD versions. But I do download betas that I want to get into. Most games are huge nowadays (some are 18 gigs).
 
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Its about catering to buyers in sensible ways. What if they didn't offer a box version and it was online only? Wouldn't that be enough for you guys to take a stance? If its not an online only game I can see why they'd go box-only, as the internet isn't a requirment, but if the internet is the only possible way to play the game, it should be one of the ways to buy and install the game. What if you had to go to the store and pick up a patch for it? That would be retarded, almost as retarded as no digital download.

This is about insanity and retardedness, not preferences.
 
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Further to that, I find it odd that there isn't a trial version of LOTRO to download. The game seems to be doing quite well, you'd think that with a free trial client and the option to buy the game (as you can with WoW) all on-line, they'd get a heck of a lot more subscribers.
I know they have that buddy key thinger, but for someone like me who lives in a gamer wasteland, I don't know anybody with the game who'd have a key to give me. Just seems they they're purposefully limiting their audience, which is bizarre.
 
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Roqua, if you want to try LoTRO, I have a buddy key. Let me know if you want it.
On topic, I'm not with you at all on this, as I prefer a physical copy of a game, and I'd only go with a DD if there's no other option. Two days ago I purchased the Campaign Series compilation from Matrix games and I went with the physical shipment/digital download option, so I can play immediately and later get the disc with a paper manual. My main reason on choosing that option was to get the manual, and if I paid a little more for that I know that printing out a 140 page PDF file would have emptied my ink cartridge. So you see, everything evens out.

And by the way, you will need to download the LoTRO client to try it out.


Thank you very much for the offer of the buddy key, very nice of you, but LotRO has lost me as a customer. Somethings, no matter how rediculous, I just can't abide.

I beta tested it, and it was okay. I didn't think it was good enough to buy then, but like everything, when you are bored memories fade or are invaded and killed by wants and boredom.
 
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Roqua, I share your opinion, for me was also inacceptible that an online game is not available for digital download.
I beta tested the game and loved it, now I am curently playing it and love it still but I have a bitter taste in my mouth. I have many friends in other countries which couldn't buy the appropriate version of the game because the shipping costs exceed the cost of the game itself or because it was simply not available for shipping outside the area. Now we are playing on different servers, different areas, divided by Codemasters and Midway/Turbine. A digital download would have been a solution for that problem, but instead they preferred separating the people.

And buy the way, concerning the lacking of a free trial for LOTRO, I read somewhere that it is because of the goldfarmers.
 
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Now we are playing on different servers, different areas, divided by Codemasters and Midway/Turbine. A digital download would have been a solution for that problem, but instead they preferred separating the people.

It is unlikely that a digital download would have solved that problem. A digital download is just that. You just download the game data to your HD.
The account creation process is an entirely different story though and this is where the separation takes place. As soon as you enter your personal info and/or as soon as your IP is checked for the location from where you log into the game, the login server "decides" whether you become a customer of Codemasters or Turbine. This has absolutely nothing to do with the digital download, however. Two different pairs of shoes.
 
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It is unlikely that a digital download would have solved that problem. A digital download is just that. You just download the game data to your HD.
The account creation process is an entirely different story though and this is where the separation takes place. As soon as you enter your personal info and/or as soon as your IP is checked for the location from where you log into the game, the login server "decides" whether you become a customer of Codemasters or Turbine. This has absolutely nothing to do with the digital download, however. Two different pairs of shoes.

Nope, whether you are a customer of Codemasters or Turbine depends on the version you've bought. They are different and it is possible to order the game say from the US to an european country and be able to play on the US-servers. And vice versa. It doesn't depend on the IP.

Turbine at first announced that they will block the european IPs but lifted the blocking soon after that.

As I said, the problem was, that the vendors don't ship to all destinations.
 
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Ah OK, I see. I didn't know that Turbine changed their mind.
It's also a bit different than usual then. For WoW for example you needed to have a home address in the US/Canada and a method of payment accepted within the US/Canada (read: usually a credit card issued in the US/Canada) to be able to play on the North American servers.
Most of the time the account is the deciding factor in where you will be "forced" to play.
Personally, I also think that's silly. Why not let people play wherever they like? Even if it's different publishers... it should be their problem to sort out who gets how much money from which subs and which sales in which countries/continents. It's retarded to limit the customer in his choices though. That should not be the solution.

Anyway, if in LotRO's case, the version is the only issue, well, then why don't people grab the US/Euro (whichever they prefer) version from eBay? It's sooo easy to get foreign games without a credit card. All you need is a PayPal account which is free and incredibly easy to set up. I have bought many, many imports (new games) from the UK/US and Canada via eBay at very fair shipping costs (most of the time around $15 from the US but due to the strong EUR that's like ~EUR 10.00 for shipping which is more than fair considering you usually pay EUR 6.90 for -insured- shipping within Germany) and I got most games within 3 to 7 business days.
Well, and if someone has a credit card and if you prefer to buy from a "real" store rather than eBay then you can always just buy from the well known US/Euro retailers like EB Games, Gamestop, Game.co.uk etc...
There are more than enough options. People just gotta use them :) .
 
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I agree with you that a game that is entirely online should have a full online purchase & install method from the start if not soon after. I have less of an issue with single player or mixed games being predominantly boxed, but see digital as a great way to get any game out.
 
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Well, you are right of course :) But for you, living in Western Europe, it is easy to order something. Try getting something to be shipped say to Moldova or Belarus or any eastern country of your choice. By the way, back then, when my friends tried to order the game, it wasn't available on ebay.

But that is not the point, I could surely ask one of my friends to buy the game for me or send them the version I have. My point is - why not make the players' life easier and offer a digital download of the game? This would reduce their expenses so much and earn them more clients. Some people are lazy and don't go that often to a games shop. It is really that simple and it surprises me, the developers don't make this small effort.
But it is all about the publishers, isn't it? It is them that prefer it that way :(
 
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But it is all about the publishers, isn't it? It is them that prefer it that way :(
Well that is the thing - we throw the term 'developers' around in here, but getting the game to the public is almost entirely the job of the publisher.
 
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Yeah, but the developers are the ones to sign and agree to the terms, so its still on them. If Turbine wanted digital download and cross publisher sales they could've had it. But they don't care about the fans, and would rather some shipping service gouge our friend Morticia of her money than give her options on how to buy, recieve, and play the game how she wants to and that is doable by her/him/the potential buyers.
 
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Not really interested in LotRO but I'm with you Roqua. Since I work in retail, the last thing I want to do in my spare time is drive to the shops and deal with the idiots at EB. I saw Titan Quest on Steam the other day, which might tempt me on a rainy afternoon. No way would I bother retail.
 
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Not really interested in LotRO but I'm with you Roqua. Since I work in retail, the last thing I want to do in my spare time is drive to the shops and deal with the idiots at EB. I saw Titan Quest on Steam the other day, which might tempt me on a rainy afternoon. No way would I bother retail.

But... the rain will have long stopped before you have downloaded the 5GB or whatever the size of TQ is :) .
Well, seriously, what do you mean by "dealing with the idiots from EB"? I mean people like you, me, Roqua, ... almost everyone around here are knowledgable enough about games to just walk into a store, grab a game from the shelf, pay at the counter, leave store, go home. Or is there something special about EB people in Australia? Do Australian EB employees refuse to shower or what exactly is it that makes dealing with them unpleasant? :biggrin:
 
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I don't know about Australia, but here the EBs have one rack near the used movies and games crates and the employees are always chating with some idiot, and then they make me wait even longer because they keep the box's cds and keys in the back and they get annoyed that I'm a pc game playing savage that made them have to waddle their fat asses 10 feet away from the counter to do something as physically demanding as put cd's into a box. I like buying the box for games I know I'll install/uninstall a lot and play for years to come, other than that a digital download and no mess is the way to go.
 
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I don't know about Australia, but here the EBs have one rack near the used movies and games crates and the employees are always chating with some idiot, and then they make me wait even longer because they keep the box's cds and keys in the back and they get annoyed that I'm a pc game playing savage that made them have to waddle their fat asses 10 feet away from the counter to do something as physically demanding as put cd's into a box. I like buying the box for games I know I'll install/uninstall a lot and play for years to come, other than that a digital download and no mess is the way to go.

OK, that does sound like a turn-off :) . Maybe it's just different here in good old Germany. We got quite a few alternatives for buying PC games. Larger cities (~100K+ people) will usually have a Kaufhof, a Karstadt, a Media Markt or a Saturn (or sometimes even both - they belong to the same corp) plus one or two other local electronics retail chains where they sell games. The section for PC games is usually made up of several rows of shelves (2 or 3 rows) and big publishers like EA and MS often have their own little booth area where PC and console games are available in quantity. But then PC sales over here still make up ~50% of all video game sales so that might explain the difference (I think in the US the PC is down to 25-30%).

Personally, I buy about 90% of my games from an online retailer (or eBay) because I prefer to play the original English version of games. The English versions are usually not at all available at retail here.
So the only games I buy at retail stores are original German games (like Gothic I-III) or multilingual versions (if they are uncut, too) and games where I don't care about the language version (like games that do not rely much on dialogue/story/voice overs like e.g. strategy games).
I've only used DD for a couple Star Wars Galaxies expansion packs (due to pre-order incentives) and for Battlefield 2 booster packs so far. There simply hasn't been a need or incentive to use it anymore yet but I wouldn't mind using it more if there would be more incentives like price cuts or special content etc.
 
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OK, that does sound like a turn-off :) . Maybe it's just different here in good old Germany. We got quite a few alternatives for buying PC games. Larger cities (~100K+ people) will usually have a Kaufhof, a Karstadt, a Media Markt or a Saturn (or sometimes even both - they belong to the same corp) plus one or two other local electronics retail chains where they sell games. The section for PC games is usually made up of several rows of shelves (2 or 3 rows) and big publishers like EA and MS often have their own little booth area where PC and console games are available in quantity. But then PC sales over here still make up ~50% of all video game sales so that might explain the difference (I think in the US the PC is down to 25-30%).

Personally, I buy about 90% of my games from an online retailer (or eBay) because I prefer to play the original English version of games. The English versions are usually not at all available at retail here.
So the only games I buy at retail stores are original German games (like Gothic I-III) or multilingual versions (if they are uncut, too) and games where I don't care about the language version (like games that do not rely much on dialogue/story/voice overs like e.g. strategy games).
I've only used DD for a couple Star Wars Galaxies expansion packs (due to pre-order incentives) and for Battlefield 2 booster packs so far. There simply hasn't been a need or incentive to use it anymore yet but I wouldn't mind using it more if there would be more incentives like price cuts or special content etc.

We have alternatives. I like best Buy, but they wouldn't pick up games I have to buy at eb, like night watch and metalheart. SOmetimes walmart will pick those games up, but basically the same selection. I don't like many games any more and taking the time to go anywhere, park, fight through parking lots full of slow, old, fat, even slower people to buy a game I'll install, play for 10 hours and then uninstall and put in my game box for the rest of eternity just doesn't make sense. Let me get it digitally that way i save my self a lot of agrivation as I waste my money. Its really the slow people. They get to me. They won't move with any sort of sense of urgency, and they won't let you past. I want to cary a knife around and stab anyone who impedes my progress. Old lady pulls out a checkbook=stab. Moron cruising in the passing lane=stab (that will be tough). Fatty blocking the isle=stab. Some idiot chatting it up with an employee while I'm waiting for service=double stab. Stab stab stab. If enough people start stabbing the slow people or people that generally are just in the way I bet that will make them move with a sense of urgency. Whose with me?
 
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