Quote:
Originally Posted by Fluffysheap
There are also some conclusions which, while not really obviously flawed, I don't agree with.
|
I found the same, he just decides something is right and can't see the other side to it. I'll give you an example from the article:
Quote:
|
In fact piracy of Portal is an interesting case to examine. A quick search on Mininova currently reveals around 30 active torrents for The Orange Box, a game package released in November 2007 of which Portal was a part. For those who don't know, The Orange Box is famous for being one of the best gaming deals of 2007/2008 - five major games in one package (Half Life 2, HL2: Episode 1, HL2: Episode 2, Team Fortress 2, Portal) all for the price of a standard game, distributed via Steam with no intrusive DRM, and receiving nothing but praise from reviewers and gamers alike.
|
He seems to be unwilling to look at this from the purchaser's point of view. Half Life 2 was billed as being the first part in an episodic series, where each new installment would have a short story and new environments. This was stated as a benefit to the customer, as they could get new content every six months and pay a fraction of the cost of a full title. This was a good idea. Episode One takes much longer than expected to come out, but it's still at a lower price. The fans aren't happy at the delay, but at least they now have HL2 and HL2: Episode One to play.
Then, Episode 2 takes one and a half years to make AND you can't buy it as a standalone product. You HAD to buy it with Portal, TF2, HL2 and HL2: E1. Fans of the series already had two of those games and some were only interested on the Episode Two part, which they had been expecting, as promised at a lower price. So, not much of a bargain now is it? Maybe for people who had NOT SUPPORTED VALVE, it was a great deal, but for those that had, it was a bit of a slap in the face. There was lots of complaining at the time.
I had to wait until The Orange Box came out as a bargain deal. So perhaps the message here is sod supporting the franchise, because they'll screw you over, much better to ignore it and get a great deal because you didn't support the company earlier on.
Looking at Valve again, they released L4D with a promise of more content, but then released L4D2 only a year later and abandonned the L4D game. Another slap in the face for people who supported the company?
It seems that from whichever way you look at you, you are a fool if you are loyal to a publisher, because they'll widdle all over you. Much better, from the consumer's point of view to remain coy, but that isn't good for the publishers - so why do they keep widdling on people?