AAsama

These days we are seeing more and more developers and publishers stuff DRM into their games to combat piracy, but is it even working? Is it worth it when it takes its toll on both the development budget and customer satisfaction? Popular survey says no, but what can be done?

As a customer we all vote with our money, that’s just how the system works. However small you may feel your contribution may be you will still be a part of a grand pie-chart somewhere in business-world, and so it’s important to spend it somewhere you have faith in. But “Woah” I hear you shout “AAsama, are you trying to tell us where we should spend our hard earned money?” To that I respond with a confident “Maybe” and present you this: GoG.com and CD Projekt.

The reason I feel the need to write this article for you guys is that recently GoG.com and CD Projekt had a joint press conference to reveal some exciting things. If you are a listener to Voice of Crom we have previously praised both companies for their stances on DRM and costumer appreciation, but recently this has gone even further. I will give you the skinny from this ~1 hour presentation:

• GoG is moving into newer games, such as Assassins Creed and Heroes of Might and Magic 5. Thus dropping “Good old Games” and just sticking with GoG.
• GoG rewarded their community for making them so big by giving everyone Fallout 1 for free.
• CD Projekt thanks you for buying The Witcher 2 by giving you Witcher 2 on GoG for free, no matter where you bought it.
• CD Projekt is releasing The Witcher 2 Enhanced edition for 360 and PC on the 17 of April. But wait, what if you already have Witcher 2? Well then, CD Projekt will roll out a patch that will update your base game to the enhanced edition. 11 Gigs of new content and fixes, for absolutely free.

And everything associated with CD Projekt and GoG.com is completely DRM free.

It’s hard to not fall in love with companies that are clearly doing their best to please their customers. Coming up from the rotten sewers of DRM, of which Ubisoft has made a very noticeable contribution, this truly is a breath of fresh air. By supporting these companies you are voting with your money, you will be part of a grand pie chart that may show something like this:

In closing, I cannot recommend GoG.com and CD Projekt enough, you can’t help but feel good about buying their games and that is truly rare these days. So be part of the solution, help end the age of DRM.

@Avaloner:

I think you are missing the point:

EA and Activision are publishers. Double Fine are developers. Without this kickstarter project Double Fine would have to appeal to business men and publishers to help finance a game, and then get a say in how they make it.

With this, Double Fine answer directly to the ones paying for it: The ones that want to play the game. What could be better? No business man shouting about "ADD MORE HALO OF WARCRAFT. THATS WHAT KIDS LIKE RIGHT?", but rather developers getting back to the reason they got into making games in the first place. Yeah, that "fun"-thing.

Playing because of my guild and the prospects for the future.

They promised us a guild capitol ship. Those things sound prett cool.

Interesting. Cross-platform is usually frowned upon because of the edge PC users have, but in a co-op environment this should be less annoying. Will be interesting to see how it works out.

I cant wait to go toe-to-toe with the sith as a trooper.
Lets see them dance their way out of a wall of blaster shots and grenades!

I always found the idea of a regular mortal human reaching combat excellence trough training and dedication to be the most interesting. Someone has to fight on the frontlines and keep the enemy busy while the more specialized-tactics units flank around and to their thing.
 
Its Trooper all the way for me, you can always add more dakka.

Thanks guys, pretty much decided to get the books because of this thread. Now i can actually make sense of which order i should read them in.

I can only express my sympathies and say that I have been in the same position as you. 
 
Verily i decree that Insanity ME2 is "a motherfucker".

Thanks duder!
 
Wish i knew about this before i bought another 2TB HDD for my games :P

If they can keep the game feeling fresh, like they did between 1 and 2, then i am all for it. Bring on Nolan North 3