Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote on 2023-04-01, 17:18:

It seems to me, when a corporation has reached the point when they can afford to screw their consumers, they will screw their consumers. No exception.

I think, sadly, you are right. It doesnt even have to be malice - just the clumsy overbearing application of 'copyright' to everything. Things are often not really thought through in well calculated sense.

however we as buyers just have to be aware and then choose not to buy stuff with DRM all over it

it's a shame if a really great game has DRM all over it, but do you want it that much? and if so then does that not mean you also accecpt their terms.

think of all the great games we have never played anyway, whats a few more missed out 😀 there are plenty of other things to do

and if the majority just blindly follow it thus meaning your personal choice makes no difference to the dominance of DRM, then so be it - i'd still not buy their games

gerry wrote on 2023-04-01, 18:32:

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote on 2023-04-01, 17:18:

It seems to me, when a corporation has reached the point when they can afford to screw their consumers, they will screw their consumers. No exception.

I think, sadly, you are right. It doesnt even have to be malice - just the clumsy overbearing application of 'copyright' to everything. Things are often not really thought through in well calculated sense.

Worse, bad executives typically get golden parachute for their screw-ups. Thus, less disincentives to screw their consumers.

gerry wrote on 2023-04-01, 18:32:

however we as buyers just have to be aware and then choose not to buy stuff with DRM all over it […]
Show full quote

however we as buyers just have to be aware and then choose not to buy stuff with DRM all over it

it's a shame if a really great game has DRM all over it, but do you want it that much? and if so then does that not mean you also accecpt their terms.

think of all the great games we have never played anyway, whats a few more missed out 😀 there are plenty of other things to do

and if the majority just blindly follow it thus meaning your personal choice makes no difference to the dominance of DRM, then so be it - i'd still not buy their games

Easy, I would typically buy the legal version and download the pirated, DRM-free version. It is something I rarely face, though, since I rarely find a game I want that much among modern games. The last time I had such situation is when I read reviews about Sid Meier's Ace Patrol. Sounds like a great game, but since it's only available on Steam, then I decided not to buy it and not to look for pirated version either. Not a hard decision, since I still have a backlog of many good games I haven't finished.

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote on 2023-04-01, 18:40:

Worse, bad executives typically get golden parachute for their screw-ups. Thus, less disincentives to screw their consumers. […]
Show full quote

gerry wrote on 2023-04-01, 18:32:

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote on 2023-04-01, 17:18:

It seems to me, when a corporation has reached the point when they can afford to screw their consumers, they will screw their consumers. No exception.

I think, sadly, you are right. It doesnt even have to be malice - just the clumsy overbearing application of 'copyright' to everything. Things are often not really thought through in well calculated sense.

Worse, bad executives typically get golden parachute for their screw-ups. Thus, less disincentives to screw their consumers.

gerry wrote on 2023-04-01, 18:32:

however we as buyers just have to be aware and then choose not to buy stuff with DRM all over it […]
Show full quote

however we as buyers just have to be aware and then choose not to buy stuff with DRM all over it

it's a shame if a really great game has DRM all over it, but do you want it that much? and if so then does that not mean you also accecpt their terms.

think of all the great games we have never played anyway, whats a few more missed out 😀 there are plenty of other things to do

and if the majority just blindly follow it thus meaning your personal choice makes no difference to the dominance of DRM, then so be it - i'd still not buy their games

Easy, I would typically buy the legal version and download the pirated, DRM-free version. It is something I rarely face, though, since I rarely find a game I want that much among modern games. The last time I had such situation is when I read reviews about Sid Meier's Ace Patrol. Sounds like a great game, but since it's only available on Steam, then I decided not to buy it and not to look for pirated version either. Not a hard decision, since I still have a backlog of many good games I haven't finished.

Sad but true, most games released nowadays are so uninteresting that people don't even feel like pirating them, the DRM thing just adds insult to injury because it harms the ones who did buy the damn thing the most.
I don't think this is just people getting old and grumpy, game development did get stale because of the way the industry grew up... the market is saturated and no one wants to take risks because failing became too expensive. Indie games tend to follow the same rules as proportionally speaking the cost of making a indie game for them means the same as the cost of making an AAA game to a big corporation (maybe even more). Everything became generic... graphical aspects of a game are calculated in real time by the computer meaning all games tend to have a very similar photorealistic look and game mechanics are usually taken from existing successful games, backed up by lots and lots of statistics and market research.
The industry is basically forbidden to try anything new as they can only act based on evidence from the past.

chinny22 wrote on 2023-03-31, 10:01:

...
Irony is of course alot of those cross over dos-Win9x games on gog or whatever are now only available in dos mode as dosbox is easer solution then fixing the 9x code.

Ok, now you got me curios - which games (names) might this be ?
Just wondering if any 'good' games are affected, etc...

Theme Hospital, DOS/Win9X game => just ship it with DOSBox.
Dungeon Keeper => just ship it with DOSBox.
UFO Enemy Unknown => DOS/Win9X game => just ship it with DOSBox. (avoiding the Win95 edition) (at the time OpenXCOM wasn't an option)
X-Com : Terror from the Deep => same
Command & Conquer => same (avoiding C&C Gold for Win95) (Vanilla-Conquer from the Assembly Armada may be a better option nowadays)
Command & Conquer : Red Alert => same (Vanilla-Conquer from the Assembly Armada may be a better option nowadays)
Also, Win32s or Win16 games => just ship it with Windows 3.11 inside DOSBox (You Don't Know Jack (1998) for example)...
Doom / Doom II / Ultimate Doom / Final Doom => just ship it with DOSBox, avoid Doom 95 (nowadays, any sourceport would be better, but hey...)
Baldies => just use the DOS version, even if the Windows 95 version offers higher resolution, it's speed sensitive. Ship the DOS version and you're done.
Z => There is a Win95 release with more levels, a better AI, and a level editor. It's very good... But the DOS version is fine and has zero problems with DOSBox (The Zod Engine nowadays would be a better option)
Quake => Just ship the DOS version, avoid Quake95 or GLQuake.
MechWarrior 2 / GBL / Mercenaries => avoid insanity and just. Ship. The. DOS. Version. Please. 😁
etc...

The above list is not exhaustive at all.

Some of them may be on GOG, I didn't check.

Thought this was interesting, looks like Nintendo is being an asshole as usual. As far as I'm concerned if you buy a crippled PC you get what you deserve.

Microsoft Crackdown Disables Emulators Downloaded To Xbox Consoles
https://games.slashdot.org/story/23/04/07/185 … o-xbox-consoles

DosFreak wrote on 2023-04-08, 14:07:

Thought this was interesting, looks like Nintendo is being an asshole as usual. As far as I'm concerned if you buy a crippled PC you get what you deserve.

Microsoft Crackdown Disables Emulators Downloaded To Xbox Consoles
https://games.slashdot.org/story/23/04/07/185 … o-xbox-consoles

From what I understand, you can continue to run emulators if you set the console to Developer Mode. But you need to give some money to Microsoft to get that functionality.

Still a dick move by the companies involved.