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They Just Don't Get ItLet's suppose for a minute that "The Man" is north American. He would have you believe that PC gaming is dying, and were I to take a walk through my local EB I'd be inclined to agree. So why is this once powerful platform withering away - at least in the mind of "the man"?
They'd have us believe that piracy is to blame. Clearly, people who are willing to spend thousands of dollars bulding their dream PCs are nothing more than digital thieves.
I have a different theory for why the likes of Ubisoft are seeing a decline in their PC sales. It's no accident that I've singled out Ubisoft as a company that just doesn't "get it", their latest announcement of draconian DRM coupled with an inflated price for Assassin's Creed 2 points to an overall lack of understanding of ...
Confession: I Was Once A PiratePiracy is discussed often on the internet, and news sites, but it seems like the only way it's ever approached is with a stern look and a black mark on pirates. If the numbers for piracy are to be believed why aren't more people admitting to it? Certainly some of these game journalists must have snatched a piece of code at some point in their lives, before they had all their games just handed to them as review copies.
Well I'm coming out of the captain's quarters as it were; I was once a software pirate. Once, but not anymore.
So what changed? Why did I give up the life of illegally downloading software for free? Read on to find out.
My reasons for piracy seemed simple enough at the time - why pay for something ...
Shattered Horizon Reviewed
Shattered Horizon is unlike any game I've played in 2009, and most likely anything else I'm going to play in the near future. In a genre (multiplayer team-shooter) where each game is trying to distinguish itself in some significant way from Modern Warfare or Team Fortress 2, Shattered Horizon takes a truly novel approach. You get one weapon with three attack modes, there is no gravity, and you're in a true three dimensional environment. At first glance the game seems to have very little to it, but there are many hidden subtleties that make Shattered Horizon a winner.
The back story is as follows:
Quote: Shattered Horizon is set 40 years from now. Man is back on the Moon and the companies that took him there are reaping huge profits. Their greed soon leads to the largest mining accident ...
My Top 10 Games of 2009As the year comes to a close I reflect back on the games I enjoyed playing the most in 2009. There were a ton of releases in 2009, some were big names and many really just sprung up out of nowhere. Read on to see what I thought were the ten best games of 2009.
10. Batman: Arkham Asylum
Batman didn't disappoint; the game was beautiful and lots of fun the whole way though. I felt it was a little on the long side and although I enjoyed the game, the combat did become repetitive towards the end. Although repetitive it was incredibly satisfying to punch out dudes again and again. You always felt like a bad-ass, like Batman. Swooping around with your cape and sneaking up on bad guys to take them out silently ...
Quickload: Buying Electrons in 2010
More than any previous year, 2009 was the year that Digital Distribution truly started to establish itself. Being the service that kicked the whole thing off, Steam has naturally been leading this charge, with some fairly impressive marketing and sales designed to encourage more and more people to give DD a try. However, this year also marked other distributors and companies finally starting to come into their own. Taking a leaf out of Valve's playbook, services like Direct 2 Drive and Impulse have started adopting tactics such as snap sales and bargain bundles in order to generate hype, and in general have been starting to make a name for themselves. After all, at least for now there's still room to argue over who's
They Just Don't Get It
Let's suppose for a minute that "The Man" is north American. He would have you believe that PC gaming is dying, and were I to take a walk through my local EB I'd be inclined to agree. So why is this once powerful platform withering away - at least in the mind of "the man"?
They'd have us believe that piracy is to blame. Clearly, people who are willing to spend thousands of dollars bulding their dream PCs are nothing more than digital thieves. I have a different theory for why the likes of Ubisoft are seeing a decline in their PC sales. It's no accident that I've singled out Ubisoft as a company that just doesn't "get it", their latest announcement of draconian DRM coupled with an inflated price for Assassin's Creed 2 points to an overall lack of understanding of the industry. ![]() Posted in Articles | Mid week madness - Psychonauts
![]() If you haven't played this yet, or even if you have, its up for $2 on Steam for a couple of days. It's pretty much one of the most recommended games ever. Get Psychonauts for $2 Posted in News | Confession: I Was Once A Pirate
Piracy is discussed often on the internet, and news sites, but it seems like the only way it's ever approached is with a stern look and a black mark on pirates. If the numbers for piracy are to be believed why aren't more people admitting to it? Certainly some of these game journalists must have snatched a piece of code at some point in their lives, before they had all their games just handed to them as review copies.
![]() Well I'm coming out of the captain's quarters as it were; I was once a software pirate. Once, but not anymore. So what changed? Why did I give up the life of illegally downloading software for free? Read on to find out. Posted in Articles | VVVVVV Demo
![]() I just found this browsing the Penny Arcade forums, and man it's a gem. I love me some indie games anyway, and this one really takes the cake. It's worth the 10 minute "2 level demo", you can find it below. It feels like I wanna be the guy! but not nearly as hard, and this feels more polished. Try it out! Posted in Reviews | Weekend Deal? - DiRT 2
Posted in Reviews | Tribal Wars Mod - Still In Development!
![]() Wow, so this mod isn't dead. Tribes is probably my favorite game of all time, so the news that this ETQW mod is still in development is good news for me. Hey everyone. With the holidays behind us, we've been working hard getting the artwork for the project ready. Right now, I can gladly say that the art assets for first release phase of the project have been completed. There still is a bit of work to be done though, particularly in areas like scripting, level design, and gameplay balancing. You can see their older video after the break. Posted in News | 1C: Retail PC Gone By 2011
![]() MCV, a UK publication is reporting a story that 1C Company believes retail is to blame for the loss of sales in PC games and that PC distribution will be completely digital by 2011. 1C’s international publishing director Darryl Still has accused retail of failing to support boxed PC games. Posted in News | Sales Prices Coming Soon
One of the biggest comments around the Calculator that I see goes something like this:
Wow, $2000, but I didn't spend nearly that much, I bought mostly everything on sale. With that in mind I'll soon be including sale prices and tallying those up as well. The calculator will make two assumptions; that you bought everything on sale and that you bought nothing on sale. It will give you a low and high value with the idea that what you actually spent is somewhere in between. Thanks to omnilynx at Steam Deals I have historic sale pricing from the Christmas Sale which will give a good baseline to start from. Thanks omnilynx! Posted in News | Interstellar Marines: Bullseye Beta Blasting
![]() So the most I knew about Interstellar Marines was that it was an indie title, and that according to the weird trailer, it involved marines of the interstellar variety, probably mechs, and sharks that move on land. An intriguing premise but not that much to go on. Not satisfied with the usual pre release trailers and footage though, they've recently released an online beta demo of what appears to be an in-game shooting gallery. When I say in-game, I MEAN in game, this is extremely well done and when put in full screen you wouldn't be able to tell it's actually running in a browser (you need to download a unity plugin first, but after that the rest is fairly fast to get) So now this game is officially "on the radar", at least for me. Despite what you might think about training levels, this was fairly engrossing and very well implemented, even tension inducing at times. It shows much promise for the game itself. So, how high can you score? Be warned, the beta ends on the 15th, so get your shooting in whilst you can. I may post more later. Posted in News | More ArmA II Awesomeness
I had an awesome time with ShackTac on Saturday. Here are some videos from the session.
Posted in Misc | Read More Articles >>> |
dd.gamer.latest.commentsBy RandomEngy in They Just Don't Get It on 2010-02-01 I understand the sentiment, but I think you're understating the effects of piracy. When you go out and look at the data, such as with studies done on World of Goo or Demigod, you see an absolutely rid... By Tiki-Dog in Confession: I Was Once A Pirate on 2010-02-01 Just like me. Used to be a pirate as well. It was much more serious though, I would always pirate single player games, the only reason to buy one was for the multiplayer. Simple as that. Also ... By AlabasterSlim in VVVVVV Demo on 2010-01-20 Holy crap! He's asking $15 for this game? That's ridiculous! By AlabasterSlim in VVVVVV Demo on 2010-01-19 Holy crap that game is frustrating. By AcidicPlague in Penny Arcade TV - PATV on 2010-01-14 I love Gabe and Tycho. I've been following PA since the start, so I've literally grown up playing videogames with these guys. The things they do are just great. I've never been able to make it out ... By Aussie_Nick in 1C: Retail PC Gone By 2011 on 2010-01-14 But the thing is also, I prefer "owning" my games on steam. I only get the retail version if it come with cool shit. Eg: NVG's, Mouldable Lifescale Facehugger, Or say a badass Napoleon Figurine. By Aussie_Nick in 1C: Retail PC Gone By 2011 on 2010-01-14 I agree, It will be mostly Retail here in Australia for a long time yet. It wont go digital here untill your shitty Internets get sorted out. Retail Gaming here either Console or PC Will be here for a... By Aussie_Nick in Insane Collector or Steam Gamer? on 2010-01-13 Alot All the Telltale games. Most of them were cheap games $10< But yeah after my big overtime pay after christmas. I just went to town By AlabasterSlim in Insane Collector or Steam Gamer? on 2010-01-12 Holy crap Nick! That's a huge difference . How many packs did you buy? By Aussie_Nick in Insane Collector or Steam Gamer? on 2010-01-12 I suffer from this badly. Before the Christmas Sales, I had 160 games. And at the end of the Sales 291 . dd.rss.feedBy Valve Software in BioShock 2 Now Available on 2010-02-09 BioShock 2 is now available worldwide on Steam!Set approximately 10 years after the events of the original BioShock, the halls of Rapture once again echo with sins of the past. Along the Atlantic coas... By Valve Software in Shattered Horizon Moonrise Content Pack Revealed on 2010-02-08 Futuremark® Games Studio today released the first screenshots from the upcoming Moonrise content pack for Shattered Horizon™, their PC exclusive multiplayer first-person shooter. The Moonris... By Valve Software in Team Fortress 2 Update Released on 2010-02-08 Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:Team Fortress 2Fixed Polish Team Fortress 2 font... By Valve Software in Garry's Mod Update Released on 2010-02-08 Updates to Garry's Mod have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:Garry's ModFixed issue where top left of GUI was cut... By Impulse in The Battle Against the Darkspawn Continues in Dragon Age: Origins- Awakening. Pre-Order Now! on 2010-02-08 The lands of Feralden may be safe, but the work of the Grey Wardens is far from over. As the new Grey Warden Commander, you must rebuild the order and discover the secrets of the darkspawn in Dr... By Impulse in Pre-Order Assassin’s Creed 2 Now on 2010-02-08 Take on the role of Ezio, a new assassin, as you kill your way through Renaissance Italy on your path to becoming a Master Assassin in Assassin’s Creed 2 from Ubisoft. Pre-order now and ha... By Gamer's Gate in GamersGate: Panzer Killer! http://tinyurl.com/yzp5qty out now! on 2010-02-08 GamersGate: Panzer Killer! http://tinyurl.com/yzp5qty out now!See Original... By Gamer's Gate in GamersGate: Mafia http://tinyurl.com/yada7dj out now! on 2010-02-08 GamersGate: Mafia http://tinyurl.com/yada7dj out now!See Original... By Impulse in WindowBlinds 7.01 Released on 2010-02-08 Today we are excited to announce the 7.01 update to WindowBlinds from Stardock. WindowBlinds lets Windows users change the complete look and feel of Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7 by applying one of ... By Valve Software in TOTAL WAR™ WEEK - Save 66% on Total War™ Games, Packs and DLC This Week Only on 2010-02-08 This week we're celebrating the release of the Elite Units of the East, new Downloadable Content for Empire: Total War™, with a huge sale on Total War™ games, packs and DLC from SEGA and T... |









