Re: SEIV Only A Nitch Game
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Which matters not a whit because copy protection is easily broken. As of right now all it does is inconvience the end user, many of whom go to sites to find cracks for their legitimately bought games.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Uhm, dude at your post count i see you know when SE4 was released.
To help you, this game was released YEARS ago.
YEARS ago cracks were available, but more rarely then today.
See, today you have things like xxxxxx.com, xxxxx.de, xxxxxxxx.com, its just that cracks are available EVERYWHERE and everyone can get up-do-date cracks without being in the scene.
At the time SE 4 was released cracks were not that "well" known and available to each idiot.
Given a better copy protection i think SE4 could have sold more copies. Then again i dont know how much it costs to licence a cd check or whatever.
In addition games like SE4 are less known, and so cracks wont be made as fast because there wont be as many requests, thats how the scene works.

So it matters.

[ May 14, 2004, 17:10: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

Re: SEIV Only A Nitch Game
 

No, there have never been any cracks released for SE4, as there is nothing to crack. Pirates can just host a direct ISO of the CD, and it will work flawlessly. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Licensing the better CD protection algorithms (which all get cracked anyways) is very expensive, so it is not very practical for MM to do...

[ March 25, 2004, 17:03: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

Re: SEIV Only A Nitch Game
 

i agree with fryon copy protection is a waste of time and effort. Reward those who purchase the game... and keep that useless crap out of the game.

P.S. Proove to me that the warez Version of SE2,SE3,SE4 hurt SE and shrapnel. Also remember that a potential sale does not actually mean a lost sale and lost revenue.
And from what I can see each game has been more sucessful than the previous one.

Re: SEIV Only A Nitch Game
 

In the words of Tesco:
Bring us more SE!! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: SEIV Only A Nitch Game
 

I don't think that most serious pirates (those that actively seek pirated games) would be frequent buyers of any game to start. That's why it's a stretch to say that SE:IV's sales would be higher. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

*begin not-so-subliminal message to pirates

Of course, those that have pirated SE:IV and played it for any extent have all since felt (or starting to feel) very, very, guilty for having done so and have bought (will purchase) legimate copies. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

*end not-so-subliminal message to pirates

[ March 25, 2004, 19:53: Message edited by: Captain Kwok ]

Re: SEIV Only A Nitch Game
 

I'll admit, back in my Commodore 64 and Amiga 2000 days, most of the games I had were cracked. Especially when I had my C-64, I just didn't have the money to buy games. Those were lean times. So I got my games where I could get them. But since I've had my pc, I don't even know where to go to get a cracked game. Earlier, I knew people or was involved in a club. Now, I'm a lone wolf, and don't know anybody who pirates games. NOt that I want to. I got more money than I had in my early computer days, so I buy the games I want. I may wait for them to go down in price, though, as I still find it hard to lay down $50 for a game all the time. And to tell you the truth, most games coming out I really don't care for, or are just have too high of a requirements to run them.

Re: SEIV Only A Nitch Game
 

Some reasons why I believe SE4 is a niche game and will remain so for the near future:

1) Turn based warfare is a smaller gaming community that continually attracts fewer new gamers compared to other genres
2) Turn based warfare generally uses stagnate 2D graphics vs 3D
3) Its a popular genre with an older demographic (yep, that includes me now...dammit) that was weened on Avalon Hill, early computer games, etc
4) In reference to above three, younger new gamer demographics enjoy faster paced, eyeball-popping, immediate gratification games - generally -(at least my young nephews fit this profile)
5) Often ultimate challenge is playing againts other people and that requires a LAN and/or Web connection AND the knowledge to make this happen
6) Also in reference to #5, FINDING numerous/quality/consistent players
7) Tend to have thicker manuals and/or at least REQUIRE them to be read to play effectively
8) The Retail/popular advertisement argument
9) Lack of developer support - NOT A PROBLEM HERE - but has been elsewhere
10) Steeper learning curves/more TO learn or manage

My two pennies

Re: SEIV Only A Nitch Game
 

Well, I love this game, and I'm in the younger demographic (16 years old!!) Haha a living contradiction to #4!!

Re: SEIV Only A Nitch Game
 

I was weaned on SE3. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif Talk about non-flashiness... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif