A simple thank you

[Arryn]

Boron said:
Or did this system work quite well so that if you intended to play Diablo 2 in MP you were forced to buy a CD ?

The Bnet servers validate the keys for MP play, not the client-side software. So pirate keygens and codes are only useful for SP. But that's not all. D2 has a very effective CD copy-protection scheme as well. Blizzard went to great lengths to layer their anti-piracy defenses.

[Boron]

Arryn said:

The Bnet servers validate the keys for MP play, not the client-side software. So pirate keygens and codes are only useful for SP. But that's not all. D2 has a very effective CD copy-protection scheme as well. Blizzard went to great lengths to layer their anti-piracy defenses.

So do you think it worked well then ?
I thought so i just ask because i remember that Blizzard thought that closed B-net is save in general but after some time the weirdest hacks occured and ruined the game when there were suddenly weapons which did 2000 or more damage etc. .

And could Illwinter/Shrapnel then do something similiar that at least the people who want to play MP have to buy Dominions 3 ? I think this would result in at least slightly higher sales too .

[Alneyan]

As it happens, Dominions already has a specific protection for MP play, since the 2.08 patch; I do not know the specifics however.

[Arryn]

Boron said:
And could Illwinter/Shrapnel then do something similiar that at least the people who want to play MP have to buy Dominions 3 ? I think this would result in at least slightly higher sales too .

Shrapnel isn't remotely close to large enough to be able to afford to create the server farms needed for even a small-scale Version of that sort of thing. If they cannot afford to invest the resources to provide electronic downloads, nor are willing to take the risk, what makes you think they could do centralized server gaming (which is costlier and riskier)?

[Annette]

Arryn said:

Shrapnel isn't remotely close to large enough to be able to afford to create the server farms needed for even a small-scale Version of that sort of thing. If they cannot afford to invest the resources to provide electronic downloads, nor are willing to take the risk, what makes you think they could do centralized server gaming (which is costlier and riskier)?

I'll restate what's already been said. We do offer some of our games via download. The reason a select few of our titles are available by download is not because we "cannot afford to invest the resources." I think our stance on this has been addressed in earlier Posts. Are we willing to "take the risk"? What's risks are you referring to? The risk of a high rate of customer dissatisfaction?

[Arryn]

Annette said:
What's risks are you referring to? The risk of a high rate of customer dissatisfaction?

Fine, I'll rise to the bait by responding with "what dissatisfaction?" You mean the "dissatisfaction" of all the Dom 2 players who download the demo (which someone pointed out is about the same size as the regular Version of the game), fall in love with it, and then buy the game? The "dissatisfaction" of all the Dom 2 players who have to resort to masses of player-written documentation because of all the critical info needed to be able to successfully play the game in MP that is not present in the manual, said maunal being a key reason which Richard (and others) cite as to why a fully-working Version of Dom 2 isn't made available for download? The "dissatisfaction" in having to download a large file, when the demo is of comparable size? The "dissatisfaction" in having too many people queued up waiting to download patches, when I've yet to see anyone complain about such a thing?

So I ask you, what "dissatisfaction" are you referring to? So far, the only "dissatisfaction" I've seen mentioned on this forum is from people wishing for, what to them is, a more convenient and speedy way to get the game they want.

Yes, Annette, I'm well aware of Shrapnel's stance. Excuse me if I don't happen to agree with it, nor the justifications that have been used in support of it. You're entitled to your position. And, while I honestly like Shrapnel and its contribution to the gaming industry, please don't expect all of your customers to meekly accept everything that officials of Shrapnel say as Indisputable Truth merely because you (that's a general 'you', not you personally) say it. I gave up blind obedience and unquestioning belief well over three decades ago when I broke with Catholic church doctrine, and over two decades ago when I left the Republican party. Even in the military one is permitted (to a point), and even encouraged (to a degree), to question what one is told.

[Tim Brooks]

I hesitate to post here, as my Posts usually end discussions for some reason, but here goes...

please don't expect all of your customers to meekly accept everything that officials of Shrapnel say as Indisputable Truth merely because you (that's a general 'you', not you personally) say it.

Well, since Arryn thinks we (that's a personal 'we', not a general 'we') are lying to all of you I will answer her arguments for the others here that want more information as to our philosophy regarding downloads and who might entertain that we know a little about this business.

1. We have offered downloads in the past and still do, although our download games are also offered as physical product now. The games we offered as purely downloads are the worse selling games we have ever had. Why is that? We believe there are two main reasons. One, the fact that a whole lot of people don't like downloads (see 2 below) and two, the ease of piracy as the manual is in electronic format.

2. The games that are offered as either download or physical product are sold as physical product 4 to 1 over downloads. Why is that? Our guess is most people want physical product. When they spend money, they want something they can hold in their hands.

3. Downloads as a percentage of those games unit sales create over 10 times the customer service requests as do physical products. Add to that the increase in behind the scenes man hours of maintaing the servers for downloads and you have a big expense in downloadable products. This is not a bigger expense than offering physical product, which is quite expensive also, but on a par. So if we aren't saving money and we get more sales with physical products, why do downloads? Due to these facts, in June, I (that's a personal 'I', not a general 'I') made the decision that we would offer no new downloadable games. Expansions, however, may still be offered as downloads, we haven't decided yet on the avenue to take with them.

Shrapnel isn't remotely close to large enough to be able to afford to create the server farms needed for even a small-scale Version of that sort of thing. If they cannot afford to invest the resources to provide electronic downloads, nor are willing to take the risk, what makes you think they could do centralized server gaming (which is costlier and riskier)?

We are working on the finishing touches on our first MMP offering with our own dedicated servers (look for an announcement later this month) so we are probably a wee bit larger than Arryn thinks.

Oh and Arryn, if you are still reading this, please stop the flaming that is going on in this thread. Or I will stop it. And that is a personal 'I'.

There are some good discussions here folks. Please don't let my post end them.

Regards,

Tim Brooks
President
Shrapnel Games, Inc.

[Truper]

Tim: If you're going to be putting up the infrastructure for a MMP, I wonder if it would be too much to ask that Shrapnel run a dedicated Dom2 server. The community currently has access to the server run by St. Esben, but the demand for server time is greater than the supply. I've no clue whether you could justify the expense, but I thought I'd ask anyway