Wardell's got a point. When Sins came out, I for one was glad to see that for once there was a company that didn't feel excessively paranoid about piracy. After seeing the fiascoes involved with first Starforce and later Securom, Stardock's attitude was like a breath of fresh air. He's right; if the game is good, people won't mind paying the price for it.

He also seems right in that PC gaming has subscribed to a kind of "blockbuster" mentality. Granted, consoles are doing it too, but with PC there seems to be only an increasing handful of games that are worth a look. I also agree that the gaming magazines and harcore gamers have exacerbated this mentality; adopting a "flavor of the month" approach as they choose what games to obsess over.

A great case in point was Crysis. The magazines and hardcore crowd hyped it like nobody's business. Not that it wasn't deserved - the game was good and the graphics were something too see. Still like Wardell said, if you even wanted to play it at an acceptable spped, you had to have a bleeding-edge rig to play it. And when all was said and done, did it really sell all that many units? I haven't heard anything about how well it sold or if EA and Crytek considered it a success.

On a personal note, the copy protection was horrid. It used Securom, and on the Lite-On DVD-RW drive I have, it made a weird clicking noise I didn't like and in fact many people on forums were saying it was ruining their drives! Because of that I had to go and get a CD-free crack to play the game without having to put in the CD. Ironic that I was driven to piracy because of the copy protection!

In contrast, Sins of a Solar Empire didn't need copy protection as Stardock was confident the game was good enough to stand on its own merits. That and if you had a half-decent rig, it was guaranteed to run well.

On one hand, the paucity of quality PC games is a good thing in that it helps to narrow my choices as I can't afford to play every single game that comes down the pike. But on the other hand I wax nostalgic for the halcyon days of the 1990's when there seemed to be no shortage of worthwhile titles.

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GamePolitics ShoutBox

Posted 07/09/08 at 12:40am
Jack Wessels: @PHOENIXZERO: Do you really think that would stop him?
Posted 07/09/08 at 12:29am
PHOENIXZERO: Wonder if Jack ever got the memo that attacking a judge, especially the one who presided over your own hearing will only make him look worse.
Posted 07/08/08 at 11:10pm
Shadow Darkman Anti-Thesis of : Dennis you should post that story about JT insulting Judge Tunis. There might be more you could find that Kotaku missed.
Posted 07/08/08 at 08:32pm
lordlundar: Jack should realize that when you call everyone crazy, then the only crazy one is the you.
Posted 07/08/08 at 06:06pm
DarkTetsuya: @GP I just fear for the safety of your fax machine cause you didn't post it :P
Posted 07/08/08 at 06:02pm
PHOENIXZERO: @Krono Yeah, that's probably where it came from. Don't remember if a source was mentioned. Other than it being called a "story" or "study".
Posted 07/08/08 at 06:02pm
PHOENIXZERO: Because I was bored and channel surfing. =(
Posted 07/08/08 at 05:59pm
GRIZZAM PRIME: PHEONIXZERO, Why the hell are you watching CNN's sodomy butt baby(HLN)?
Posted 07/08/08 at 05:53pm
Krono: @PHOENIXZERO: Would that be the AP story about how schools should teach 11+ year old how to avoid abusive datings relationships?
Posted 07/08/08 at 05:34pm
PHOENIXZERO: Oh joy, new subject and they bring out Cooper Lawrence who takes a mention about videogames. It's a segment called "Sex Normal for 11-Year-Olds" having to do more so with mental and physical abuse in "relationships" of 11-14 year olds and not sex. >_<
Posted 07/08/08 at 05:28pm
PHOENIXZERO: Certainly a stupid segment with their "adolescent psychologist" and a game is different than a movie. Two callers, underwhelming. >_>
Posted 07/08/08 at 05:24pm
PHOENIXZERO: CNN has wanted to be Fox Jr since Fox started spanking them in the ratings and Turner was removed from power.
Posted 07/08/08 at 05:11pm
PHOENIXZERO: UGH, they have the CT AG on there... He sounds like Jack.
Posted 07/08/08 at 05:09pm
PHOENIXZERO: >_> You can call in 1-800-TELL-HLN.
Posted 07/08/08 at 05:09pm
PHOENIXZERO: CNN HLN is doing a segment on Beer Pong with their other "morality" blowhard Mike Galanos.
Posted 07/08/08 at 03:47pm
Jabrwock: This just in! Jack insults someone. News@11
Posted 07/08/08 at 03:44pm
mogbert: I think we can skip that story, we can't cover JT every time he insults someone, we would run out of server space...
Posted 07/08/08 at 03:43pm
gamepolitics: nah, intentionally didn't post that... it's just a publicity grab... I only have so much JT tolerance, save 4 more relevant news
Posted 07/08/08 at 02:57pm
Xlorep DarkHelm: Dennis doesn't post every little tidbit of information about Whacky-Jacky.
Posted 07/08/08 at 02:52pm
DarkTetsuya: freak4all: I just posted that ... but yeah they did
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