Friday, March 20, 2009

Friday Favorites: This Game Company practice has got to go!

Video game related posts have always been popular here at Culture Kills... at least from a writing standpoint (generally they end up being the least commented work I do). But there are times when something I wrote about the industry or a specific title remains relevant even over a long period of time, and this was one of those entries.
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I have a little pet peeve, and I am sorry some of you have to go along for the ride on this, but it has to be said: PC games that have the CD nag are starting to piss me off.

Now, this doesn't bother me when I know there is stuff on the CD that the game needs to run, like video files or whatever, because usually you have a choice when you install. That's FINE. And I understand having such a restriction on a 50 dollar product when it first comes out to try prevent some forms of theft, even though I don't like it and statistically it probably stops 1-2% of piracy if that.

But when a company is, I don't know, GIVING their games away in a box of cereal or in a magazine or is selling them as part of a larger set for about what the actual disc the game is on would cost to buy as a blank, well then, what is the point of forcing me to stick in a CD to prove that I own it when all the files needed to run it are on my hard drive... really.

I mean, these companies are giving away or selling these games deeply discounted for some future financial gain later because I may want to buy full price games from them after seeing the quality of work they produce, but showing me that you don't trust me with your free or heavily discounted software isn't winning my undying devotion. This is especially true of products that have been patched on the disc, because I know the company spent some time repackaging the product, so why didn't they add that little bit of code to make a full installation no-CD? I mean, I could be a bad boy and go look for help from the industry's sworn enemies, but I don't want to do that. I want the companies that made the games to meet me halfway on this and actually trust me, the consumer, for once.

I know it is merely an inconvenience and not a major issue, but it has always been something that just irked me.

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