Ho-kay, I haven't read all the way through the forums, and still haven't played the game, so I don't know if this has been exhaustively addressed already, but here goes...
I found this after it was linked (as a software marketing/anti-copy protection story) by both /. and Techdirt. Wonderful to see somebody actually taking steps towards the 'alternative distribution models' that are all the rage in STORIES about copy protection but damn rare in reality. The fear was always that gaming software was by now solely the province of large corporate-mentality publishers...mad props to Stardock for showing the way!!
Mega-mad props to Stardock for making money on it!!
Ultra-hyper-super-absolutely-psychotic props to Stardock IF they can continue on with the distribution model. You guys could do a LOT of good for a lot of people....but continue on with what?? What other products can we expect to see from a flush-with-cash-and-success Stardock?? I can see what you guys are good at, but you're in position to be a larger, more productive company. Seriously.
What I would LIKE to see is Stardock try their hand (even if it was substantially different hands doing the coding, art, etc) at other genres. Dunno how bad we need another FPS, or Galactic SIMilization, but sports game sims for the PC are in dire straits, the domination of EA being a practical death knell (they should just print "We really resent having to produce a PC version AT ALL, but here's a half-functional, bloated piece of shit. If you MUST play on a PC." on the boxes.) for the genre.
And EA Sports is a perfect example of the corporate decisionmaking that brings us overpriced, glitchy crap produced by abused wage-slaves and copy-protected by malware. Bleh. I used to like sports sims, and while that may be the least likely genre to be undertaken by Stardock, SOMEBODY has to challenge EA.
So, given that Stardock is very successful with GCII, what next? I tried to figure it out, but the logic wouldn't parse:
Step One: Make game!
Step Two: PROFIT!!
Step Three: ...gather underpants?
*Edit* Though maybe that would work...you could call it UNDERPANTS: The Gathering...some kind of hentai/manga thing....hmmm...
