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The Impulse/Steam scam: Gamestop is selling Steam client required software on Impulse

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The Impulse/Steam scam: Gamestop is selling Steam client required software on Impulse

from Stardock Forums

It seems like everybody is using "WinCustomize talk" for general discussion. I cant actually find a general discussion catagory.

So heres the latest for steam exclusive games being advertised on Impulse:

"Half-Life, Portal and More! Valve Games Are Now Available on GameStop PC Downloads!"

When I first saw this I thought "wow thats pretty cool". In the fine print however, it says the steam client is required, and thats at the bottom only after clicking on the "read more" and in small letterings.

This trickery is done, ON PURPOSE by Gamestop no doubt having some sort of agreement with Steam. Steam sees the threat impulse poses. Impulse, while not very widely known, has a very superior DRM scheme to Steam.

Its very easy to miss that *steam required* fine print when your purchasing an "impulse" game. Even on retail copies, the part on the back of the game where it says the said fine print is designed to be overlooked.

So, why is Steam so bad? If you have an excellent internet connection then you wont have any problems with it, but people like me who have the lowest end connections speeds absolutely abhor it and even still people with decent connection speeds find it annoying.

Heres the stupidity of Steam:

The DRM is designed to prevent "unparalleled anti-piracy, making it a very popular retailer for software publishers and developers", yet every game on Steam has been pirated or will be pirated in the future. This raises questions as to how necessary Steam's intrusive DRM scheme is.

Mandatory updates: I have no idea why updates are mandatory when you have to be securely connected to Steam in order to play in the first place. Whoever in the company decided that this requirement was a good idea to implement was high or something, because anyone with half a brain can clearly see its not going to prevent pirating.

Games install more than once: I dont get this either. You buy a retail copy of the game, "install it from the disk" and then you are required to "update" when in reality you are just downloading and installing the whole fucking thing over again. Utter. Fucking. Stupidity.

Games download from overly secure connections: Even the worst internet connection in the world doesnt take 2 whole days to download 2-4 gigs of data. Thats how long it took me to install my game.

This is why PC gaming is dying, or at the very least vastly reduced.

 

625,156 views 120 replies
Reply #101 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting Jafo, reply 98
...all those 'ologies' got on my nerves]...
End of Jafo's quote

I hung around the theatre department too much, though never got the sheepskin.

Reply #102 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting Fistalis, reply 100
I see what you did there...
End of Fistalis's quote

The 'joys' of posting from different forums/sites .....there be a lag...;)

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #103 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Neilo, reply 86

Quoting Donfield, reply 85As Inigo Montoya once said, "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

You are rejecting every argument being presented to you, even though the majority are based on established laws and facts. You refuse to accept anything that does not agree with your preconceived assumptions. You are repeatedly denying any possible basis for objective truth because it does not agree with your preconceptions.

This is not invalidation, it is nihilism.

You state in the original post that you read the product advertising, the box art text, the fine print, and understood that Steam was required. You don't have to like it, but you understood it. If you understood all that was presented to you, then there was no scam or deception. But this doesn't agree with how you think the world should work, so you will continue to reject the true nature of things.

 

Clarify.
:X ..... :-" ..... :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:  

End of Neilo's quote

 

Enjoy your karma, good sir. Busted out laughing when I saw that.

Reply #104 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting Donfield, reply 92


I chose nihilism because my older sister accused me of it myself, when I was 19.  Back in those hippie days.
End of Donfield's quote

Awesome!  I never knew any real hippies growing up, although they were rumored to be around.  I probably met some, but I can't confirm it.  I was a little too young to know.

Did you go to Woodstock?  Did you see the Kennedy assassination? Were you old enough to understand the moon landing?  

Wow.  I wish I could buy you a few beers and hear some stories.  :) 

Reply #105 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting MottiKhan, reply 104
Did you go to Woodstock? Did you see the Kennedy assassination? Were you old enough to understand the moon landing?
End of MottiKhan's quote

Wrong country [tho we had a 'Sunbury']....I remember the Kennedy assassination....watched the moon landing 'live' on Telly at school in 4th form [I was 15]....was a hippy Architecture student, 1972....grew out of it by '74 when I started working for 'the man'....;)

Reply #106 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Jafo, reply 105
Quoting MottiKhan, reply 104Did you go to Woodstock? Did you see the Kennedy assassination? Were you old enough to understand the moon landing?

Wrong country [tho we had a 'Sunbury']....I remember the Kennedy assassination....watched the moon landing 'live' on Telly at school in 4th form [I was 15]....was a hippy Architecture student, 1972....grew out of it by '74 when I started working for 'the man'....
End of Jafo's quote

That last part must have been a disappointment than again I don't know such things yet.

Reply #107 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting Rovert10, reply 106
That last part must have been a disappointment
End of Rovert10's quote

Much of our Architecture course was spent 'redesigning the world/society'....Dreamer....you're nothing but a dreamer.....

Sociology was sitting in at the Law Courts to support draft dodgers...

Protests included refusing to sit one of the 44 subjects [over 6 years] for it being too banal [common knowledge] ...and thus redesigning the course.

I was a 'failed hippy' though...cos not only did I support the draft dodgers I ALSO supported those that went.

The most vile thing in that age was the treatment of the Vietnam vets....

...and people's dress sense.

Music didn't go to crap for another decade yet.

Reply #108 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting MottiKhan, reply 104
Did you see the Kennedy assassination? Were you old enough to understand the moon landing?
End of MottiKhan's quote


Wrong thread, but since we hijacked JCD's other thread with Bill Paxton, i thought why not this too. XD

Bill Paxton *did* see the Kennedy assassination, he was on the sixth floor of the Museum in Dallas and was photographed there.
Odd bit of useless trivia i know , the things one reads on Wikipedia huh...
:sun:

Reply #109 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting Jafo, reply 107
Music didn't go to crap for another decade yet.
End of Jafo's quote

Don't turn on the radio or Channel V then....

Reply #110 from Sins Forums Top

no, let it go on! WEEEEE!

btw, never picked up a game I couldn't find the client programs listed on.

never bought from Impulse because of Gamestop's history with credit information.

I am an informed consumer.

 

as for computer gaming going down proportionately: duh.

Before consoles you had computers and arcades. One was niche and one pop.

After consoles, you have xbox, nintendo, sega, etc... on top of computers and arcades.

More competition means more split. Although gaming is becoming more commonplace, arcades always gained popular attention over computers. Now everyone can have their own arcade box. Pop gaming shifted and grew. Computer gaming is still in the millions (check sales on SC2, SoaSE, E:TW, etc...). Now we just have more with consoles, weighing down the other side.

Reply #111 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting MottiKhan, reply 104
Quoting Donfield, reply 92

I chose nihilism because my older sister accused me of it myself, when I was 19.  Back in those hippie days.

Awesome!  I never knew any real hippies growing up, although they were rumored to be around.  I probably met some, but I can't confirm it.  I was a little too young to know.

Did you go to Woodstock?  Did you see the Kennedy assassination? Were you old enough to understand the moon landing?  

Wow.  I wish I could buy you a few beers and hear some stories.   
End of MottiKhan's quote

I wasn't saying I was a hippie, only that it was during that era.  By the time I was 19, the movement was starting to fade.  Real hippies were pretty rare in the wilds of Missouri, it was mostly redneck country.  You know, the ones that instead of saying "Get high" say "GET A HAIRCUT!"

Did you go to Woodstock?  No. I was pretty much of a square and living at home when Woodstock happened.  And it was too far away.  Just as well.  Anyone who says they went to Woodstock wouldn't remember it.  None of the friends I ever knew went.  If you were buying flowers from kids on street corners in the late 60s/early 70s, they were probably hippies.  When my dad died (same year I turned 19), I began identifying more with the movement, but I didn't even smoke a joint until I was 26.

Did you see the Kennedy assassination?  No, because I didn't live in Dallas.  Very few people saw the actual event. It happened on a weekday, early afternoon I think, so school was in session.  I heard about it between classes in junior high school ("Kennedy got shot!"). The teachers were all trying to maintain their composure (one of them suddenly slammed down his fist and blurted "Goddammit!"), and after about an hour they wound up sending us home. All tv (only 3 major networks then, public television, no cable) was running special bulletins constantly for the next 72 hours or so, with no regular programming.  It was all pretty grim.  I don't think the motorcade had even been broadcast. I don't think there was any true document until Abraham Zapruder turned over his 8mm film.  I wasn't really interested in politics in those days. I was 12, and my parents didn't care for Kennedy because he was a Catholic.

Were you old enough to understand the moon landing?  I was 18 when it happened, so I hope I was old enough.  I was very much a follower of the space program, starting from the Project Mercury days.  One of the deacons at our church was an engineer at McDonnel-Douglas, and he was involved with the Mercury and Gemini space capsules.  I had a Polaroid instant film camera (digital cameras did not exist) and took snapshots of the tv screen (without the flash).  One of the photos I managed to keep for about 10 years, showing Aldrin coming down the ladder.

Reply #112 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Neilo, reply 108

Bill Paxton *did* see the Kennedy assassination, he was on the sixth floor of the Museum in Dallas and was photographed there.
Odd bit of useless trivia i know , the things one reads on Wikipedia huh...
End of Neilo's quote

serious?

Reply #113 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Yeah, Bill's a real Texas boy from the roots.

Reply #114 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting Donfield, reply 113
serious?
End of Donfield's quote

Well i am, as long as the wiki editors are on their game, then it's all above board.

Reply #115 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting Neilo, reply 114
Well i am, as long as the wiki editors are on their game, then it's all above board.
End of Neilo's quote

Yeah, right.....

....and according to wiki I'm a fascist bastard admin.....

....oh....wait......;p

Reply #117 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I wouldn't give a squirt of piss for your ass right now...

Reply #118 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting Jafo, reply 115
....and according to wiki I'm a fascist bastard admin.....
End of Jafo's quote

Yeah but your a fellow Aussies, so very little else matters!

Reply #119 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting Jafo, reply 105

Wrong country [tho we had a 'Sunbury']....I remember the Kennedy assassination....watched the moon landing 'live' on Telly at school in 4th form [I was 15]....was a hippy Architecture student, 1972....grew out of it by '74 when I started working for 'the man'....
End of Jafo's quote

That was a quick phase then.  

@Donfield - Yeah, we had more rednecks and such here in Texas back then too and I was a little to young to understand any of that while it was happening.

You didn't even smoke your first joint until you were 26?  I was much younger at around 13.  I guess it was all too available to us down here, although I wouldn't have a clue how to get any nowadays.  No interest in that sort of stuff either since I grew out of it decades ago.  

But we had the cheap Mexican stuff for $5.00 to $7.00 an ounce, the standard fare at $10.00 and the "good stuff" at $15.00 to $20.00 an ounce.  I'll bet it's gone up significantly since then.  

As far as the Kennedy assassination, I was thinking more about the news and all.  It seems that you had some direct exposure to it.  Looking at the reaction from the history books is a little confusing to me.  It was significant, but people who never met the man appeared to be crying as if their brother was shot.  I can't imagine loving a president or any other politician to that degree.  Even when I shell out a political donation, I don't feel particularly attached to the person.  It's almost always just the lesser of two or more evils in my view. 

The moon landing was on TV when I was a child, but I didn't understand it so much either.  It just seemed like the thing our country was doing.  Kind of like it was inevitable and not fraught with the risk and danger that becomes obvious later.  Especially in light of the Challenger and Columbia disasters.  

 

Oh, and something for the topic I suppose - PC gaming isn't dying.  If anything, it's getting a resurgence due to digital download clients like Steam.  

Reply #120 from Stardock Forums Top

Ok, this conversation needs to be locked.  

I will say this, we often have to deal with the world as it is, not as we wish it was.  Stardock plans to make considerable use of Steam as we go forward. Not because there's a conspiracy or that we love Steam in particular but because it provides services and features that we, at Stardock, need in our gaming software.  

Similarly, if/when Gamestop is able to introduce features that we can make use of, we'll happily evaluate that.  As a game developer, my interest is on making games, not getting into a quasi-political debate regarding the virtues of the companies who provide the platforms in question.