Mystery Manor Adventure Forum

Okay, so call me old school. Call me clutter collector.

Do you still want your boxes and jewel cases?

Or have you upgraded to the new and cool and instant gratification of downloads?

There are many games that I want to play available for download. No box, no CD, no game info. If you want a CD to keep you have to burn it yourself.

These games are even cheaper to purchase for download, which makes sense. Less overhead for them.

BUT, I still want all of that stuff!

What about you?

I like having the physical stuff--CD, box, rulebook, etc., too. But my main complaint against a lot of downloads is that they require an activation code that must be checked through an internet connection. Sometimes this is very restrictive, causing problems if you must re-register because of getting a new computer or even just upgrading your old one. But even if that isn't the case, waht if the company goes under or just stops supporting the game. Then you own a worhtless piece of software.

I prefer to own something I have bought. If I take care of it, and still have the machine that will play it, I want it to work as long as I have it.

I have bought quite a few shareware games that are download only, but most of them only require that the registration code be entered, not a registration check with the company through the internet. I back these games (and the codes) up to a CD, so I will still have them if my hard drive crashes or I have to re-install my system software.

I have a couple of games that require an internet check with the company, but I ordered them in good faith, and the company didn't say up front that internet registration checks would be necessary. These companies got an angry email from me and a notice that I will no longer buy anything from them because of their practices and deceit about them. Some of the companies had, beforehand, used a regular code system, and switched without warning, therefore tricking me because of their former good reputation (like Freeverse).

I also back up to CD all patches, and other stuff (guides, mods, etc.) for my games.

Jude

I'd still rather have the CD. Plus all the points Jude made you can't trade or sell ones you have downloaded (as far as I know).

I agree with all the points made. It would be like a book without a
cover and just imagine printing it from Adobe.

I wont buy any game by download, I love my boxes and cases, those are my PRECIOOOUUUUUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

CU

danyboy

Very good topic Tichelle.
I personally like to have the box but am getting use to the DVD style case. But I thing we will have to accept the reality that our genre might be leaning towards download in the future to save costs. Not like what Funcom is doing, which is trying to stop piracy.

I have only downloaded one game and that was Agon 1,2 &3. which wasn't available for hardcover purchase at the time. Will downloading games stop me from playing Adventure Games? No way. I will play them if you tatooed them on the side of a shaved Yak, just keep making them games.

Hey y'all. Greyfuss talked me into making this a poll.

So please exercise your right to freedom of speech and all that and vote!

Thank you so very much.

I voted "does not matter" since I buy both, although I do prefer the boxed games, and hate the "call home to register" ones.

Jude

I also prefer the DVD-style boxes. When I emigrated to Kenya, I had to throw all my boxes and manuals away - hundreds and hundreds of them - and some of them extremely rare games in their original boxes - It broke my heart, it really did

I also prefer boxes and/or jewel cases in hand, but I have downloaded Agon 1, 2 & 3, Samorost 2, and Bone: Out From Boneville without any problems. If it's an adventure and available for Macs, I'll buy it any way I can.

I hadn't heard of Samorost before. I tried out the free ones at athe http://www.amanitadesign.com site and their not really my cup of tea, but for $7, I may get the downloadable version of Samorost 2 someday, anyway!

I usually find links to obscure Mac shareware and freeware games at insidemacgames.com and the sister site macgamefiles.com, so I'm glad you mentioned Samorost, since it escaped my notice!

Jude

I want a tangible product for my cash. Something that I can give as a gift, sell, replay, reload or use for a coaster. It being my choice.

I don't think that the prices will drop even though many are touting this trend as a pricecutter. Many of the games coming out are in a serial format which ends up costing the end user a considerable amount of money with no real promise of the game ever being finished. Hate the trend and am skeptical of the results. I do buy casual games at BigFish for $6.99. Which is what they are generally worth. But I have had them crash and burn (Ah Zuma, I loved ye well) on occasion. I write them off because they are so cheap to begin with but it's not cool when this happens. I definitely will not buy anything for more than $7. We are already alleviating the publishers need to spend cash on advertising when we splash reviews, screenshots, etc. all over these free forums. The only cost they incur for that is the website they need to maintain. And generally one website covers all the games they publish so the expense is minimal to them. They stick a DVD or CD in a paper sleeve and a small box - again minimizing their costs. I don't believe they are passing any of that savings on to us. We are supposed to feel lucky that they are publishing any adventure games at all. Bah.

ETA - I forgot this part of the rant. I'm back in the dark ages again with dialup out here so even if I wanted to it's too unreliable to try to download something like a game. If I want a game from BigFish I have to have my kids dl it in Oswego onto a flash drive and hand it over when I see them next. The biggest flash drive we have between us is 2 G.

happy trails,

Carolyn

I agree-- I want the cd-dvd in hand- I want the ability to load- unload-reload- go to a different machine- I play different games on different machines- desktop- laptop-- laptop does not have internet connection

All of the above with the addition that I like to look up and see the shelves of games all snug in their boxes and CDs. know I can reach up and grab any game I want anytime! I've downloaded a few, but still prefer to have something in hand.

I voted for buying a hard copy, no downloading for me. I don't even know how to unzip ZIP files! I didn't know about registration codes or whatever, sounds too complicated for me.