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Fun fact! Galactic Civilizations II has a demo. See?

Another vote for Anacreon!

More specifically, a vote for the freeware rewrite: Anacreon is no longer a character-mode game. George Moromisato reimplemented the entire thing from scratch and -- crucially -- added netplay.

For those not familiar with Anacreon, it's a 4X turn-based space conquest game that delivers unusual depth despite its relative simplicity; it is complex without being complicated. Its hardware requirements are, accordingly, minimal. Yet IMHO it compares favorably with GalCiv II in several respects, and is significantly better than Master of Orion I/II or Space Empires IV (which is a game that attempts to be richly complex but only succeeds at being drably complicated).

http://www.galciv2.com/

Greatest 4X game ever. Period. Also DRM free.

Have you saved copies of those stamped letters and responses to your correspondence (or records of lack thereof) over the years? It seems like that would be wonderful material for a series of blog articles carefully expounding and explaining your positions and presenting the paper trail of your attempts to reason with the game publishers over the years. If it was done well you might see your page rank soar on Google, get a lot of links back to your blog and articles, and maybe even an interview with a game magazine or other major trade publication. For example check out the How copy protection creates pirates article on the Stardock galactic civilizations page and the Pwned blog which collected together some of the relevant articles and discussion threads on the subject. Perhaps you have some original materials that you could add to the discussion? It might be worth a try to extend the reach and enhance the value of your previous efforts. Think of it as giving back to the gaming community that has given all of us so many good times over the years, but now is in danger of losing much of what made gaming great in the years past.

There is this very good article about piracy and gaming on the GalCiv board, and the reason why some companies rely on anal copy protection mechanisms. And also why some don't. Don't have to, that is.

Since there's little constructive I could add to it, I'll close and ask you to read it. It's long, but well worth the time. In a nutshell, make games for people who buy games instead of pirate it, make games that don't require machines only a handful of hardcore gamers can (or rather, want to) afford, and you'll sell. Copy protection or not.

Round based games from today might just even work with them if the graphic is not too fancy. I'm thinking of Games like http://galciv2.com/. Here are even more great games that run on the eee: http://wiki.eeeuser.com/list:games

Not sure exactly what you mean by in the "Civ stable", but if you like Alpha Centauri, you'd love Galactic Civilizations 2. I don't know if it runs in Wine (I doubt it), but if it doesn't, that's the game you want them working on.

(Posting anonymously because I've already modded.)

I'm perfectly fine with developers doing the homework and trying to make good looking game by all possible means, not just relying mostly on bling of latest GPUs...

(@importance of textures: http://forums.galciv2.com/310173
section "The Updated Graphics", also:
http://forums.galciv2.com/167995
I couldn't find the post in which they describe how they did it, so: each race has one, detailed, "ships texture", parts of which are used by all ships of given race; apparently it also means only one copy has to kept in memory = massive reduction of usage)

I'm perfectly fine with developers doing the homework and trying to make good looking game by all possible means, not just relying mostly on bling of latest GPUs...

(@importance of textures: http://forums.galciv2.com/310173
section "The Updated Graphics", also:
http://forums.galciv2.com/167995
I couldn't find the post in which they describe how they did it, so: each race has one, detailed, "ships texture", parts of which are used by all ships of given race; apparently it also means only one copy has to kept in memory = massive reduction of usage)

Stardock is one of the greatest independent studios out there. Their products are A+ quality and they continue to support them for years. The interaction with their customers is admirable in this day and age of being flat out ignored and abused by most (here's looking at you EA). They also have an amazingly common sense approach to DRM on their software. Namely, you'll never find any DRM crap on any of their software, exactly as we the paying customers like it.

If ever there was a studio that your average slashdot gamer could get behind, it's these guys.

Galactic Civ 2 (http://www.galciv2.com/) is their flagship 4x empire building sandbox game and is at quite a bit better then it's nearest competitor Civilization 4 imho.

I hadn't realized that Sins of the Solar Empire was released yet. It's a very busy time of year and I've had my head in the sand since early January concerning gaming news. Thanks for the tip though, I'll certainly be picking this one up in the very near future.

No CD copy protection. Once you install, you never need your CD again. You can even use the included serial # to re-download the entire game from us years from now.

Try GalCiv 2. It's got this "just another turn... oh shit it's dawn again." feeling; the game's generally good enough to be called "a worthy successor".

Galactic Civilization I and II (see: http://www.galciv2.com/) is one of the few games I have ever played where it seemed like the computer was thinking. If you have never played GalCiv, and you like strategy, I highly recommend picking them up. I consider them to be superior even to the Civilization series. Brad Wardell prides himself on the AI, and it definitely shows. The computer is very difficult to beat and does not cheat. It actually responds in a logical manner, which makes GalCiv go from just being a number-crunching exercise to an actual strategy game. For example, when making some "aggressive" moves towards an enemy (moving some attack ships to an "ally" to wipe them out) I've actually had the game pop up a message from my ally (before ever entering his space) saying something to the effect of "I used to play video games when I was a kid, and when I did I used to build my forces up and send them to sneak attack an opponent. Well I am no video game." Other things like the fact that if another civilization is dependent on you for a large amount of trade income, they won't just randomly attack you because it would hurt them too.

If you want a really challenging AI, and one of the best I've seen around, I highly recommend Galactic Civilizations 2. It's a 4X game similar to Civilization but takes place in space. The developers frequently post articles about the AI and how they are continuing to improve it. Furthermore, they read user's strategies and then improve the AI. The greatest part is that on the Tough setting (highest difficulty before they start giving the AI bonuses), the AI provides a challenging game. This is unlike most AIs where a "challenging" AI essentially means that it has a 200% economy bonus. Interestingly, the AI adapts to your game play and they have talked about using the second core in dual core processors to analyze previous games and use different tactics to counter known strategies.

Well, one of the greatest experiences (And still is), AI wise, is Stardocks XXXX-type space strategy game, Galactic Civilizations 2. I especially like, when on easier levels, you do something, and the AI race sends a message "It seems that you are making a massive buildup for war. However, with this difficulty level, I pretend not no notice it until you actually make your strike." or something to that effect.

With dual core CPU most games should be able to dedicate a full core to "everything else" including AI, did games get a lot smarter? At least one game did. Galactic Civilizations 2 http://www.galciv2.com/ has perhaps the best TBS AI ever. In the expansion, there is an option to turn on even better AI algorithms, and there is no CPU cost for dual core users.

Bah... it doesn't have to be that expensive. I've plugged them before here and I'll plug them again because I think that the company is amazing: Stardock. They're a tiny, independent developer/publisher about 30 minutes from Ann Arbor, Michigan. Their most notable game is Galactic Civilizations 2, which includes 3D modeling, professional music score and sound effects, an insane amount of detail, excellent replayability, challenging AI, and very balanced gameplay. When I think "independent game developer", lame little Flash-based games are what come to mind. However GalCiv2 *fully* competes with anything EA has ever put out. Stardock also has a very "pro-customer" stance on copy protection too.

Bah... it doesn't have to be that expensive. I've plugged them before here and I'll plug them again because I think that the company is amazing: Stardock. They're a tiny, independent developer/publisher about 30 minutes from Ann Arbor, Michigan. Their most notable game is Galactic Civilizations 2, which includes 3D modeling, professional music score and sound effects, an insane amount of detail, excellent replayability, challenging AI, and very balanced gameplay. When I think "independent game developer", lame little Flash-based games are what come to mind. However GalCiv2 *fully* competes with anything EA has ever put out. Stardock also has a very "pro-customer" stance on copy protection too.

How about this for a unique concept: Value your customers as much as you value their money. Stardock is a tiny software company based out of Plymouth, MI (a small city a bit north of Ann Arbor, not really known for anything). They were recently lauded in Computer Gaming World for not adding a copy protection scheme to their latest game Galactic Civilizations 2. One of their developers took the time to explain their reasoning for doing so. They are also highly involved with their user community and are constantly asking for feedback.

On a related note, if a) you think of independent games are limited to puzzle games and side scrollers or b) dig games like Sid Meier's Civ series, you owe it to yourself to checkout the demo for Galatic Civilizations 2. To be honest, the main reason I downloaded it is because Plymouth is about 20 minutes away from where I live and wanted to check out what the local talent has to offer. I was blown away with the quality of the game. Everything from the game balance, to the graphics and even the musical score. It really makes me wonder why it takes millions of dollars to get most games on the shelves nowadays.

How about this for a unique concept: Value your customers as much as you value their money. Stardock is a tiny software company based out of Plymouth, MI (a small city a bit north of Ann Arbor, not really known for anything). They were recently lauded in Computer Gaming World for not adding a copy protection scheme to their latest game Galactic Civilizations 2. One of their developers took the time to explain their reasoning for doing so. They are also highly involved with their user community and are constantly asking for feedback.

On a related note, if a) you think of independent games are limited to puzzle games and side scrollers or b) dig games like Sid Meier's Civ series, you owe it to yourself to checkout the demo for Galatic Civilizations 2. To be honest, the main reason I downloaded it is because Plymouth is about 20 minutes away from where I live and wanted to check out what the local talent has to offer. I was blown away with the quality of the game. Everything from the game balance, to the graphics and even the musical score. It really makes me wonder why it takes millions of dollars to get most games on the shelves nowadays.

comparing an orange to a Ferrari 911

A Ferrari 911? Did Ferrari buy Porsche and not tell anyone? :)

Great and lots of programmers (oh yeah sure, just 'buy the engine', don't give me that)

Why not go buy an engine? Get one or two good programmers, get a cheap engine from someone like Garage Games, and focus on your real assets. The market is going more and more towards splitting into "engine developers" and "game developers". Id rarely even builds games anymore, preferring to focus on their engine creation (they work with third parties like Grey Matter or Raven to build games like Enemy Territories and Quake IV). Epic focuses on building the Unreal technology while letting 2nd and 3rd parties like Digital Illusions and Ubisoft build games around them. There's nothing wrong with licensing technology, and you're probably better off for doing so (you can get more and better technology than what you would be able to develop while trying to make a game to make money at the same time).

Great script

Great gameplay (so difficult to pinpoint and define, isn't it?)

I would argue these are the same thing. If your gameplay is RPG-style, you need an excellent script. If your gameplay is something like Katamari, script doesn't really matter much.

Great music and sound effects

This really depends on your gameplay. One guy with a mic and the willingness to make stupid sounds with his mouth will get you all of the sound effects you need. Music is harder, and yet easier at the same time. Depending on your game, you may not even need music (I'd rather listen to the sound of the engine in a racing game) or you could allow the player to provide the music. Other games need good music, but that shouldn't be too hard to come by. There are starving musicians everywhere. You just need to find them. Put up posters around the local college campus. Troll the boards online at places like Song Fight or Overclocked Remix. For a minor outlay of cash ($500-$1000 is probably more than enough in most cases), you can get some pretty excellent music for your game.

Great voice actors

I'd really recommend indie developers stay away from voice acting. Nintendo rarely uses it, and everybody loves their games (in fact, when they do use voice acting it's usually annoying. Hey! Listen!). Skip the expense by skipping the voice actors. Of course, you could do it in a humorous way and use your developers as the actors. Don't do this if you're going for "serious"!

Great characters (Deus Ex)

Again, this goes back to script/gameplay. You may not need characters at all if you're building a puzzle game. If you can't come up with great characters while writing your script or designing your gameplay, then you failed on the script or gameplay.

Great graphics (these days... sigh)

Then why does everybody here always say they prefer gameplay to graphics? You really have to think about your target. You're probably not going to be able to compete with the big boys in terms of graphics goo-gawgery, so don't try. You'll need something better than developer art, but not by much.

Multiplayer functionality

Depends on your game. Stardock consciously decided against multiplayer for GalCiv2 and that game is doing very well.

The central theme I've noticed in my replies

Yep. And GalCivII sold 30% of its copies online according to their blog post. Many game developers would have to split the $49.95 with a retailer, distributor, and publisher, eventually seeing somewhere between $10 and $20. When Stardock sells GalCiv online, they split the $49.95 with Stardock, Stardock, and Stardock (well, OK, kick in something like $.80 for credit card processing).

Galactic Civilizations 2 actually has a fair amount of this. It's limited by processor time and the imagination/capability of the designer, but he's documented lots of what he's done or will do.

I'm sure I'm not the first to say this, but good for them - it's a move that's likely to lead to higher sales.

I have avoided purchasing games which used egregious copy protection, even though I owned previous games in the series and was quite interested in buying the title. I have been spurred into buying games I was unsure about simply due to the anti-copy-protection stance of the company. And I'm sure I'm not alone.

Not surprising to any of you, of course, but here's a concrete example of how bad copy protection costs sales, which might come in handy when talking to game company folks.

Why do all the ideas - 'fun' bits, as TFA calls them - have to come from overworked, stressed developers? A company dedicated to listening to its constituency of customers is far better equipped to put out a good game, because the people who will be purchasing the software can contribute the ideas they want to see implemented.

Back in February I stumbled on Galactic Civilizations 2, then in beta. I pre-ordered after reading the website, and how they'd been in a beta for a year just implementing features people suggested on the forums. Even 2 months after release, the game is receiving more attention patch-wise from the developers than any other software I've ever bought, save for Windows itself. And these aren't just bug fixes we're getting for our $40 - we're getting UI tweaks, new features, and improvements on already stellar AI.

And the best part is that the game was mostly self-financed, through pre-orders and online distribution. Sales have been stellar, the game was sold out for its first production run - mostly from word of mouth - and no major publisher was ever involved.

GalCiv2 should be a wake-up call to developers - to make a good game, ask the gamers what they want.

Galactic Civilizations II, Transcendence, and Future Pinball are all that come up off the top of my head at the moment. For the latter, you'll want to pick up tables at VP-Originals. A ton of other games can be found at places like Abandonia Reloaded.

Also, Stardock offers the Object Desktop suite if you want to make Windows XP look less... XP-y.

The lead gameplay developer for the recently-released Galactic Civilizations 2, Cari Begle, is female - she just got interviewed by the Detroit Free Press. Cari's the person everyone goes to when there's a bug needs fixing. Maybe playing games isn't yet a place where you can get fair competition, but developing certainly is.

Face it. If you're not a HUGE corp with a lot of manpower to put behind your project, you won't write the next big thing in shooters. There are manyears in the 2 to 3 digit range behind those games. Nothing you can crank out with "hobbyist" levels. Forget writing anything in shooters or RPGs if you're not Blizzard, EA or at a similar level. You won't even be noticed.

But there are game genres that don't get overcrowded. http://www.galciv2.com/ is a great example of a great game that doesn't require a lot of explosions and pretty graphics (even though they're not bad either, by far not!). But the game itself is great! Lots of choices, lots of knobs and tweaks to fiddle with, lots of freedom for the player to create, play and plan. Lots of different strategies that can all lead to success.

That's where "smaller" companies have a chance. Not trying to compete with the big studios, but trying something new and improved. We won't see any invention or development from EA anytime soon. There's a reason why they print the year on some of their products, so you can at least see that there IS a difference in the different versions of the game.

The pet example in this context is usually Tetris, a game that even for its time had mediocre if not laughable graphics, and STILL it's one of the most successful game ideas ever. Tetris didn't get popular because of flashy graphics or cool effects. It was, is and will be a timeless classic for a gameplay that allows the player a lot of freedom and challenges him not only with his ability to react but also with his ability to understand different patterns and plan ahead.

This is where our chance is. Not in the vain attempt to create the better CounterStrike.

I am NOT a StarForce employee or supporter in any way - I'm a strong privacy advocate, and when I first read about all this StarForce fuss I immediately went and checked for it on my system. So don't make me out to be some stooge - I'm not. But at the same time, it's ridiculous to have such a hoopla over one employee posting something in a company forum. Yes, not removing it was a poor decision. But at the same time, his actions weren't so outlandish to support being posted on every news agency on the net.

To reiterate: I do not like StarForce. I do not like the company, I don't like the practice, I don't like their market sector to begin with. But what one employee posted to prove a point was not worthy of any of this. Look at the screenshot:

http://www.galciv2.com/temp/starfo2.jpg

Is that the world's most threatening thing ever? No! It's a valid point: he's showing that despite someone's (obviously flamebait) post that a game could get along fine without the company's protection, it was right then being downloaded thousands of times. He was proving his point, not encouraging people to download. Look at the screenshot and tell me that's not something you could see yourself posting in his place. It's not that epic.

The point of the article wasn't that copy protection software, as a technology, encourages pirates... it was that StarForce, as a company, *does*

See the (censored) screencap that is hosted on the GalCiv site, showing a StarForce employee linking to a pirated copy of the game.

Since the company has demonstrated by its actions that it understands no language but that of the dollar, saying "Bad Starforce! Bad!" is clearly ineffective. Let's put it in terms they can get.

Can I ask everyone who's disgusted by this latest event and therefore swears to join the boycott and purchase no product with Starforce protection to say so?

*Raises hand*

A lengthy forum post on the lack of multiplayer in the game can be found here. It provides the reasons that it was left out, and they make a lot of sense. But he also is careful to say that multi is not a part of the base game, and even says the architecture was designed to handle it. So...we'll see.

you can buy the digital download from their online store

http://www.galciv2.com/Purchase.aspx

no need to go to some retailer and buy a boxed hardcopy edition of it.

support the good and friendly companies, not the greedy, evil and fuckeup ones.

cheers.

Well, the StarForce Forum Administrator who made the post (with torrent link) is from Russia.

What he did might not be illegal over there.

But yea, talk about being an A-Hole.

Screen shot of the StarForce thread: http://www.galciv2.com/temp/starfo2.jpg

As it turns out, however, this whole story is not true at all.

Take a look, they've done smashing so far: http://forums.galciv2.com/?AID=105470 They've sold out of thier first printing, and the orders for the next printing EXCEED the first. This is UNHEARD OF for a game to sell more as it gets older. 99.99% of time, games sell the most in the first couple weeks. BTW, I bought this game, its GREAT!

Meanwhile we have a sleeper hit called Galactic Civilizations 2
www.galciv2.com
It has NO ZIP ZERO NONE copy protection at all. Instead, they give feature filled updates and patches that require a valid serial # to download.
Here's what the latest patch does (and this was done in just a week or two, unlike the just announced and badly needed to fix critical issues Battle for Middle Earth Patch that wont be ready for release for a month):
http://www.galciv2.com/Journals.aspx?AID=104660
Notice that while there's a good amount of bug fixes (lots of it stuff most people wouldn't even notice) there's also a lot of added features and game content.
Here's an example of what fans have done in ship design in the game, incredible stuff:
http://forums.galciv2.com/?AID=105823
They just sold through thier first printing run after a couple weeks after release. And the 2nd batch of orders EXCEEDS the initial order! This is frigging UNHEARD of. No game sells more copies weeks after release than the first weeks. (except maybe half life 1, and that was from the most popular online FPS in the world, a free mod incidentally, called Counter Strike). And this from a game with no copy protection.
THIS is the model that should be pursued by game companies, improve the game as an incentive to buy it. Actually multiplayer games that let you only play online with a valid serial is a good method in and of itself to encourage purchasing a legit copy of a game. I've never understood why they felt the need to add additional copy protection if the main game that people are interested in is multiplayer.
Or at least companies should adapt the alternative model below:

Epic games has a great model I wish companies would emulate. After a few months to a year, they will often release a patch which REMOVES all cd based copy protection (you still need a valid serial to play online). Its GREAT not to have to put in the Unreal Tournament 2004 (UT2k4) DVD anymore when I want to play the game. I just click and go! After all, most copy protection is only designed to just delay a crack from being released on the internet. If it can just be delayed for a couple weeks (or even a few days), they get over the biggest amount of sales and pre-orders, and all the people desperate to play will probably have bought it. Even the copy protection people admit that its practicaly inevitable that a game will get cracked, they just hope to delay it. And almost always, the pain, suffering, incompatability and annoyances are mostly felt by LEGITIMATE CONSUMERS who have a purchased game! The pirate will just go grab a crack somewhere and apply it and hes set.

Anyway this is just my 2 cents. And all the above without mentioning the thing that is called Starforce. I'd better not say anything about that or else I could get sued:
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/01/31/starforce_thr eatens_.html

Meanwhile we have a sleeper hit called Galactic Civilizations 2
www.galciv2.com
It has NO ZIP ZERO NONE copy protection at all. Instead, they give feature filled updates and patches that require a valid serial # to download.
Here's what the latest patch does (and this was done in just a week or two, unlike the just announced and badly needed to fix critical issues Battle for Middle Earth Patch that wont be ready for release for a month):
http://www.galciv2.com/Journals.aspx?AID=104660
Notice that while there's a good amount of bug fixes (lots of it stuff most people wouldn't even notice) there's also a lot of added features and game content.
Here's an example of what fans have done in ship design in the game, incredible stuff:
http://forums.galciv2.com/?AID=105823
They just sold through thier first printing run after a couple weeks after release. And the 2nd batch of orders EXCEEDS the initial order! This is frigging UNHEARD of. No game sells more copies weeks after release than the first weeks. (except maybe half life 1, and that was from the most popular online FPS in the world, a free mod incidentally, called Counter Strike). And this from a game with no copy protection.
THIS is the model that should be pursued by game companies, improve the game as an incentive to buy it. Actually multiplayer games that let you only play online with a valid serial is a good method in and of itself to encourage purchasing a legit copy of a game. I've never understood why they felt the need to add additional copy protection if the main game that people are interested in is multiplayer.
Or at least companies should adapt the alternative model below:

Epic games has a great model I wish companies would emulate. After a few months to a year, they will often release a patch which REMOVES all cd based copy protection (you still need a valid serial to play online). Its GREAT not to have to put in the Unreal Tournament 2004 (UT2k4) DVD anymore when I want to play the game. I just click and go! After all, most copy protection is only designed to just delay a crack from being released on the internet. If it can just be delayed for a couple weeks (or even a few days), they get over the biggest amount of sales and pre-orders, and all the people desperate to play will probably have bought it. Even the copy protection people admit that its practicaly inevitable that a game will get cracked, they just hope to delay it. And almost always, the pain, suffering, incompatability and annoyances are mostly felt by LEGITIMATE CONSUMERS who have a purchased game! The pirate will just go grab a crack somewhere and apply it and hes set.

Anyway this is just my 2 cents. And all the above without mentioning the thing that is called Starforce. I'd better not say anything about that or else I could get sued:
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/01/31/starforce_thr eatens_.html

One of the nice things about Stardock's new Galactic Civilizations II game, besides it just being ridiculously fun, is that there is no CD copy protection at all.

You can buy many of their games through download. In fact their recently released game, Galactic Civilizations ][ was easier to obtain that way than finding. http://www.galciv2.com/

One interesting issue about digital distribution versus retain was covered by their own people in journals available on the site.

Adventures in Retail
http://forums.galciv2.com/?ForumID=164&AID=103584

Economics in Gaming
http://forums.galciv2.com/index.aspx?ForumID=164&A ID=101602

For some companies there is no real exposure on the store shelf. The big problem is, how do people then ever learn of your product? Browsing the games while in BB/CU/Etc is one thing, but how is there an effective online equivalent to that?

You can buy many of their games through download. In fact their recently released game, Galactic Civilizations ][ was easier to obtain that way than finding. http://www.galciv2.com/

One interesting issue about digital distribution versus retain was covered by their own people in journals available on the site.

Adventures in Retail
http://forums.galciv2.com/?ForumID=164&AID=103584

Economics in Gaming
http://forums.galciv2.com/index.aspx?ForumID=164&A ID=101602

For some companies there is no real exposure on the store shelf. The big problem is, how do people then ever learn of your product? Browsing the games while in BB/CU/Etc is one thing, but how is there an effective online equivalent to that?

You can buy many of their games through download. In fact their recently released game, Galactic Civilizations ][ was easier to obtain that way than finding. http://www.galciv2.com/

One interesting issue about digital distribution versus retain was covered by their own people in journals available on the site.

Adventures in Retail
http://forums.galciv2.com/?ForumID=164&AID=103584

Economics in Gaming
http://forums.galciv2.com/index.aspx?ForumID=164&A ID=101602

For some companies there is no real exposure on the store shelf. The big problem is, how do people then ever learn of your product? Browsing the games while in BB/CU/Etc is one thing, but how is there an effective online equivalent to that?

I actually played Meridian 59 when it first came out. No offense, but I wasn't that impressed.

Of course, things have changed in the past 10 years since M59 came out. This is another aspect of marketing, to let people know that the product is "New and Improved!" We've poured a lot of new content into the game, rebalanced things, even got a new rendering engine as an alternative to the old software renderer. Of course, it's still the same game that focuses on character advancement and PvP combat, but even those have changed over the years.

As for GalCiv2, a quick Google search shows that the game will enjoy some print marketing. Print advertising isn't cheap, and they would likely get much better results by having an "online street team" that probably costs about the same.

[A] better game will have strong success and fanbase beyond the initial sales....

True, but many games are like other entertainment media in that most of the sales happen at launch. Game players, in general, enjoy new things. Older games are generally seen as inferior, so encouraging people to buy the game at launch will boost sales. Recurring sales are not as valued, particularly by games in retail because shelf space is limited. A game that sells a steady trickle will make less money over a short period of time than a newly released game that's been hyped excessively and expects big sales.

Interesting quote from the GalCiv2 FAQ:

Q: Galactic Civilizations I got some attention because you didn't have any CD copy protection. Aren't you afraid of piracy?

Our primary concern is our customers - the people who pay my salary. They're my overlord and I don't want to inconvenience them. Moreover, piracy is really about how many sales are actually lost. What we do is put out free updates after release. We got Editor's Choice Awards from most of the major game magazines for the original Galactic Civilizations, and that was on the 1.0 version in the box. However, we put out tons of updates after release that greatly enhanced that experience.

So let's say someone got a "warez" copy. If they like the game, they're going to want the updates, and to do that, they have to have a valid serial number that is verified on the server side (i.e., no cracks). So at that point, we're going to get that sale or we would have never gotten the sale.

I don't like game companies treating me like a criminal. If I'm paying $50 for a game then I better well be able to put it on my laptop and PC and not have to futz around with keeping track of the CD. Besides, I end up losing my CDs anyway.

(still looking for the system requirements on the website.. <sigh>)

haven't looked at the list yet.
What i want to say is that there's a very important game out today. Galactic Civilizations 2, Civ in space. Not just a clone, the first one was pretty different and is a mix of Civ and 4X games. The second one seems pretty awesome too.

We've been doing this over at Stardock since 1998, and 2001 for games. GalCiv II betas have been going out via digital distribution for half a year now. And we've been partnering with independant groups since . . . what, 2003? Remember Gish? Uplink? Frontline Command? We got 'em.

Actually, not *all* games are like this, just nearly all of them. Galactic Civilizations plays an honest game no matter what, no AI cheating. It is one of the things I like about it. The new version is in the works, you might want to have a look.

http://galciv2.com/

How about Galactic Civilizations?

http://www.galciv.com/

There is even a sequel being produced:

http://www.galciv2.com/

Here's the real MoO3 http://www.galciv.com/index.asp?c=1&u=0

And the sequal to that http://www.galciv2.com/