Amen! 

I doubt the other game companies will adopt it because they sssshhhiver at the thought of dreaded pirates.  Other gaming company execs are probably chuckling, but it's a good marketing ploy for Stardock.

i was so impressed i marched off and bought Sins,  already had Supremme Commander and Space Siege,  the mere fact of no poxy DVD-CD ROM DRM is enough to make me buy a game.

I've had crysis making strange noises in my DVD drive since last NOV.

As for second hand games,  this is a issue for the PC world,  second hand games generate no profit for the games devs or publisher.

If a PC game costs £20-25 I don't expect to be able to resell it.  If it cost £4000 like say 3d studio max,  i also can't resell it!  We buy a license if we consider the fee resonable as long as we can always use the license thats fair.

I don't mind paying £50 for Vista 64 OEM,  we don't own the rights to resell our MMO characters so why should a RTS game be different.

So you can't resell tunes from itunes (not legally).

The cost of no DRM on PC games and no adware or spyware is the fact we can't resell them.  That's a price I am happy to pay.

If more people buy games,  then there is more money to make expansions or other new titles. Hence the consoles get 6-10 titles a month and the PC gets 1-2 at best.

Yeah, I really like not having to put a CD in in order to play.

I like the idea of this generally, however I hope they do not shoot themselvs in the foot with this. For example, look at #1

Now, this is greate and all - however, I read #8:

Now, I am going to go out and take a guess here - assuming this means a lack of copy-protection (At least, a lack of heavily using it). Could they not buy the game, copy it easily, then return it? Or what kind of proof is going to be required to return the game?

Now, don't get me wrong - I love the idea of not having that much copyprotection (Such as that crap SecuROM that EA has) on it (I hate that crap, all it does is hinder and annoy the people who actually pay for the game). However, I feel a full refund might be a bit much? Why not just have the company spend more time making a demo that actually demonstrates the game play AND how well it will actually work on your system.

For instance, Supreme Commander demo shows basically nothing of how it will work on your systems, unless you plan on sticking with small maps - the map they stick you on is one of the smallest in the game, no strain on your system at all. But, upon buying the game you notice you cant play on maps that are much bigger. That is kind of misleading, if your looking at the demo for a view of how it will run on your system (Note: I did not have this problem, I am just giving an example).

Ironhandx, my main thing is that they said 1.1 is available only via Impulse and not on the website. Oh and I am worried that they're going to sell the expansions only through Impulse. Does anyone have answers on that?

Shipmaster: My understanding is any updates going forward will only be available though Impulse. If games are sold through digital download, they'll also only be available through Impulse, but I believe the expansion planned for next summer will also be available on disc through retailers.

I did a lengthy inteview with Shacknews last week and they asked what my beef was with single player games that need to call home and I used the example of people working in the armed forces who may not have access to the Internet. 

In related news....

From the Edge community, Tom Ohle, VP of PR and Marketing CD Projekt says "The Gamer's Bill of Rights" is a step in the right Direction. FOr more information please go here.

yes, I agree with you 100% on this, and am glad that someone is taking an initiative with consumer rights on computer games.  I see some publishers and developers embracing this such as Blizzard, but others like Micro$oft who are so wrapped up in their own DRM will probably fight it tooth and nail

yes, I agree with you 100% on this, and am glad that someone is taking an initiative with consumer rights on computer games.  I see some publishers and developers embracing this such as Blizzard, but others like Micro$oft who are so wrapped up in their own DRM and rushing products to market will probably fight it tooth and nail

Idealistic it may be, but nonetheless great stuff Stardock, your the best dev team out there

On an unrelated note, does anybody else see a purple squirrel in a tanktop when they look at frogboy's avatar?   

OctopusRex, there are slight differences.

Aside from the whole "selling something that doesn't work" problem, software is just like anything else.  Unfortunately, patches are a necessity, because people are morons and designing complex software that doesn't need fixed is almost impossible.  I say almost because it is technically possible.  If everyone were a genius with a photographic memory and a work ethic that put swedes to shame, then they might be able to avoid patching things.

On the reverse, no one else is allowed to sell you broken shit to start with...  The joys of an imperfect world.

In Stardock's case, it makes perfect sense for them to not transfer licenses.  They already fixed the product they sold.  Why should they fix it for someone else?  Of course, it's also illogical in the sense that they already allow the original owner to download the entire program off their servers any time they want.  They aren't saving much.  Pirates using tech support isn't a problem though.

If you took piracy out of the equation, I'd say patches should make their way out to the general public, and people could get them off other servers hosted by ad whores or philanthropists, and not have access to Stardock resources directly, thus cost them nothing.  Unfortunately, that not only leaves the original license holder with full rights to a product they just sold, but gives everyone that didn't buy any copy at all easy access to the patches.

Using a carrot approach instead of a carrot and stick approach really doesn't work if you give away the carrots.  Although it would still work better than a stick approach, which is chasing people away from the industry leaders.

Wow! I have always been a stardock fan for treating me like a customer, and not a criminal. This makes might make me into a full blown fan boy! Do you all sell shirts?

In all seriousness, it's companies like stardock that will keep PC gaming around.