You can also gift siftware through the Stardock srore.  Have been able to for years.   :CONGRAT: 

HG_E ...you typed too fast for some....;)

 :LOL:

Gift option is nice , I did not knew about it in SCD - how you can do it ? I guess it can be applied only to not yet activated games, right ?

Anyway , see thats another way distributor can be "nice" towards customers (and generate more income on the way :))

In SDC the store link is a bit botched in that it takes you to stardock.com and you have to scroll to the bottom to choose "store".  But from there you can chose (as step 2) to give the product(s) in your cart as a gift.

The same works for impulse (on the store tab)

Well thats not kind of functionality I had in mind
Let's hope they can improve it in Impulse.

Waht functionality would you want?  It seems rather intuitive to me. 

• Go to store
• Select item
• Ship it to X
• Pay for it

What could be easier?

Well the "store" is not so simple by itself and I always have this problem with kind of two stores one "at stardock" and another "at totalgaming" somehow it require me to login 2 or 3 times or something and you can buy tokens only in one of them.
Anyway I would like to be able to buy tokens and use token (including gift for someone) within SDC without all this problems.

I read that the tokens are going away.  So, while adding a "Buy Tokens" button in the Impulse store might have been useful before, it may not be so now.

Zubaz is correct.

So what I am going to do with 14 tokens I have now ?

They going to be converted to some credits or something ?

You can still use them. It's just that not all games will support them in the future.

Sorry for being pain in the a$$ but what it really means ?
I will be able to "buy" with them Stardock's published games but not from other Impulse partners ? - if it's so it's OK for me , I targeting for new Political Machine and new Fantasy game - will I be able to get thous for tokens ?

(if you asking how I end up with 14 tokens - I had some money left in PayPal account that was impossible to withdraw in my country so I "invested" in tokens :))

Probably that some future third parties games will be available in Impulse with $ and not on the TGN web site with token

DRM as a whole is not meant to stop piracy (it never did do that successfully, nor was it designed in a way that COULD do so), it is a trick to force customers to purchase the same product again and again. (which several big DRM advocates HAVE publicly declared as their ultimate goal)

Software companies like to pretend that their product is both intellectual property which they license, as well as a physical product which they sell you. And somehow combined so that the consumer gets the negatives of both and the benefit of neither. and vice versa for the seller.

When you sell a DVD you are transferring a physical product, one that was manufactured, transported, purchased, and has to be disposed of (at taxpayer expense) when trashed. And has to be repurchased if damaged. Just like a car.

Digital distribution does NOT do that. Digital distribution treats it as 100% IP that is licensed to you. You have one lifetime license to use a game, a license that does not need to be repurchased if your CD is scratched. Therefore you are getting the benefits and drawbacks of the IP licensing method. Which is, overall, fair and reasonable. And you have NO right to resell the product at that system.

If you wanted the model in which you could sell the DVD than you have to agree to a model where DVDs can NOT be duplicated under any circumstances, that the DVD has to be in the drive to run the game. And that if the DVD breaks then you are obligated to buy a new one, even if you already purchased the game/software. This is a ridiculous notion since a DVD is worth under 10 cents, but the software on it is worth at least 50$. It isn't a CAR, it is a method of transferring the software, which is pure information.

Many forms of piracy exist to reclaim the benfits of either the IP license or the physical property method, but some users forget that if you reclaim both at once than you are going from protecting your rights as a customer and into the realm of thievery.

I am very VERY happy with digital distribution. Now in a system that no longer tries to exploit me and STEAL from me (which is exactly what software companies do when they pretend that their product is two different things at once) I am quite satisfied with purchasing software again. Which is why impulse is so much BETTER than buying a DVD at the store.

Huh?

First, DRM isn't one thing; it's many things. So you can't make generalizations as to what it does or does not do.

Second, I have yet to see a videogame DRM scheme that wasn't clearly designed to stop piracy. Even StarForce, as maligned as it is, is generally removed after 6 months by later patches, because most of the sales of the game have already happened. It served it's purpose, protecting the critical launch window of the game, so they remove it.



You're thinking too hard about it. So long as you apply the standards of physical media to, well, physical media, there isn't a problem. The disk is the game; ignore the fashion in which the disc provides the game. Ergo, if it is broken, you need a new one.

1. I was using the term in context, you figured out which DRM I meant, and so would anyone else.
2. Who removed it? most companies do NOT remove their broken DRM schemes, and it keeps on causing harm much longer for legitimate customers.
3. Very very VERY rarely would a DRM scheme last 6 months before being cracked. and once it is, it would be cracked in mere hours for any other game using it afterwards.
It might make sense to use a brand spanking new DRM that was never before used or cracked, but almost without exception every game is available as cracked as soon as it is released. Sometimes EARLIER then the actual release day (stock begins arriving at locations a few days before release date, an image is sent to crackers, and they are cracked and released before the actual sell date).

I know of people who had bought a game, only to have the DRM scheme go off incorrectly, and then had to resort to cracking their legitimately purchased game.



I was saying that it is rediculous to use the physical media method due to the value of the media and the value of the software. You got it perfectly right that it can be done, and if the disk brakes, you buy a new one, IF that is the method of sale.

The physical object gets all the 'attention' to the handler...being a tactile world.  But it is no different to the stream of bytes in a digital download....which also has 'distribution/packaging/et al.

The MEDIUM of distribution is different....both are very cheap....a few cents of bandwidth...or a few cents of plastic and cardboard.  BOTH have identical content - the music/game/whatever.

The medium can be totally ignored as irrelevant/valueless.  What is important is the CONTENT....and that has identical IP rights...;)

that is the LOGICAL thing to do jafo. But most media companies (music, movies, games, software...) try to treat it as both in a manner that the customer bears the downsides of both and the benefits of neither.
For it to actually be treated as nothing but the distribution method requires that the distributor also honor their side.

Which is exactly what stardock does. If your original DVD is scratched you can download it again without need to repurchase. Stardock treats it as an IP that is licensed with both the rights and responsibilities that such a system entails. Which is good.

Btw: here is the link to artical listing a lot of DRM activation disasters, where companies much bigger then StarDock (Sony, Microsoft etc) decided to drop activation for some old product and customers were f$$%ed.

What really bothers me about EULA's is that you are not asked to agree to them before paying for the product. I.e., I buy a game box at a store, go home install the game and then told I must agree to a contract to by the game. The agreement of the contract should happen before or when money is exchanged, not after.

Not picking on Stardock here, just they way almost all EULA's are presented after paying for the product not before.

-Mark

Yep , not to mention the fact that if you disagree you can't return the product - no store takes opened software box back what ever the reason.

As I sit here I am looking at the W.O.W. box at my side .. on it in plain english is " The contents of this box are subject to the terms of an End User License Agreement available at WWW...........com. All use of this product is subject to W.O.W terms of use which must be agreed to before registering an account. etc..



Many Software's now do come with a warning that acceptance of a EULA is required, on the box. unfortunately most people just grab and go without reading the box, much less the actual EULA. Then gripe after when they find out what they agreed to.



It has been common Knowledge for a while now  that Software comes with a EULA and or TOS , so there was no real need for Box Placement as the majority of the users knew there were limitations to the softwares use.

I agree you should always read the EULA's before agreeing to them, and are happy that more companies are placing them online to read before you purchase. This is a good trend as it allows Savy users to read up on what they are agreeing to and be more informed of their rights and responsibilities as an end user.

Back to basics ...

We are talking, in the overwhelming number of cases, about software that in all practical intents and purposes has a limited shelf life. In that most software will be overtaken by the next "latest and greatest", and the old stuff is left for dust. I've still got old software going back years in dusty holes around the house. Its not high value in the great scheme of things, and when I've become tired of it, chances are so have others in the real world - therefore resale value is to say the least limited, expectations will have changed by that stage, the 'old' product will be no where near the expectations of the next buyer.

Could a case for more liberal "laws" on it be made, well for sure if you rummaged hard enough. You could create a legal case for a hamburger resale guarantee before anyone decided to buy, sure as hell I wouldnt buy someone's second hand burger whatever my "rights" :LOL:. Many people when yelling about "Rights" tend to forget or marginalise the flip side - the creator of the item. The creator has every right to lay out the conditions of use of their creation, they run a Business not a charity. If the product concerned had a Major shelf life (eg a house), then we are into a different scenario, sure as hell with the value of a house attached to the purchase decision, it needs nailing down to the floor - and more - the why's what's and wherefore's.

Should that level of precise guarantee be imposed with lower value items? Simply - No - because the more you go down that road of perfection (an impossible concept in itself) the more layers of bureaucratic quicksand is placed on the product. It gets to the stage where it becomes unviable to make it! And for what? A low cash value product that 99% were happy about in terms of "Rights" before the bureaucratic nonsense started. If the vendor made a product of poor Value (note Value, not price - there's a huge difference, in that difference is included terms of purchase) they'll go out of business, Period. The whole topic at low price point levels regulates itself in the long term. Place huge layers of regulation on low value items - then they will not be made, simple as that, and we all suffer - including the 99% who were happy in the first place and are now furious because their choice of product has plummeted !!

In the Real World I am a Business Coach, I show Business Owners how they should be working ON the Business, not IN the Business. I have on many occasions listened to them going through similar thoughts on games (etc) software during social non-work chit-chat. Many times I've said to a Client "Pity you didnt give that level of thought to your Business, you would have saved a lot of money by not having to pay my fees!!". I usually get sheepish grins in response.

The trend to more "Rights" is a very good thing - insane precise theoretical application to low value goods is, to put it bluntly - stupid. We all know the real world case for this - like it, buy it, hate it, dont buy it. Steal it (ie pirate it) expect to get your Butt kicked. For a fifty dollar piece of software, I suggest we all have better things to do than create a massive bureaucratic layer of "Rights" to cover every single possible twist and turn in the use of that low value product. Life's too short ..... certainly for 99% of people out there.

Regards
Zy

Zydor ....nicely stated....;)