quote:
Originally posted by Ecchifan:
I'm not confusing end of sales with end of production. The current GC position on the patch shifted from end of sales to end of production (i'm going by vaga's faq, which I will assume to be the current GC position on this matter). I'm only going by what vaga said, and making my own interpretation of his statements on behalf of GC.but moving from theory to reality, you're correct in the lack of a hard, concrete, set day for a release of the patch. The uncertainty factor is how VM will affect sales. If people who downloaded previous GC releases are convinced to shell out $$$ for them, and people who previously bought used copies are willing to shell out a bit more for a new copy, then it's conceivable that the GC product may eventually be sold out. But even given that optimistic scenario, it's still unlikely, imo, for GC to order a second production run (b/c they are less likely to even break even with sales of that second batch). So to me at least, end of sales is equivalent to end of production, realistically.
I see the patch as somewhat of an act of faith-----that (a) VM will work as an anti-piracy and anti-reselling tool, (b) boost sales of VM linked GC titles to the extent that GC will sell out its stock of the game, and (c) given the economic infeasibility of a second production run, release the patch as a reward to loyal customers who bought the game despite VM.
So if you are skeptical that LMMW or any other future GC title will be sold out, then you have to assume that the patch won't be coming out any time soon.
You said both end of product and end of sales in several statements, almost as if they were interchangable.
Maybe, maybe not, they have lost at least (from these and other boards) 60 customers, which means to sell even what they use to plus say 60 additional copies of the game they need to sell 120 to new buyers, then we can start to talk about them nearing all the sales. As to a second production run, you don't make it as many, if say you produce 200 the first time you produce 50 the second time, that accomplishes two things, one you will still likely sell most of those (provided VM works and people do buy) and two you always have one left that is not sold so you can always refuse to give a patch. Yes I don't trust GC right now and would actually bet on them trying something like this, perfectly legal and within the realm of plausable deniability.
I still have a massive problem with that reselling aspect of this, a very massive problem. They won't sell out of stock even if this does work, you and I both know that, we both know that if the market is too small and is surviving only on luck and faith, then even with some more sales these won't sell out. We both hopefully also know that those that cannot download won't buy, given the pirate mentality most will problem be pissed at GC for making it slightly harder and if anything and perhaps ironically so join the boycott of GC, while others are working on a way to crack to so downloads can continue.
I have actually spoken to friends in the computer sciences and they have looked at VM and have told me (none will I mention here) several ways it could in theory be cracked. If these people can figure out these possibilites in a few days of looking at it then I am sure the pirates already have figured out some ways to try at the very least.
[This message has been edited by SCDawg (edited 10-29-2004).]