Thoughts on V-Mate

Visual Novel Community Archive, 2000-2009
#121

whatever scdawg, but if you haven’t realized yet it’s going in circles again…i think i will give up arguing with you. from what i see this is going to end up like a repeat to that thing i fought with you months ago and i dont want to do that again.

we have done what we ought to do (keep in mind that if we are not required or obliged to do so) and we already told you we have no plans of using vmate at all on our games. it’s ultimately YOUR (the consumer’s) responsibility, not ours (the retailer’s), to tell gc your problems and push it (if you really hate vmate).

#122

V-Mate turned me off g-collections, period.

#123

Sorry for posting in a thread that’s been seemingly inactive. But I read in another thread about V-mate so it perked my interest.

Too me V-mate seems to smack a percentage of loyal fans. Why should there be an online requirement for an otherwise, non-online game. Its not like the games are Everquest or World of Warcraft. If I was on my laptop, housesitting my grandmother’s house for another 3 months, I would be left behind by the company ‘moving forward’(no i.c. at g-ma’s house). I mean, I suppose in some twisted view this can seem to be a way to boost profits, stop piracy, or what have you, but I see it as a hinderance. I find it great, when I lose an internet connection, and have something to do on the computer until the problem is fixed. Anyway, enough of my babbling. I’m not even sure if what I said made the slightest bit of sense. God-Hand Femto is looking at me from the top of my monitor…I love my Berserk figurines.

prepares for his thread revival beating

[This message has been edited by Endymion (edited 11-21-2004).]

#124

Eheh, my first post here. Been lurking for years now, though… ^^;;

SuperDeadite knows me IRL, but nice meeting you to everyone else. ^^


My first impression of V-mate when I first saw it on G-collections’s site was "cool, they decided to do something against the pirates."

But then I checked the board here, and saw that it was basically screwing me over. --

I have an ass-tacular 56k connection, so having to log on every time I want to play is a huge hassle, not to mention that if I want to reformat or install onto a different copmputer, I’m kinda out of luck there.

I’ve yet to actually buy an American version of these games, and V-mate isn’t going to help me along at all. --

But if G-Collections decides to dump it or someone cracks it(more likely), they’ll have one more customer for Hitomi.


As it stands now, I’m not going to bother with V-mate unless they decide to bring out something really nice.

#125

Reformatting doesn’t affect the computer limit. Where are people getting this idea, anyway? It keeps popping up again and again…

[This message has been edited by Dark_Shiki (edited 11-21-2004).]

#126
quote:
Originally posted by Dark_Shiki:
Reformatting doesn't affect the computer limit. Where are people getting this idea, anyway? It keeps popping up again and again...
IIRC, GC has never said what criteria are used to determine a unique system ID. People might assume drive reformatting is a factor, since I believe XP re-registration is required in such a case. [I haven't had to reinstall XP yet, so I can't say from firsthand experience.]

I wonder if anyone has tried to get the game to run on an Apple or Linux-based Windows emulator? That may also be a problem since unique identifiers like a MAC address and Windows serial number may be hidden or generic in such environments.

[This message has been edited by perigee (edited 11-22-2004).]

#127
quote:
Originally posted by perigee:
[B]I wonder if anyone has tried to get the game to run on an Apple or Linux-based Windows emulator? That may also be a problem since unique identifiers like a MAC address and Windows serial number may be hidden or generic in such environments.

That isn't really G-Collections' problem, since all of their games list Windows OS as a system requirement. Sure, it MIGHT work with an emulator of some kind, but if it somehow doesn't, it's your own problem.

#128
quote:
Originally posted by AG3:
That isn't really G-Collections' problem, since all of their games list Windows OS as a system requirement. Sure, it MIGHT work with an emulator of some kind, but if it somehow doesn't, it's your own problem.
I think we've had posts on this board from people who do use emulators for Windows applications. There are commercial products like Citrix' SoftWindows that require XP licensing and receive full Microsoft support. If such an environment isn't supported, GC should say so up front.
#129
quote:
Originally posted by perigee:
IIRC, GC has never said what criteria are used to determine a unique system ID. People might assume drive reformatting is a factor, since I believe XP re-registration is required in such a case.

Well, they have said that reformatting will not affect the computer limit, and it's in my faq...

As far as I know, reinstalling XP from scratch requires reactivation, but you still only have a potential problem if your hardware configuration has changed significantly. Even then, as long as 6 months have passed since the last activation, you're good to go. So, again, I'm wondering where people are getting this from.

#130

Since this thread is active again, I can post what I thought of yesterday now.

Several people pointed out that G-Collections’ target market is just the US.

Right?

Then how do you explain this image at the botton of their front page?

#131

Just because their current target market is the U.S. doesn’t mean they don’t wish to market their games in other countries. However, that doesn’t change the fact that, as far as I know, The U.S. is still their primary market.

#132

They could have avoided V-Mate, then…

For sure V-Mate is unfitted for the italian market.

Anyway, big news on the loose…

[This message has been edited by Italicus (edited 11-22-2004).]

#133
quote:
Originally posted by Italicus:

For sure V-Mate is unfitted for the italian market.
[This message has been edited by Italicus (edited 11-22-2004).]

What do you know? An Italian friend of mine, that is not rich, mind you, has DSL at her place.
#134
quote:
Originally posted by Benoit:

What do you know? An Italian friend of mine, that is not rich, mind you, has DSL at her place.

What do you know to know? 80 euro every two months plus the rent for the line only to play a simple game? NO WAY FOR ME ( AND MANY OTHERS - Baldo apart, of course )!
80 euro... if you're lucky... Often at more "incredible" [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/rolleyes.gif[/img] prices. Wonder how things go in Belgium... [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/wink.gif[/img]

Anyway, please go and re-read my other posts on the matter instead of flaming.

[This message has been edited by Italicus (edited 11-22-2004).]

#135

Of course there are other things you can do with your broadband connection other than just to connect to v-mate

80 euros for 2 months sounds around 40-50 bucks a month US. While a little expensive it’s not horrendously expensive.

#136

WTF? So, disagreeing with you is now called flaming? I don’t think so.

In Belgium? A bit less than 40 EUR. There’s even an introductory deal with some companies that gives you the first two months for just 19 EUR.
You can connect as many times as you want and surf as much as you want. The only thing you have to think about is your available bandwidth of 10 GB. This is enough for a regular household.
(this part could be specific to my ISP, other ISPs could have other regulations)
Over the 10 GB? Don’t worry, you will still be able to browse the web, just slower, at the speed of 64 kbps, still faster than 56 kbps.

I doubt there aren’t any good deals for you where you live.

#137

European connections get better the more you go to the north. Portugal now has 8mbit/s adsls at 54 euros/mo as the fastest home connection, but we also have 2mbit/s adsls at 22 euros/mo. Of course, swedes have 10/100mbit/s connections at the same prices… -__-;

#138
quote:
Originally posted by Benoit:
WTF? So, disagreeing with you is now called flaming? I don't think so.

"What do you know?" is sort of rude. Combined with the fact that you're talking about broadband in Italy when he's the one who lives there, and I can see why he'd be upset.

I don't know if it rises to the level of 'flaming', but it was not the most polite thing to say.

#139

Oh, I see. I apologize, Italicus, for my rude behavior.

quote:
Originally posted by GoHF:
European connections get better the more you go to the north. Portugal now has 8mbit/s adsls at 54 euros/mo as the fastest home connection, but we also have 2mbit/s adsls at 22 euros/mo. Of course, swedes have 10/100mbit/s connections at the same prices… -__-;

Really… My current subscription with my ISP states that my connection is one of 3 MBit download, and 128kBit upload.
I’m happy with it, though.

[This message has been edited by Benoit (edited 11-22-2004).]

#140

I’ll come right out and say it…I continue to wonder if all the Italian fans who are so upset by Vmate are buying their games in the first place. While I love Italy and think it’s a great country, we have about 600 customers in our database out of more than 100,000. Is it possible, I wonder, that Vmate would force players who just download games to actually buy the games? Even if the people here are really against the concept of Vmate, I wonder if it’d be possible to sell, say, 150 copies of a game in Italy thanks to Vmate instead of (just guessing here), 50 copies or less, the rest of which are all pirated by the very passionate “Italian bishoujo gaming community” that is to upset about Vmate?

Just throwing out ideas. My point is that while the people on this board tend to be thoughtful, loyal fans, 99% are clearly not. The concept of denying them free access to our hard work is an excellent idea, as far as I’m concerned, all things being equal.