I hear that a certain game portal is now not only giving away a game for FREE, but it actually gives you some vouchers for use at an online store with the ‘purchase’. Effectively they are PAYING you to have the game.
What generosity!
But of course, there is a catch. You HAVE to install the game by downloading their ‘game browser/downloader/client thing’
I understand why they do this. They want to get a foothold on your desktop / web-browser. They figure that if they bombard you with enough ads and promotions and pop-ups and reminders through the thing, that you will end up spending more money with them. It probably works. It’s probably good business. But I hate it, which is why I don’t do it
The ferengi businessman in me would love to do it, but the part of me that is actually a gamer, and someone who wants to entertain, rather than pester/nag people, stops me doing it. Like most people who program computers, I’m always fixing friends and families PC’s, and its a rare day indeed that you find someone whose PC isn’t running a load of startup crapware/bloatware/adware that they didn’t want, use, need or remember even saying yes to. Even if I forget all sense of morals and trying to be the nice guy, I’d still be opposed to it, because anything that makes it annoying or ‘risky’ to download and buy a game is bad news in the long term for devs like me.
When you buy a game from me, or from people like me (sillysoft, puppygames, winter wolves etc), you just get a game installer. No crap that runs at startup and send you adverts, just a game. The game you bought.
Isn’t that how it should be? Imagine if everyone you bought a DVD from had their own stupid system of ‘launchers’ and ‘players’ that you needed to keep around while you owned them? You just want to buy a DVD, or in this case a game. Don’t put up with anything else :D