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03-14-2007, 04:06 AM
|  | Exalted Member | | Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Nomindsland
Posts: 1,127
| |  No more offline games
Norwegian games-developer FunCom, the company behind The Longest Journey, Dreamfall and the coming Age of Conan, has decided to stop developing offline games. The reason? Piracy. Pirater stopper offline PC-spill *( IT ,* IT-Telekom )
I'll translate the gist of it: "Before Dreamfall even hit the shops, it had been downloaded 200 000 times illegaly" says FunCom manager Trond Arne Aas. "For every game that is sold, between 3 and 10 is stolen."
FunCom has decided to stop developing offline PC games, and will focus exclusively on online games. The company's stock has been in steady decline, and it lost $3 million in 2006 despite the successful release of Dreamfall. FunCom will release the MMORPG "Age of Conan" in the fall of 2007.
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Last edited by Xandax; 03-14-2007 at 08:56 AM.
Reason: Fixing link
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03-14-2007, 04:51 AM
|  | Super Moderator | | Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Denmark
Posts: 13,261
| | | Can't say I'm suprised.
Piracy is affecting the industries such as music, movies and games - and to survive the companies have to find new ways to distribute and "handle" their digital products.
By the way - your link is broken - to many "http". |
03-14-2007, 06:11 AM
|  | Temporarily on Leave | | Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: The sun, the moon, and the stars.
Posts: 28,399
| | | Damn, that's too bad. But most of the time I try to convey that message about software piracy eating into a developer's funds, I'm met with cynicism--as though every developer has endless pockets, and won't feel the loss.
And the shame of it is that Fun.com has done some truly excellent work.
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03-14-2007, 06:41 AM
|  | Exalted Member | | Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: back from the dead, back from The End
Posts: 4,399
| | Shame...
Probably they will lose some customers this way, as i believe not everyone is willing to play games only online...
I'm one such person 
Offtopic:
I was kinda shocked when I realised that I was able to read that site, and understand about 80-90% of it 
And I assure you, I haven't studied that language 
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03-14-2007, 07:47 AM
|  | Exalted Member | | Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 1,902
| | @Kipi OT: Are you Dutch? There are a interesting similarities between Dutch and Norwegian/ Further OT: We have the same birthday.
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03-14-2007, 08:49 AM
| | Exalted Member | | Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Nomindsland
Posts: 1,127
| | | He He. Guys, written Norwegian is one of the easiest languages to learn. We only use about 780 words in our daily speech, the grammar is simple and yes, if you're from any north-European country you should be able to find a lot of similarities to your own language. It's the spoken language that's the problem.
Back on topic:
I love the fact that all the rabid "anarchist" downloaders seem to be shooting themselves in the foot on this issue. In a few years there will hardly be any off-the-shelf games left to steal that doesn't require online payment. As the article also mentions, games-developers in France are in a complete crisis because of piracy. It's getting to the point where you have to be connected to a large media corporation as a tax write-off to be able to create games. I'm not going to go into another moan about the demise of Black Isle or SSI, but this is exactly what killed them. Welcome to the future of gaming, and please have your valid credit card ready....
(Xan, I know the link is broken, but I seem to have some problems fixing it. Is it the GB engine?)
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Last edited by Moonbiter; 03-14-2007 at 08:52 AM.
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03-14-2007, 08:56 AM
| | Super Moderator | | Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Denmark
Posts: 13,261
| | Quote:
Originally Posted by Moonbiter  <snip>
(Xan, I know the link is broken, but I seem to have some problems fixing it. Is it the GB engine?) | Link fixed for you 
Edit: I'll post more on this later when I get some free time. Bussy right now
Last edited by Xandax; 03-14-2007 at 09:01 AM.
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03-14-2007, 10:36 AM
| | Banned | | Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 154
| | Quote:
Originally Posted by Kipi Offtopic:
I was kinda shocked when I realised that I was able to read that site, and understand about 80-90% of it
And I assure you, I haven't studied that language | If I'm not mistaken, you have studied some Swedish. So I don't really see a reason why you are speechless, after all, the difference between written Swedish, Norwegian and Danish is not all that great. Actually I think that it is the spoken language that might cause some trouble in understanding one another. Well... I am not so sure about Danish.
About the main topic:
The Longest Journey ->
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey ->
And now I don’t think there is going to be third game to finish the trilogy. But I still want to know how Dreamfall ends. And I don’t want it to be a MMO where the both worlds are populated with only Shifters and Dreamers standing in New Venice or Marcuria selling Axes and viagra. Heh, viagra.
Last edited by Faberge; 03-14-2007 at 10:39 AM.
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03-14-2007, 11:38 AM
|  | Site Owner/Administrator | | Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: The Nine Hells
Posts: 1,334
| | | You don't have to develop an MMORPG to avoid piracy. All you have to do is make a solid game with a strong multiplayer component to entice players into purchasing a copy instead of pirating one. You'll always have some users who only care about the single player campaign, but there are many games that sell very well simply because the multiplayer is so damn fun (and there's virtually no way to get around a CD key verification). If you create a fun game with a closed server featuring a ladder system and/or player-specific profiles and characters, it will sell well. The Diablo or Battlefield series and any good strategy game can attest to this.
I hate to say it, but unless the game is an absolute blockbuster, I don't think a single player PC game is realistic anymore. If a developer wants to take that route, they're going to have to port the game to consoles too in order to make up for the dollars lost to piracy. |
03-14-2007, 01:06 PM
| | Super Moderator | | Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Denmark
Posts: 13,261
| | A strong multiplayer part is not enough, as CD-keys etc can be bruteforced/cracked and that means a pirated game easily can use CD-keys from games which aren't played online.
If a game has a single player portion, then people will play that single player portion and not care at all about the multiplayer part, in which case CD-keys can be spoofed/cracked.
For instance, my NwN and NwN2 CD keys could easily be used by somebody else for online play, when I do not play online. (I can't recall if the keys are actually used in NwN example... it was just a for instance example )
What is needed is a continued subscription meaning the game gets tied to physical information - for instance a credit card - or continued online check each time you play, and even in these situations you are not completely safe, as is visible with Microsoft and their WGA checks, so what you end up with is actually having to play via the official online servers.
And even then you can only minimize piracy as private servers exists of the popular MMOGs, meaning that if incitement is just playing with a handful of people, then a pirated game is still a viable option.
All of these things point to attempting to minimize piracy, but it can't be eliminated as long as copying software (and music and films) are still morally accepted in many societies/circles, and while we have no real way of defining and communicating about this digital market. (A topic which lays me much on mind and which I've thought of starting to blog about )
However, I'm not a doomsayer, so I still think there is a place for offline/single player games. I just think the attempts at slowing down the piracy will cause more problems for us legit users - Sony's rootkit is a point in case. Also currently piracy seems to be less of an issue on the consoles, so it'll force/push developers over towards these platforms leaving the PC more for multiplayer and MMOGs.
Last edited by Xandax; 03-14-2007 at 01:08 PM.
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03-15-2007, 05:19 PM
|  | Exalted Member | | Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Dreamworld
Posts: 1,138
| | Quote:
Originally Posted by Faberge The Longest Journey ->
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey ->
And now I don’t think there is going to be third game to finish the trilogy. But I still want to know how Dreamfall ends. And I don’t want it to be a MMO where the both worlds are populated with only Shifters and Dreamers standing in New Venice or Marcuria selling Axes and viagra. Heh, viagra. | Although I don't think the Dreamfall was a very good game, I would like to know the ending too. But since it is impossible to make a multiplayer out of an adventure game like that, I guess it is over. 
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03-15-2007, 10:23 PM
|  | Exalted Member | | Join Date: May 2003 Location: Connecticut, a place of open land, hills, forests, and crazy people.
Posts: 3,155
| | Let's face it, folks, no matter how good a consumer product is, and how well you protect it, somebody out there is gonna want to take it for themselves and ensure they can try to profit from it. It doesn't matter if it's the world's biggest hit computer/console game, or any other sample of entertainment or even something as long ago as someone else's stolen food or hides from back in pre-recorded history.
People can be cheap, profiteering jerks. Period.
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03-16-2007, 05:45 AM
| | Banned | | Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 154
| | Quote:
Originally Posted by Lady Dragonfly Although I don't think the Dreamfall was a very good game, I would like to know the ending too. But since it is impossible to make a multiplayer out of an adventure game like that, I guess it is over. | Well, after reading this news reporting on another site, it seems like it is not over after all. There will be a sequel to Dreamfall, Dreamfall Chapters, and it will be released on the web one episode at time. Though, I don’t know if it is going to be downloadable for free or not – nonetheless I intend to get it, legally.
And I thought that Dreamfall was a really good game, it has one of the best plots that I have seen in games for these past few years. Well... yes, the combat system wasn’t perfect but it was still incredibly easy to learn and master. Thus I have to wonder why majority of the game reviewers had so much trouble with it.
Well, I’m not so sure about this but isn’t FunCom also behind Anarchy Online? |
03-16-2007, 07:28 AM
| | Exalted Member | | Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Nomindsland
Posts: 1,127
| | Quote:
Originally Posted by Faberge
Well, I’m not so sure about this but isn’t FunCom also behind Anarchy Online?
| Yes they are. Probably the only game that makes them any money nowadays.
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