I really love the idea of giving my money directly to developers. I try to buy indie games on the developer's website and things like that. By buying boxed retail copies however I am supporting the big publisher and big retailer system. Buying The Witcher 2 on amazon means I am giving amazon money, Atari money and then finally CDP some money. On GOG I could be putting $45 right in CDP's pockets.

So while boxes are important to me I feel guilty that I am letting some paper come before supporting developers directly.

Supporting the developers are very important for me. I always buy the games of Cd Project, Larian, Obsidian, Spiderweb and Reality Pump's games at full prices. Because I know that with firms like this every one of sale is important and determines whether there will be a sequel or not. And in some cases I bought two copies of them. For ex, I have three versions of Witcher. One I bought at release date, aonther one Director's Cut and last gog version. I also bought two copies of Divinity 2. One D2: Ego Draconis + Flames Of Vengeance, and the other one D2: Dragon Knight Saga.

And there are some games that I play the pirated version despite of having the boxed copy. One example is Fallout:NW. I bought the game but I'm playing the pirated version. Because, I hate to install Steam client to my system and must connect to steam every time I want to play. This is one of the reasons I bought The Witcher 2 from gog. In order to support their non-DRM policy.

Good question. I don't care about the developers on a personal level, no. I do recognize work has value. I purchase games because it would be philosophically fraudulent to horde undeserved wealth. I buy games from GOG because I want to encourage market forces to move toward a more customer friendly model.

This but i would add if its a really good game from a large dd site ill usually contact them and try to pass some money thier way.

I care a lot, at leat enough to buy all my games and pay for it. If I where rich I would support them more but I´m not so I just support them with buying thier games and tell other how I like them! (maybe they buy the game too and in that wy I helped the developer to sell thier game) ^^

The develper first has to make it reasonably easy to support them.

If they only include the game on Impulse and make it region restricted - there's not much I can do about it.

If it looks like it can run on old computer but they only try it on a dual core with liquid cooled m/b and list that as minimum requirements - there's not much I can do about it.

If they design a game to work with only XBox gamepads - there's not much I can do about it.

It depends what you mean by supporting them (I know what you mean, but that phrase doesn't always mean the same thing when people say it).

The lead Runic dev told me last year that they got about 6 dollars off Torchlight boxed retail, 14(ish) on Steam, and 18+ off a purchase from their website. Off a game that retailed for 20 bucks that's quite a variance. You may extrapolate from there.

(I did by Torchlight in the box as the boxed version contained no DRM, the download version came with activation so that they could simply activate the demo. They've refunded all activations multiple times, as DRM goes they were super cool about it - still it's hard to pay for the DRMed copy when there's a no DRM copy for sale).

I tend to buy games that I think are novel/developed by someone cool. I bought Minecraft but haven't played it. The same goes for a lot of the Humble Indie Bundle stuff (I have played some of them, just not all or even most). I always lean towards trying to prove that no DRM works.

LoL Yes!

+1 Rep

I do care but I have to admit there are certain limits on it. I know that's just not the way it works, but I'd buy a lot more games if all of my money went to the dev team. There's also a sort of emotional level I get to with a game that'll make me pay for it even if I've previously completed a pirated version. Sometimes I don't even need to have played it, my appreciation can be pre-emptive, like how I've now bought two copies of The Witcher and pre-ordered The Witcher 2 all before I even played a second of the first game. I also bought a copy of Persona 4 even though I was playing an "Undub" version (Japanese voices in the English version) and am never going to actually use the legally purchased copy.

I know legally it just isn't my place to make these kind of judgement calls, but I do feel much more like supporting the underdogs or more unique developers. That's why I'm probably the only person in the UK who bought Sakura Wars V on the WIi despite already having got through most of a pirated copy. Cost can come into it too. I don't really like FPS but I recently bought Crysis because it was just £2.50 on Steam. That was more like supporting the price range rather than the product (though it is fun in a kind of predictable way). For the record, since I joined GOG in January, I've bought an average of 1.5 games a week whereas I think before that the last PC games I'd bought were a small amount of Steam games (Orange Box being the most prominent) and then way back to the era of BG1 and 2, Torment and Half-Life.

I think supporting Gog and supporting CDP should be seperated in this argument.

Obviously for supporting CDP, buying from Gog is the best solution, they'll get the most money that way and assuming the game will be good/great, or to still support the developers for having made Witcher 1 then that's the way to go.

That said, for Gog.com and it's philosophy, Witcher 2 is the first game to break the mold on both regional pricing and having an (albeit temporary) form of DRM (CD-key for patching/16:10 support), and in that sense, if you want to support gog's philosophy, then you should be putting your money towards every game in the catalog *but* Witcher 2 probably.
That said, if the only interest is in keeping gog up and running then it still helps of course.

I care about developers as they are the ones who do the hard work but are only paid a smal amount of each ame. Without developers we have no games so i tend to buy from their own websites when possible.

I used to be completely unaware, I think, to the point of not even understanding the concept of a developer...I think this is the average person, or average console gamer at least. Not condescending or anything, but I think PC gamers generally have a tighter relationship with developers, and a deeper understanding of how these things work.

Anyway, yes, I care very much, so much so I do get genuinely upset when I see people pirating great work, and in some cases, buying legit copies for them so they won't. And yeah, I put it above my preferences on occasion, depending on the circumstances. I'll be buying Shogun 2 despite being pretty terrible at strategy games after seeing all the love they're putting into it. Granted, I'm waiting for a discount because I'm terrible at them, but I figure that's fair enough.

Regarding TW2, it'd be interesting to see how much or little they get from a sale elsewhere vs here. I'm quite happy with my GOG copy but I'll be getting the box version as well, mainly for the artbook but all the other extras don't hurt either...there are a rare few developers worth supporting multiple times, and CD Projekt is one of them.

I don't think you should feel guilty about buying from elsewhere, especially as it's not just the money itself which matters but the fact you bought a copy...a publisher or developer being able to say the game sold X amount of copies, if X is a large number (like say, 1.7 million haha), makes a massive difference (see: TW2). That said, you can always get the GOG version at a discount later.

Haven't read all the comments, only the OP. Wanted to go to bed soon, but I saw this and decided to respond. I'll have to read all the other comments tomorrow, if I remember. >.>

Anywaaaaay. The developers rarely cross my mind unless I was already thinking of purchasing a game, I wont purchase a game merely to support a developer. I want to support developers that make things that appeal to me, and a good sign of a product appealing to me is when I consider purchasing it. The developer (or game) may decide if I buy new or used. Other factors affect that too, of course. Such as not being available new.
As for where I purchase the game, that is rarely affected. It did happen once though, with Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Amazon, nor Gamestop, nor THQ (the freakin' publisher...) could answer my question on what DRM the boxed copy contained. Frictional Games did, so I purchased direct from them. Don't mind that it is digital, I could always put it on DVD if I cared enough. If more games were available directly from the developers then that might happen more often, I don't really care to try to figure out how much each retail outlet gives to the publisher and developer and compare. I did buy Minecraft direct from the developer also, but that doesn't count, I don't think there is any other option.

And now off to bed, night all.

Wait. Since The Witcher had sparked this, I should probably comment on buying a game multiple times.
I wont do it, even if to support the developer, unless there is some benefit out of it. Kinda like The Witcher (I am guessing some of the content is new, or perhaps W7 compatibility, never got the first, been thinking about it though). There is one game I bought twice though. Demon's Souls for the PS3. First one was used though. That game was amazing. They got me to buy a new copy by releasing a CD and artbook. The CD rocks, artbook, not so much, though I have never been a huge fan of looking at still images of video games. They do make good backgrounds though.

Okay, now I am going to bed. Night.

How is not releasing a third episode for a game (yet) the same as not giving a shit about your customers?

If anything I certainly praise the way Valve has supported games like CS and TF2 for *years* completely free. And on top of that they make quality games (Orange Box, Portal 2).

I'm fine with how long they take, as long as it's worth the wait. 'It's done when it's done', in the same way that Blizzard tends to take forever to release their games.

I think this is a tough one.

If 'selling out', means the game is bad/sucks, then yes, they won't get support.
However, if they put up the greatest RPG of all time but they 'sold out' their principles by adding GFWL, or Steamworks or something like that... I'd still buy it. Ubisoft's drm on the other hand (the harsher version), I wouldn't support that.

In the end, 'buying a game', is a selfish thing either way I think. Because in the end, you buy a game (or hope to, at least), because it's a good game. A developer can have praiseworthy ethics and standards. But if their game sucks, then I'm not spending my money on it. Not because I don't support the developer's position, but because I don't support games that aren't good (or possibly good but not to my taste)

It's really hard to say I guess. It really depends on what you consider acceptable or not, whether the principles of the company are something you hope for or don't agree with, and even then it's still dependant on actual results and accomplishments.

Me, I buy good games, that I want to play. I wouldn't say I'd buy them at a certain place 'to support the developers', because the place I purchase at is a choice of convenience for me (I just tend to prefer's Steam's easy list/download/install).
Where I make the choice to support the developer is more down to price. Overall I'm a bargain hunter, partly through economic necessity. However, there's some games/franchises that I'll easily lay down more money for, than i would others, or in rare cases, where I really trust in the games a company makes, I'll even preorder them. That's where my support for the developers truly kicks in, which is mostly based on past performance (and taste).

For instance, I've already pre-ordered BF3 because I played BC2 and thought it was a great game. (the multiplayer part pushes the early buy as well though)

Ok, enough rambling from the crazy guy i think xD