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dreadcog: With future purchases I shall look before I leap.

Good.
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dreadcog: Well I'm getting a full refund. I'd say Amazon is on my side.
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DarthKaal: Because you complained about it. Many customers would do nothing in that situation. If Amazon was really on their customers' side, they would not let used games that need activation to be sold.

I agree, but that's not entirely true. When I sell stuff on there I get constant communications from angsty buyers wondering about their stuff and if it's not right they let me know. I got sniped once from Amazon because I was selling a Dreamcast and the description had Sega.net in it. If I didn't change it they would ban me. Turned out they had some policy against it. I guess they should employ better features but who knows where that would lead.
Post edited August 08, 2009 by dreadcog
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frostcircus: I really don't like how often the word 'research' shows up when discussing game purchases. It shouldn't.

"Caveat emptor" applies to all purchases, and games are no exception. Official requirements, customer reviews, even forum posts provide useful information, and 10-15 minutes of reading will usually paint a pretty clear picture of the good and bad points of a game.
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StingingVelvet: I've never really had an issue with min. specs not being realistic... most people don't seem to understand what min. means, as in they have low, low specs and then try to run the game in HD resolutions with AA and such.

How many games have you tried to run with all hardware at minimum specs recently? As these days minimum specs seem to be sufficient only for starting up a game and running it as a slideshow. For a while now the minimum specs have been an absolutely useless metric in and of themselves, with the recommended specs being the key metric to look at, and where one's hardware may fall between min and recommended specs being a secondary metric with some use.
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dreadcog: Well I purchased Alpha Prime off Amazon and guess what? Discovered it carries Steam activation. Tried activating it and the code was already used. Talked to Steam about it and they said they can't transfer activations for used games. Sent it back in the mail today. Bought the game off of GamersGate instead. No activation code, no nothing, just install, up and playing. Now I'm happy.
Lesson learned don't buy used games that require Steam activation.
don't buy used pc games off of amazon.
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dreadcog: Well I purchased Alpha Prime off Amazon and guess what? Discovered it carries Steam activation. Tried activating it and the code was already used. Talked to Steam about it and they said they can't transfer activations for used games. Sent it back in the mail today. Bought the game off of GamersGate instead. No activation code, no nothing, just install, up and playing. Now I'm happy.
Lesson learned don't buy used games that require Steam activation.
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Weclock: don't buy used pc games off of amazon.

How about:
Lesson learned 'DO FREAKIN' RESEARCH ON SOMETHING BEFORE BUYING???'
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Weclock: don't buy used pc games off of amazon.
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Zellio2009: How about:
Lesson learned 'DO FREAKIN' RESEARCH ON SOMETHING BEFORE BUYING???'
haha, yeah, I bought sin episodes off of amazon, used and it didn't work, but I didn't blame steam, I advised the seller that the game was unplayable because, it was, and he gave me a full refund without having to send the game back.
i thought I might be able to play sin eps w/o steam, but I had to.
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Zellio2009: How about:
Lesson learned 'DO FREAKIN' RESEARCH ON SOMETHING BEFORE BUYING???'

Yes, because all I look at is one specific game I want to buy. Gaming is a hobby, when it falls into the same catagory as buying a car you need to stop buying games.
I'm one of those people who will never buy from Steam.
I will never purchase a game that is not completely under my control. If it's tied to some sort of third party for activation or requires you to be online so it can check in with the mothership every now and then, I view it as a crippled copy. A rental that could be taken from me with no notice whatsoever, and I would have no recourse.
I agree that you shouldn't have to delve into all sorts of research to determine what protection the game has. I heard that Penumbra collection was being sold for $5 and it was available through GamersGate (I hadn't heard of them prior to this), so I bought it and was happy. Later I found out that a lot of their games have SecuROM online activation as part of the protection (luckily Penumbra didn't have this), yet if you go to their site and look at the game details, it doesn't state which games have this. They had Bioshock on sale for $11 or something, but since I couldn't find out if it had DRM, I didn't buy it.
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ekj7: I'm one of those people who will never buy from Steam.
I will never purchase a game that is not completely under my control. If it's tied to some sort of third party for activation or requires you to be online so it can check in with the mothership every now and then, I view it as a crippled copy. A rental that could be taken from me with no notice whatsoever, and I would have no recourse.
I agree that you shouldn't have to delve into all sorts of research to determine what protection the game has. I heard that Penumbra collection was being sold for $5 and it was available through GamersGate (I hadn't heard of them prior to this), so I bought it and was happy. Later I found out that a lot of their games have SecuROM online activation as part of the protection (luckily Penumbra didn't have this), yet if you go to their site and look at the game details, it doesn't state which games have this. They had Bioshock on sale for $11 or something, but since I couldn't find out if it had DRM, I didn't buy it.

Your my friend for life.
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Weclock: but I didn't blame steam, I advised the seller that the game was unplayable because, it was, and he gave me a full refund without having to send the game back.
i thought I might be able to play sin eps w/o steam, but I had to.

I blamed Steam because a gamer should be able to buy a copy of a game used and Steam should oblige them with activation. They will have new accounts and more sales. There will be some fraud splashed in but that's just part of doing business.
Post edited August 08, 2009 by dreadcog
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Zellio2009: How about:
Lesson learned 'DO FREAKIN' RESEARCH ON SOMETHING BEFORE BUYING???'
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dreadcog: Yes, because all I look at is one specific game I want to buy. Gaming is a hobby, when it falls into the same catagory as buying a car you need to stop buying games.

That's a silly argument. Even if DRM didn't exist you would still need to do some research before buying a computer game.
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ekj7: I agree that you shouldn't have to delve into all sorts of research to determine what protection the game has.

I'd expect that most people are of the belief that you shouldn't have to go digging through reviews and forum posts just to make sure that a game doesn't contain some kind of nastiness, but the unfortunate fact of the matter is that currently it is something that needs to be done or else there's a good chance of getting burned on a purchase. It sucks, it would be nice if it changed, but until it does it leaves the choice of either doing one's homework on game purchases or getting burned every now and then.
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dreadcog: Yes, because all I look at is one specific game I want to buy. Gaming is a hobby, when it falls into the same catagory as buying a car you need to stop buying games.
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ceemdee: That's a silly argument. Even if DRM didn't exist you would still need to do some research before buying a computer game.

I don't. If it looks like it's going to suck I wait for it to drop to 20$ or 10$ then I buy. Sometimes I'm surprised that the game is actually good then feel guilty that I waited. Once in a while you get those Bioshock or other titles you have to own but other then that I wait. My last bad call was Prototype, I wish I had that one back. Started out cool then just did a face plant. (no pun intended)
Post edited August 08, 2009 by dreadcog
Ohh Steam! You rascal. When will you become the great gaming media portal you dream of being?
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dreadcog: I blamed Steam because a gamer should be able to buy a copy of a game used and Steam should oblige them with activation. They will have new accounts and more sales. There will be some fraud splashed in but that's just part of doing business.
it's their policy not to do that, yes, be angry against their policy.
besides, used sales are killing the industry.
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Weclock: it's their policy not to do that, yes, be angry against their policy.
besides, used sales are killing the industry.

It doesn't really hurt anything when the game is 20$ or less. Maybe what they need is a activation pricing program. Budget bin titles get activation as long as its being used on one account and gets deactivated on the other account. Allow 10 transfers or something for the run of the game purchase. The games life should be dead by then.