flanner: [...] i dont like ugly earl 3D [...]
I know this was just a typo, but this totally sounds like it could be a game. XD
gooberking: And then I'm not really in the wallet voting game right now with nothing in it for this sort of thing. I'm also starting to think wallet voting isn't as real or tangible a thing as we often want it to be. We think "I'm not going to buy this and that will send message A" but games often have multiple messages entangled with them and we don't get any choice if the lack of buying will be interpreted as message A,B,C, or D or if it will go noticed at all.
mechmouse: Agreed.
If a games doesn't sell, the company are more likely to think bad game/poor product rather than an issue with DRM/Distribution Platform or price or any other the other things we're suppose to be able to influence with our wallet.
Seconded. Motion for reason to rule the day is carried (until, inevitably, someone trips and drops it down a stairwell :P ).
Implication and inference are twitchy beasts. What you
imply by not making a purchase will almost certainly not be what the developers and/or publishers and/or distributors/sellers will
infer. Plus, it's not as if they're watching YOU in particular, talking amongst themselves: "Is he gonna buy? Why isn't he buying? Did we do something wrong? Oh, god, we'd better do something or this one specific person is not going to buy our game!" Public opinion and sales data are taken in aggregate. If a game doesn't sell well, it's usually going to be assumed it's because nobody was interested, or the price was too high, or (like mechmouse said) it was rubbish. The only times the real reason that a title sold poorly might actually be conveyed is when there are
thousands of people complaining (or any sufficiently large proportion of the audience -- for a tiny indie studio with an equally tiny audience, it may only have to be a dozen people). See the most recent
SimCity game for an example (and I don't even know if sales were particularly poor for that game -- but the outcry from players and fans of the series was massive).
Basically, voting with one's wallet sends a much clearer message when buying than when refusing to buy -- and
where and
how you buy says as much as
what you buy.