Hey,
So if you live in the land Down Under, then you must have seen bigpond games.
So I was wondering, how is it? Is it DRM-free?
Also, I've seen cards for it in retailers. Is it anything like iTunes?
If you;re wondering, I want to buy Tropico Reloaded

Well for 20 bucks I'd say give it a shot and see what happens
That said I'd not trust anything that telstra is involved in, but even shit companies sometimes make something good by accident. I think for the price its a worthwhile experiment. If you have multiple computers try and install it on 2 and see what happens

What is this Australian contraption? Is it like those moronic Trymedia games?

Can't you just email them about their DRM policies? If they don't respond within a week I'd say that was a good enough indication you shouldn't buy from them.

Bigpond are a telstra company, telstra have support that makes steam's look speedy and efficient. I very much doubt bigpond are different to the parent company

Ah, but I was counting non-existent customer support as a reason you shouldn't buy from there. Imagine if there was DRM bullshit and you had to rely on them to get the game working again?

Well in my case I'd say "I bought it, I have a right to use it. Fuck it, I'm finding a torrent"

Bigpond Games as in GameArena/GameShop (Telstra?)
Nope, they need to be activated, contain DRM (usually whatever was on the retail CD/DVD copy) and last I checked can only be downloaded a limited number of times. Generally also very overpriced for anything other than casual games, far better deals elsewhere for newer titles.
The cards have a coupon code that you enter at checkout, you receive the discount off the total for the card, but I'm not sure what happens to any remainder amount you don't use.

heh. overpriced is understatement.
no game cheaper than 20 bucks (there are few child and casual games for lower than that)
Dreamfall for over fifty dollars...
pass!