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To me, this kind of policy is a 180 of what I though I loved about Stardock.  I have never, ever worried about being banned from a game b/c of forum comments outside maybe an MMO.  And this coming from the company I thought was so customer-centric is surprising.  Why wouldn't you just ban from the forum, hopefully warning first?  For my liking, I've seen too much defensive talk from Stardock employees...it would seem to stifle honest discussion.

In practice, I agreee with what you're saying.  I've just never seen a company with employees so consistently eager to publiclicly state their willingness to put the hammer down on customers...no matter how much they deserve it.  There is just something unusual about a company who at least doesn't fake the "customer is always right" motto.  I would like to state that I love Demigod and don't want an insta-refund.

It's not really a barter system when currency is involved. And while some customers can step over the the line, the typical response is not normally to cut your losses, not even for smaller businesses. You cut off a rude teen from your service for life, you're loosing decades of business. And if you are not willing to deal with teens for customers, you might want to label all the games as Adult Only. It's not reasonable to expect teenagers to act like middle aged programmers (and I think its obvious there are a fair amonut of teens on this board). They need to be taught lessons, sure, but they're not going to magically mature overnight. And make no mistake, adults can step over the line too, but when you cut one of them off, you're not just loosing their business, you're going to loose the business of a lot of the people they talk to. By word of mouth, the spread of Demigods trouble was a lot quicker than what the reviews could ever do, and by word of mouth, the improving state of the game is also spreading but right alongside it is this rather new idea of corporal punishment and instant refunds.

Honestly, no one likes to be told they're doing a lousy job, especially when it's not true. That's why there are often barriers between a lot of departments and the actual customers. Barriers, being people who are trained to grow a thick skin, let someone rant, try to calm them down and then address the issue. Hey, no one says Stardock has to treat the customer as always right, and they certainly have a right to defend their employees and run the business as they want to, but there is a reason that motto exists and we're talking business here... it's not just because businesses want to spread roses and sunshines all over the place, they do it because it makes sound business sense to do it. I think if Stardock wants to be mainstream (more than they have been), they're going to have to be prepared to put up with the mainstream.

i have to agree generally with Zubaz and his position. its a bit hipocrital for me to say, since i recently had a run in with Blair Fraiser because, when asking for some more regular/detailed updates (as in news updates) for Sins, he snapped at us and said, look, we could always do what other companies do, give you the silent treatment until we can shove a half assed product on you

and all we were asking for was a 5 min post somewhere central and easily located to say whats been going on this week.

but, i have to say in this case, far out, so SD is selling a game with DRM, who cares?

DRM is a necesary evil, considering the dickheads (excuse my french) who pirate games. i mean, most if not all DVD's come with anti-copying protection, you dont complain about that?

i know its different, and the Secu-ROM controversies are something to be worried about, personally, i wouldnt buy a game with that sort of intrusive stuff either.

but seriously, so SD sells someone elses games, get over it, just dont buy the game. im pretty sure the sales page tells you up front what sort of protection a particular game has

but, no matter what, it is definitly no reason to go bashing SD employees for trying to make money. i mean, far out, the hubris you have as a consumer to tell a company how and how not to make money... unbelieveable

Considering I see a number of games available on Impulse that have LESS DRM than the retail copies (Prototype being the latest) and VERY few that use SecuROM whatsoever, I have to say that this really just comes off as whining. Seriously, a TRAITOR? Could you possibly be more melodramatic?

Orastus.  You bought the physical media on ebay.  You can play that all you want.  If you want to update, you will have to buy a license from Stardock.  Contact sale@stardock.com for further information.

psychoravin, Stardock is leading by example.  We are walking like we talk and encouraging others to do the same.  Baby steps.

Stardock is not alone in this stance. The entire gaming industry seems to be an industry that thinks its entitled to proceeds from the secondary market and if not, to just want to shut it down. In their defense, parts of Goo addresses this issue although I still think its silly as their entertainment counterparts aren't even trying this scheme yet (movies and music).

It is also the real reason I think DRM (all versions, including Impulse and Steam although not all DRM is created equal) continues to exist despite the fact it might stop pirates for no more than a handful of days(if even that). Having said that, I never buy games to resell and I stopped buying used games a long time ago once serial key started getting attached to accounts and being "used up". Since we're talking about it, I think I might put in a used movie in my dvd player and use it hassle free and go get one of my used books to browse over, also, hassle free.

I know its hard for some Demigod players to grasp, but there are other games Stardock publishes and/or develops than Demigod and the entire forum isn't devoted to them. Then again, there seem to be a number of Demigod players who can't figure out where their part of the forum is and spam it all over the place.