Are we still getting the bug where the next page doesn't appear until there are two posts on it?

No, it's only cuz almost simultaneous posters have hit the "Post Reply" button and the site is still updating the thread/reply numerical order.

UNLESS your browser refreshes the FlashPlayer driven cache fast enough to show you the new page.

Sometimes CTRL-F5 helps but not if your reply is a multiple of 25+1.

Ctrl+F5? Wow, that actually does do a complete refresh of the page. Along with Ctrl+R or holding down Shift while pressing the reload button. Gotta love Firefox, lol .

I never thought i would have to repeat an earlier solution.

Still waiting for YOUR suggestion, though. Even if the next financially feasible title offers you a demo (YouTube has plenty of that sort of teasing videos, in fact) to test before you decide to buy the real...

fully-functional_server-ready_accounted-for_registrable_valid_unstolen... version.

Just to make it crystal clear zyxpsilon Pirated copys do not equate to sales with that said... What companys need to do is take the same approach blizzard is doing with Starcraft 2 show off a match between 2 competant players in high rez. not some garbage youtube video.  Since they are taking a proactive approach to showing off what the game is rather than vague hints and speculation.  As far as i understand it from the stories i read on Demigod, it had very little in ways of gameplay footage before its street date was broke.

So either you take a company on faith that you will get something worth your money or as many people do now who don't like to throw away their hard earned money, they demo a game, if it doesn't have one then it depends on the game. at least in my prospective. I don't really play single player games on PC thats what an Xbox is for but some people will happily download mass effect and play the pirated version.  that is what it really boils down to personal decisions... even though you like to call me a thief and a criminal you're painting with a broad brush.  After i pirated sins I enjoyed it so much i bought it... simple as that.  I don't wake up in the morning saying to myself, "How can I ruin a game developers day?"

The problem is and will always be money and not willing to shell out your cash for something that hasn't proven to you it is worth the investment.  again Starcraft 2 has already done that for me and im buying it the day it comes out because of the 20min matches they recorded showing all aspects of the product that in going to throw my money at.

On a side note I never liked Dota so I didn't care about Demigod. I'm speaking in broader terms not specifically to this release.

Then it becomes a simple matter of needs or preference by consumers; market studies & trends are there to HINT about sales potential and yet, developpers must decide what to make or distribute while expecting reasonable returns on that process. The risk is there.

Even Blizzard had to budget manhours and infrastructures to complete StarCraft2 *demo & final game* and most probably are gambling it will payoff if only by previous success.

The money i spent on CivII or Tide of Darkness progressively lost its value with time.

The titles i WILL spend money on already has some value. Unless i decide it doesn't. Anyone has an opinion and a favorite gameplay. There's sooooooo much pubs and pre-release informations available online for any games IN development (now) that i doubt people can't have a fair enough idea before the fact -- aside, from staring at a Boxset in a store. I bought X-Com:UFO-Defense in such a manner, never to regret it. I gambled and won. I can read, a cool Snakeman alien, spaceship in Orbit... ya know.

I prefer predictable quality to cost & probable value or whomever can provide all three by proof or not.

I don't invest in games, i play.

PC games will stop being produced if publishers go bankrupt for more reasons than i can yell against.

I'll go bowling, but i hate the sport.

EQ and WoW are server games...  They can mod the files if I give them permission.  You can check what they send you before playing.

If you're talking citrix then that's comething different.

From what I have heard crackers are having a hard time with whatever new copy protection Atari has used for the latest Riddick game. From what I have been reading it has been about a month now and still no crack for the game. People have been saying that it usually only takes a week at the MOST for cracks to be made,( Most are ready at release even) Atari or whoever it is that writes the protection code may actually be on to something.....

 Now I know it doesn't keep pirates from downloading it, But what good does it do if they can't play it?

Was the DRM on that anything special, or unusually difficult to crack?

Just asking, because I read that and my first impression was "why the hell didn't psychoak use this as a demonstration of the positive power of try-before-you-buy piracy?" Because obviously the only reason people didn't buy the PC version is they couldn't try it first, right? [/sarcasm]

In the developed world (I'll conditionally grant that the third world is a separate case), the vast majority of people who "can't afford" to buy games are instead *choosing* not to buy games and spending the money elsewhere on other non-necessities. Buying a game might mean eating out a few times less each month, but that does not put it in the "can't afford" category. A significant number of those people would indeed buy games if free alternatives were not available. Even if that is 10% of the pirates we're discussing, that is a pretty big sum of money the maker is out. To use the numbers being thrown around for Demigod, that would be about $600k that Stardock didn't see (10% of 120k pirated copies at $50 each). And that was just the opening week.

Bah, I'm not interested in this type of so-called "argument" anymore. Seems people here are more interested in bashing other people rather than pursuing lines of logic around here. I'm gone from the conversation. Bye.