Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cbmvax!kominetz From: kominetz@cbmvax.commodore.com (John Kominetz - Product Assurance) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.games Subject: Re: Run (don't walk) to your store. Lemmings has been released. Message-ID: <19228@cbmvax.commodore.com> Date: 22 Feb 91 14:18:12 GMT References: <1991Feb18.051008.11300@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> <52197@cornell.UUCP> <2323@odin.cs.hw.ac.uk> <1991Feb20.064217.26621@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <5215@vela.acs.oakland.edu> Reply-To: kominetz@cbmvax.commodore.com (John Kominetz - Product Assurance) Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA Lines: 58 In article <5215@vela.acs.oakland.edu> hastoerm@vela.acs.oakland.edu (Moriland) writes: >In article <1991Feb20.064217.26621@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> cs326ag@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Loren J. Rittle) writes: >}> P.S. In case you're wondering PC Lemmings is HD installable, but >}That, my friend, is the straw that broke the... (and boy does it piss >}me off. And will it ever get me started...) >I'm afraid that I have to agree wth everything you've just said. I >don't think I will purchase it either. Good game or not. Perhaps when >it ends up in the bargin bin for $5.00 or so I'll consider it. I plan >to start boycotting game makers who do not support at LEAST HD >installability. Software manufacturers will produce their software for the most common configuration of each system. An Electronic Arts Rep said that over 90% of their sales (or at least those that sent in the reg. card) in the Amiga market are straight A500s: no ram expanders, no external drives, nothing. They will not change their policies until they are convinced (by their market info.) that accelerators, extra ram, etc. are the rule, not the exception. Since many companies base this on their registered owners' responses, your boycott not only deprives you of good software but insures that manufacturers won't change their behavior. >If anything, business software and the like is probably pirated more >often than Games because folks are unwilling to fork out the large $$$ >to get the good Business software. (Word Perfect has got to be one of >the most Office Pirated bits of software I have seen) Despite all >that, they rarely have any protection of any kind. The fact that they >haven't gone bellyup would seem to weaken the Game Maker's argument >that protection is vital and necessary. > > --Moriland First, the goal of copy protection is to discourage the common user from reproducing the software. No protection method will stop a good hacker, but the average user (with his stock A500) can't copy something unless one of the copy programs does it. This gives software months in the marketplace. Pirate BBS's threaten this, but the number of modem owners is still low enough (and the numbers difficult enough to find) that it isn't a problem. Second, no analogy to the current PC market is valid. With 20+ million MSDOS platforms out there, any PC product can afford dramatically higher piracy rates and still sell more pieces of software than there are Amiga computers. Back when the PC market was around 2 million, software (including lotus, wordperfect and games) was copy-protected anyway. In conclusion, software companies listen to the people that buy their software, not the ones that would "if..." The surest way to convince a manufacturer to leave the market is to stop buying its product, especially since all these companies can sell ten times more product in their MSDOS lines. You will miss out on a great game for the Amiga by not buying Lemmings, and your attitude will certainly not improve the situation for anyone in the Amiga Community. John Kominetz disclaimer: These are my opinions and may not reflect those of Commodore.