Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!samsung!umich!vela!hastoerm
From: hastoerm@vela.acs.oakland.edu (Moriland)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.games
Subject: Re: Run (don't walk) to your store.  Lemmings has been released.
Message-ID: <5256@vela.acs.oakland.edu>
Date: 25 Feb 91 14:22:30 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> <19228@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Reply-To: hastoerm@vela.acs.oakland.edu (Moriland)
Organization: Evil Young Mutants For A Better Tomorrow.
Lines: 113

In article <19228@cbmvax.commodore.com> kominetz@cbmvax.commodore.com (John Kominetz - Product Assurance) writes:
}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.

I trust Electronic Arts about as far as I could spit them. First they
go through this big hype back in 85-86 about how they are committed to
the Amiga and then they turn around and practically ignore us for the
MS-DOS and Nintendo crowd. There are quite a few packages promised
back in 85 they never delivered on and most of what they have put out
has been poorly ported IBM crap. The only decent games I have seen
from them in awhile were Populos and Powermonger and thats because
Bullfrog had someone who cared enough to sit down and port it
properly. Sadly, even those games lack HD support. Woe be unto us if
EA had had to port those products themselves. 

Just because I don't buy their software doesn't mean I don't let my
opinion be known. I do a lot of letter writing to the different
companies complaining about the same things I gripe about on here.
Another thing I'd like to see supported is joysticks with more than
one button, but that doesn't appear to be happening rather quickly
either.

}
}>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.

All those folks on here who doesn't know at least ONE pirate, raise
your hand. I'm willing to bet there are very few hands raised. Modem
or not, most folks have a friend who has a collection they could get
stuff from. Even as such, with products like the Maverick disk copier
which uses hardware and will copy just about anything the lack of a
modem or even a friend who is a collector is hardly limiting anymore.
The argument just doesn't wash anymore.

}
}     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.

I wasn't alluding to the PC market, I was speaking about Word Perfect
and thier ilk on the Amiga.

}
}     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.

If they can't do a better job of writing software then as far as I am
concerned they could stop producing software for the Amiga today and I
wouldn't miss them. I refuse to pay for a product that does not
support features I feel are important. If you wanted a GM car that had
200 horsepower and GM refused to sell anything beyond 150 Horsepower
becuase the general public felt they only needed 150 horsepower would
you settle for 150? No, you'd go out and find a car at Ford or
Chrysler or a Japanese model that had what you wanted. Why should I be
willing to settle for anything less in my software?

So I miss out on a great game. I've missed on some great movies in my
time, but it hasn't killed me. They're probably a lot of great games I
have missed out on in the past. Helpfull or not, I will not plunk down
my hard earned money for software that does not have features I want.
Instead I will continue to write letters to the game makers and
continue to express my views in public forums such as UseNet and my
User's Group newsletter in hopes that someone out there is listening.

				--Moriland


-- 
| hastoerm@vela.acs.oakland.edu |    __                                | 
|                               | __/// Viva Amiga!                    |
| Founder Of: Evil Young        | \XX/                                 |
| Mutants For A Better Tomorrow |       "Single Tasking: JUST SAY NO!" |