schlista

Join Date 04/2009

Stardock's GBOR is a marketing ploy

First you may ask what is the GBOR. It's the Gamer's Bill of Rights.

The Gamer’s Bill of Rights:

1) Gamers shall have the right to return games that don’t work with their computers for a full refund.

2) Gamers shall have the right to demand that games be released in a finished state.

3) Gamers shall have the right to expect meaningful updates after a game’s release.

4) Gamers shall have the right to demand that download managers and updaters not force themselves to run or be forced to load in order to play a game.

5) Gamers shall have the right to expect that the minimum requirements for a game will mean that the game will play adequately on that computer.

6) Gamers shall have the right to expect that games won’t install hidden drivers or other potentially harmful software without their consent.

7) Gamers shall have the right to re-download the latest versions of the games they own at any time.

8) Gamers shall have the right to not be treated as potential criminals by developers or publishers.

9) Gamers shall have the right to demand that a single-player game not force them to be connected to the Internet every time they wish to play.

10) Gamers shall have the right that games which are installed to the hard drive shall not require a CD/DVD to remain in the drive to play.

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Wow that looks great doesn't it. Finally a publisher that gets it. But slow down there, let's look how the treat the first two so called rights.

Claim: Gamers shall have the right to return games that don’t work with their computers for a full refund.
Reality: Well they should change that to a partial refund, you see you have to ship the product back to them and they will not reimburse shipping charges, so you're still going to be out about 13% of the original purchase price. You know they could easily just look up my account and link it to my unlock key and then ban that key from being used, but that's too easy for the consumer. They have to make sure the consumer won't actually want to take them up on their claim by making them wait weeks for a refund and make them pay more out of pocket to return their borked up game.

Claim: Gamers shall have the right to demand that games be released in a finished state.
Reality: DemiGod is still in Beta as proven by the CEO's own comments that the online status of the game is a travesty (as of 29 Apr 2009). This is supposed to be an online game and with the online so broken what can you do but complain on their forums about it to warn others not to come near this game until it gets fixed.

Ignore the fanboys that will support Stardock no matter what they put out. Yes this game has potential to be great, but with the net code so messed up right now stay clear of it unless you want to be extremely frustrated. And I'm frustrated because the game has so much potential and looks like it will be awesome. Stardock should do something to make up for this mess beyond what was already planned at release of the game. And yes working net code is not enough to make up for this as that should have been fixed out of the gate.

Bottomline: Stardock talks a good game, but so far in my limited experience they aren't living up to their words. They want others to do as they say not as they do.

demigod

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Atheos

Ladies and gentlemen, we've done it. We've managed to find THE post on the message board that completely misses the point entirely. It's done. Our search is over. Close the internet, nothing left to see here.

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oh snap!!!

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couldn't you sell the game to someone else, and make THEM pay the shipping charges, thus making all of your money back? i'm not sure if you can transfer license keys, i'm just thinking out loud here.

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teh jade(ed) wizard hath revealed his presence!

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Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but you're trying to impress someone.

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Decent troll. 6/10

Poasting in yet another "I'm a special boy" thread.

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Great way to demonstrate how one can entirely miss the point simply by being petty enough.

Good stuff

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Interesting... I also thought Stardock gives 100% refund. Do they give 100% refund to a digital purchase or is that also partial refund?

You have to admit that he does have a point. Stardock's bill or rights thing was put in place as an EXPLICIT promise to consumers. Partial refund != Refund.

For those who will argue that 10% of the cost isn't much, you're missing the point. It's about the principle of paying for something that isn't working. For example, I waste lots of money on crap like coffee, expensive lunches, etc. However, I would be mad if I wasted a single penny on a game I didn't like.

BTW, I'm not saying I hate Demigod - I'll probably continue playing it and I'm currently not looking for a refund. However, look it at from this guy's perspective.

-He's a new customer

-He's had bad experience with the company

-He didn't know what the bill of rights was before. After finding out what it is, he's also finding out that they don't seem to hold to it. IE. It feels like a marketing ploy.

Calling him a troll really just makes you look like raving fanboys, I'm sorry.

You say he missed the point? What point exactly did he miss? Stardock promises some things. They apparently don't follow through. Where is the point he's missing?

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Nice way to start a flame war! Wish i could give negative karma.

It's not a good way to start a discussion calling everyone that don't agree with you of fanboys. And this subject has already been discussed 3 weeks ago, what's your point? Not even disneyland did well on its first day

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Ignore the fanboys that will support Stardock no matter what they put out.

Just curious... but what do you really expect to find on Stardock's forums?

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Frogboy

Join Date 03/2001

+2415

Stardock gives a 100% refund on games where it does not work on the user's machine (for instance, broken mulitplayer).

But if someone bought it at a store, we obviously don't pay for shipping costs but we do eat the difference between wholesale (we make about $18 when it's sold at a store but we refund the full retail price).

He's complaining that a refund should also include his shipping and handling charges back.

He is also arguing that Demigod shipped unfinished because we did not know, until after it was released, that the multiplayer matchmaking was not going to be able to handle the sheer volume of users and thus is taking us (regrettably) some time to expand its capacity.

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It's an ideal, one that every game company should live up to. You can call it a marketing ploy due to them missing the mark with Demigod.

In the future assuming they do better, I'd say the OP will be forced to take the comment back -- granted that day is not today and won't be for quite some time.

That said, having a goal/ideal is a strong motivator. Most people that succeed have goals and I do believe that Stardock will do better in the future, but until then the OP is partially right it is just a promise/ideal that currently is not met.

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this is like the 5th post this person has made trying to sart shit with people, if you hate the game and the company so much, then why do you hang out in the forums all day making new threads about how much you hate em and why. JUST LEAVE.. and when the game gets fixed, and its nominated to be one of the best games of the year.. CRY cry to everyone about how you swear this was one of the worse games you ever played and how none of the devs supported the company. And then when ur done frontin with people and ur all alone..go to the website, look at how well its doing.. and say to urself what ur really thinking "man, i wish i wouldnt have been such a douche"

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