🚀 go-pugleaf

Some of you may remember the posts about GPGNet at the following
locations (for redundancy, in case of a ReputationDefender.com take
down)
- http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsxp.games/browse_thread/thread/f5e80485741e885a/8a18c4a742de42d6
- http://groups.google.com/group/alt.games.starcraft/browse_thread/thread/f5e80485741e885a/44f5adf2ae1d9dd2
- http://groups.google.com/group/uk.games.video.misc/browse_thread/thread/f5e80485741e885a

I strongly believe in the use of Usenet as a whistle blower for
corporations that scam and offer defective  products. Some of you may
know me, I've spent a great deal of my time in the 90's reviewing and
testing games, and took up a job with a major game development studio
ever since.

I believe that Gas Powered Games is ran by immature, unprofessional
people who can't code.

They are attempting to work together with Stardock.

Now, let me get this right.

Stardock. Gas Powered Games.

Space, Hot air. A hot air balloon in space. Obviously, you and I both
know, it won't work.

Why not just merge North Korea with Iran.

Yet they still will profit off unsuspecting people, even though their
games have multiple flaws.

Maybe I will go into the "Minidump" crash on Sins Of a Solar Empire in
some other post. It's quite annoying. People play games up to 5 hours
long just to crash. A stroll through the lobby of the game shows
people with 100 games played, 7 wins, 3 losses. Meaning somehow, he
got out of 90 games "early"

You're going to have to agree with me when I say, their are tiers of
game development. You got the $10.00 games on the island at Best Buy,
you got your $30.00 games that are glitched and poorly maintained (GPG/
Stardock style games) then you're premium, high-quality real games.

Gas Powered Games and Stardock sold Sins of a Solar Empire and Supreme
Commander for too much. The overall production and quality of the
games, including game player, development time, and service all add
up. You do not get what you pay for. These are $30-35 games, maybe,
once they are patched of their terminal flaws that plague them because
of outsourced, poor programming (if ever fixed).

As my friend at Nintendo says, smaller, private companies like GPG and
Stardock simply pocket the money, and forsake the people who wish to
continue to play the game and want patches. Often, Gas Powered Games
and Stardock skips important fixes that ruin the game and instead work
on yet more overpriced "Expansion packs", which add to a game, which
is already so buggy and prone to crashing it's useless.

Their true profit is made with this thought. As they try to sell them
in "combo" packages just above th $50.00 level with the price of the
original software drops.

Really, it's a big scam, a corporate conspiracy even. The developers
have limited budgets, pay review sites to garner publicity and just
fire away.

Then again, this is just my opinion, as a game developer for one of
the few leading game makers out there. You're mileage may very. Yet
reality is, most people spend their money and just grow to apathetic
(or in the case of Gas Powered Games, scared) to post critical
reviews.

Do yourself a favor - if you're going to use these games, Try before
you buy. I'm not saying do anything illegal (i.e. downloading of
bittorrent) but ask a friend if you can try it. If you don't have a
friend playing, don't bother -- you're not going to make friends in a
community of teens and fanboys.

I do not expect this to change the opinion of zealous fanboys or
somehow bring heart into the griefers that control these groups. But
simply warn people: Try before you buy, or don't buy at all. Wait
until the high-budget, god-like game makers release their game. :)

And finally, this is simply my opinion of the matter. I am posting
this anonymously because I am in fear of reprisal and harassment by
the companies and the zealous players who spread hate through the
company as a proxy.

God bless, and don't forget (trolls and fanboys), get outside and
exercise.