It's painful to see the potential of Digial Distribution wasted this way......

When I see this sort of nonsense going on.

I fumbled through my gaming archives and came across my old copy of Alpha Centauri. Then I learned of its expansion, Alien Crossfire, read up on it, then I thought I'd might pick a copy up thinking it would be quick and cheap until I looked around online and saw this garbage going on.

From my personal experience, this is unheard of for PC gaming. Console gaming I can understand, but $100 collector's items for PC games?! Especially when we're talking about the era of Windows 98. Funny thing is that this package couldn't possibly retail for more than $19.99 if it were on a store shelf which is why I'm floored to see the same thing going on with a PC game expansion pack that you would normally see with a rare console game.

Furthermore, you would think that Take-Two would be pimping this stuff out via DD, but alas, it is nowhere to be found except for those are willing to far overpay for such an old title that was built around legacy OS.

etc.

Dencore

Careful with that Dencore, you're going to get my thread locked.;) Besides, violating property rights is never justified.

[QUOTE="Dencore"]

etc.

MarcusAntonius

Careful with that Dencore, you're going to get my thread locked.;)

They deleted my post? I was just joking. :| Oh well the mods know all I guess :P

Anyway you saw what I typed right? Because I think that's the most reasonable answer.

[QUOTE="MarcusAntonius"]

[QUOTE="Dencore"]

etc.

Dencore

Careful with that Dencore, you're going to get my thread locked.;)

They deleted my post? I was just joking. :| Oh well the mods know all I guess :P

Anyway you saw what I typed right? Because I think that's the most reasonable answer.

Be thankful you weren't suspended, that's a HUGE no-no at GS.

They deleted my post? I was just joking. :|

Dencore

Heh, have you seen how much Bioshock's Collector's Edition are going for? Over $100 for the X360, not sure about the pc but itshould be close.I wonder how much it will be worth in a few years now that they stop making it since its release date.D3s7rUc71oN

Well, that's a whole different ballgame there as its meant to be a high ticket item and depending on what the CE offers, it may continue to remain a priced item over time.

But with the PC platform inparticular, games generally depreciate faster. (then again, as to why Civ IV is still $40 over two years after release is beyond me)

I've just never heard of PC games increasing in value to collector's item kind of numbers.

At least id decided to put their entire back catalog on Steam, many of those games would be impossible to get ahold of these days. It would be nice if other developers/publishers followed their lead.Teufelhuhn

This is exactly the kind of solution I'm talking about, how hard would it be for a company as large as Take-Two (who owns Firaxis) to implement something like that?

^^^^^^I said "on a more serious note" after I posted it indicating that is was a joke. Anyway I apologize Skylock and it won't happen again. Anyway thank you Skylock for not banning me. :) Best I'll be leaving. *runs away*Dencore

Never assume that you know who moderated you because chances are, you don't. Skylock didn't moderate you, I did. Even though you initally mentioned it in a joking manner, you also advised Marcus to take the same action once again "on a more serious note". But as Skylock indicated, it doesn't really make much of a difference since that topic is not allowed here, period. If you have any further questions, either send me a PM or make a post in Ask the Mods! - which is something you should've done in the first place instead of addressing the moderation in Marcus' thread. Let's not derail it any further.

wait what did he do? all he said was etc. in that quote.newhenpal

I didn't quote it because I would have been modded as well. Here's a hint, it broke the ToU in regards to providing piracy tips with a website reference. Let's all just drop the issue now and not derail the thread further.

The reason why that expansion is being offered for such a high price is probably because it really is a collector's edition now. Compare it to original vynil recordings that are considered rare these days. People ask, and are willing to give, an incredible amount of money for those things, which is beyond me, but it happens. Same goes for comics. Some comics from years ago get sold for thousands of dollars, just because it's now considered to be a collector's item. So in all honesty, when you look at it that way, $119 for this game isn't all that much. You can find copies of Final Fantasy VII going for a lot more than that these days, simply because it is considered to be a) a classic, and b) a collector's item.

btw You might take notice that all those copies are being sold by regular people, and not actual retailers. So technically these are all second hand games, even though some of them are listed as new. And I honestly don't understand why anyone would buy a game to leave it sealed for so long. But anyway, that's not my point. My point is, that Take Two has nothing to do with the people selling these second hand copies of the game, so you can't really fault them for it. I understand that you're annoyed to see such an old expansion being sold for such ludicrous prices, but like I said, they're probably considered collector's items, and that has nothing to do with Take Two itself (except maybe that they appearantly made such an outstanding expansion that it's now considered so valuable).

[QUOTE="newhenpal"]wait what did he do? all he said was etc. in that quote.MarcusAntonius

I didn't quote it because I would have been modded as well. Here's a hint, it broke the ToU in regards to providing piracy tips with a website reference. Let's all just drop the issue now and not derail the thread further.

OHHHHHH...shame on you dencore:evil:

anyways developers should do something about these little issues I just want to know if stores/official webs still sell that at the same price, thats the only reason I'd imagine any developer allowing that....MONEY.

[QUOTE="MarcusAntonius"]

[QUOTE="newhenpal"]wait what did he do? all he said was etc. in that quote.newhenpal

I didn't quote it because I would have been modded as well. Here's a hint, it broke the ToU in regards to providing piracy tips with a website reference. Let's all just drop the issue now and not derail the thread further.

OHHHHHH...shame on you dencore:evil:

anyways developers should do something about these little issues I just want to know if stores/official webs still sell that at the same price, thats the only reason I'd imagine any developer allowing that....MONEY.

Developers and publishers make no money whatsoever on the sale of second hand games, no matter the condition of the game, or for how much it gets sold. There used to be a whole discussion about this quite some time ago, and if I remember correctly, analysts even expressed worry that the sale of second hand games might result in the downfall of many a game developer. After all, why pay 60 dollars for a new game, when you can get the same one used, for 20 dollars? But even in a case like this, where it'll cost you a $100 to get a second hand copy of a game, the developer won't see a peny. But no matter how much those developers might hate seeing second hand games being sold, there's no law forbidding people from doing so.

I think some of you are missing the point. The real issue here isn't that second hand Collector's Editions are going for inflated prices, it's that Take-Two could be digitally distributing Alpha Centauri's expansion pack through Steam for about $10. All of these rare PC classics could be sold that way instead of having to hunt them down all over the Internet and over-paying for them in the process, or realistically, not getting them at all.

Those prices are sick, especially since the AI on SMAC is....well...terrible, especially compared to Civ 4.

I hope they make a nice bug-ridden sequel to it some day, but I won't hold my breath.

I think some of you are missing the point. The real issue here isn't that second hand Collector's Editions are going for inflated prices, it's that Take-Two could be digitally distributing Alpha Centauri's expansion pack through Steam for about $10. All of these rare PC classics could be sold that way instead of having to hunt them down all over the Internet and over-paying for them in the process, or realistically, not getting them at all.

UpInFlames

Exactly- you'd think that publishers who are sitting on a huge back catalog of games to basically just throw them up on some service like Steam now that it's been fairly proven to be effective at prevent piracy. Even if they sold these kinds of games at $10 (or maybe $20 if it was the game and the expansion bundled, whatever), they'd still be getting a cut. And since these things are digital, it's not like it requires a real warehouse to store them in.

I understood the apprehension of publishers to put their games up in the beginning, but now I don't understand why they wouldn't. I'm still apprehensive when it comes to purchasing a game online if I can get a boxed copy in the store for the same price, but for a game that I would have to track down...I'll just pay the cost and publisher will make a tidy profit.

I sent Firaxis an E-mail after the release of Civ4 asking about the possibility of SMAC appearing on Steam. They said it wouldn't happen because EA owns the rights to the SMAC franchise.br0kenrabbit

Well, since you clearly like doing legwork (:P), now go e-mail EA and see when they're going to put it up on EA link or whatever it's called.

Go go go, for the good of online distrobution!