I'm not getting personal, i'm offering my opinion on how i believe you formed your end of the discussion. I'm plenty welcome where I am, where I participate in plenty of other discussions based on my opinion and how they relate to those of everyone else in said conversation. Believe it or not, I don't always play devil's advocate, but you just happen to have picked up on something I disagree with. And since this is a forum welcoming of opinions, here I am, giving mine. Ironically, your offer to find me a different forum based on my reply, to you, is equal to my own apparent indignition. I'm sorry you don't like the style of my posts, however, if you want to enter discussions with people, you'll need to start appreciating that not everyone uses long words to make a point. But you already know all this. Now that you have everyone behind you, let's continue.
The defence of big corporations is perfectly acceptable given that so is the assault. If you feel that the only way to tackle the view a corporation is to jump on the mighty consumer badwagon and strike directly at it's green papery heart, then that's your call. I don't admire it, but it's a good thing you're not here for my admiration. You are here to listen to what I have to say about it though, because you just told me that. I understand that people might want to pay less for products, but that statement on it's own is technically incorrect. There is no uncertainty in it, really, so we may aswell remove the "might" from there altogether. Everybody want's something for nothing. Why pay more when we can pay less? This was proven just recently when Radiohead released their album for whatever price the consumer wanted, and the *vast* majority paid nothing at all. Given that, it doesn't matter at what price a product is labeled, the consumer will want to pay less. So you know, I will defend the big corporation. Because where do they draw the line? Of course they are in it to make a profit, and of course chief executives are penny squeezing thieves, but if they dont squeeze, they dont get. So yeah, i will defend it.
Right now we can see the biggest rip off's of all, and it isn't just one big mean corporation. It's christmas, stocks are running low and as a result, prices are soaring. I just saw a Nintendo DS for sale for £180. They were £100 2 weeks ago. But who made that decision? That was a small company too. Not family owned, they have a whole chain of outlets, but not a huge corporation. So should we hold a picket outside the Nintendo building? Yeah? Should we blame Nintendo because somebody somewhere else has decided to increase the prices? No, of course not. Because you will just buy the product for a more reasonable price elsewhere. So why is this different?
Am I now to believe that if a 3rd party retailer increases prices, then it's excusable on the developers part; but if that same 3rd party retailer was to reduce prices to below that of the developers own, then the developer is at fault? It's hardly exploitation.
And of course, you touch on this in your second point. If the 3rd Party retailer reduces his prices, indeed he wants to make up for it in volume of sales. Proportionately (although obviously not exactly so lets not be too literal) selling more goods for a lower price will end up in the same net profit as selling less for a higher price. It's your choice who you buy from in that rather vicious and frightening scenario. So why is the developer here being unfair? It's not like they're taking the role of Microsoft and forcing you to buy the products for lack of alternatives. Indeed completely the opposite. They send out their products for retailers to sell to you, the consumer, for whatever price the deem reasonable.
So why would you complain? What exactley is it that Valve have done wrong here? They have set a price, for a product that has it's benefits. Instant retrieval of said product, stored elsewhere, less packaging, less space used in your drawer, less CD keys to have to remember or write down somewhere safe. Of course it had it's drawbacks.
Then they produced a second product, in plastic boxes with paper books and CD keys and wasted space, the podsibility of scratching or even losing the CD. And you pay less for it. Make the choice.
I know which I would choose, and indeed, already have. Not because i'm a fanboi, but because it just makes sense to me. And it's not like i'm making threads about those nasty 3rd Party Retailers is it.
You can then install them and steam and have all the steam benefits
(not that I advise that, but just a fact).![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}