Eat This Gamespy
<div class="IPBDescription">Internet gaming sites pwn GSI</div> <a href='http://www.bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board.pl?action=viewthread&threadid=43882' target='_blank'>This thread</a> on BluesNews is freaking awesome, was just waiting for this to happen forever.
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->After discussions with Activision, the following websites will not be carrying the Call of Duty playable demo, even after its exclusivity is over. This is due to Activision's decision to not accede to the reasonable request of making the demo freely available to all game enthusiasts at the same time.
3D Downloads
3D Gamers
AusGamers
Blue's News
EdgeFiles (Callofduty.org)
FileFront
FileShack
GameGossip
Gamer's Hell
Loadedinc
Tiscali Games
WorthPlaying
The above-listed websites hope to show Activision that the enthusiast industry is strongly opposed to the idea of exclusive demo releases.
Feedback from our users shows that gamers hate to be forced through a single point of congestion if they want a demo right away. While these websites are actually competitors, this competition provides the freedom of choice that enthusiasts want by offering the widest possible distribution of any demo (a sample intended to interest as many gamers as possible in the full product, after all) rather than the most restricted one.
Therefore, something this disrespectful of the industry as a whole has inspired all of these websites to stand together in this open letter.
Deals like this hurt the industry much more than they could possibly enhance a single relationship, and we ask for your support in sending out this message.
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->After discussions with Activision, the following websites will not be carrying the Call of Duty playable demo, even after its exclusivity is over. This is due to Activision's decision to not accede to the reasonable request of making the demo freely available to all game enthusiasts at the same time.
3D Downloads
3D Gamers
AusGamers
Blue's News
EdgeFiles (Callofduty.org)
FileFront
FileShack
GameGossip
Gamer's Hell
Loadedinc
Tiscali Games
WorthPlaying
The above-listed websites hope to show Activision that the enthusiast industry is strongly opposed to the idea of exclusive demo releases.
Feedback from our users shows that gamers hate to be forced through a single point of congestion if they want a demo right away. While these websites are actually competitors, this competition provides the freedom of choice that enthusiasts want by offering the widest possible distribution of any demo (a sample intended to interest as many gamers as possible in the full product, after all) rather than the most restricted one.
Therefore, something this disrespectful of the industry as a whole has inspired all of these websites to stand together in this open letter.
Deals like this hurt the industry much more than they could possibly enhance a single relationship, and we ask for your support in sending out this message.
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
I still am wondering why people complain about gamespy. Ok, thats it. Its frickin rant time.
Basically, my question to you is, why the hell are you so lazy that if you see ads, you get annoyed? Theres this little thing called a "scroll bar"- its on the right side of the window. USE IT. Oh ya, what about popups you ask? Well, I wonder if you know there is a little "close" button on them- AND there are FREE popup blockers on the internet. Oh, wait- your mad because they want you to pay them for exclusive demos? Have you ever wondered about starting a site that'd be as big as gamespy? Oh ya, I forgot, not one of you have. Oh ya, and gamespy started WAY before a lot of them. And another thing- if you don't wanna have to see any advertising, I suggest you go and just take your computer and chuck it through the window, hopefully into a pool.
God, sometimes, I just really hate a lot of the people on this forum.
I bet MonsE could sense that being posted, even if he was sleeping, wherever he is now. So much angst.
Anyway, I don't have any real problem with Gamespy's sites, I never use them myself, it's just the horrible way they run their business and the horrible effect they're having on gaming News across the internet. GameSpy is the authority on all games! We have exclusives from such and such! Yada yada, they keep up this facade of being knowledgable on games as well as good for the Gaming industry. When in reality, everything they touch turns to utter <b>crap</b> under their influence. Roger Wilco comes to mind.
If they really were the way they claim to be on their vast network of sites, exclusive demos probably wouldn't be happening.
I bet MonsE could sense that being posted, even if he was sleeping, wherever he is now. So much angst.
Anyway, I don't have any real problem with Gamespy's sites, I never use them myself, it's just the horrible way they run their business and the horrible effect they're having on gaming News across the internet. GameSpy is the authority on all games! We have exclusives from such and such! Yada yada, they keep up this facade of being knowledgable on games as well as good for the Gaming industry. When in reality, everything they touch turns to utter <b>crap</b> under their influence. Roger Wilco comes to mind.
If they really were the way they claim to be on their vast network of sites, exclusive demos probably wouldn't be happening. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Well, one of my friend's sites had a lot of those "Exclusive's" that Gamespy had a long time before. He had some of the first pics of HL2, had just tons of crap, back in Febuary. Then suddenly, it gets big and tada, his pics are showing up everywhere. Don't ask me how he got them, he just did.
I'll try and find out his site. Tommorrow, tommorrow...
When downloading, it didn't matter whether it was exclusive to a site and traffic was high. Let's face it, it was so slow either way that you wouldn't notice the difference.
When getting from a print mag, they'd cut deals with companies for exclusive demos, previews, and so on. And we were fine with that. Still goes on today, and I don't see nearly as vocal complaints about any print mag as I see about GSI.
What I'm seeing here is that now that we've all gotten used to more reliable connections (and in many cases, even broadband) we expect to have the entire contents of the internet available to us, and have it when we want it. Would someone care to explain the critical, this-is-why-we-should-boycott difference between <i>any</i> modern-day download site's use of exclusive deals and print magazines' exclusive deals pre-56k? How has the industry changed? How have <i>we</i> changed?
Because extortion (which is what these sites are doing) is just as bad as monopolization.