Talk about a weird start, but there's a point to it, so I'm just going to continue typing whether you decide to read or not :D
There was a young guy once, nice, knew what work was and how to work it. He wasn't very tall and had this curly hair that made him an instant geek the moment you laid eyes on him.
Anyway, this guy once did a favor to another guy. I unfortunately forgot what the favor was, but the important thing is that the favor was made and that the other guy didn't forget about it. As it turns out, the other guy became a big time games publisher with lots of power (and money to go with it).
So our young guy likes games. A lot. And he likes good games. Since he knows how to make things going, he once decides it might be nice if he made a little old site which sold good games. Naturally, publishers that would go along with his ideas aren't exactly lining up and all he gets are a few good, but old games. Hence the name of his site: Good old Games.com.
Trying to increase site traffic and purchases, our guy sets on a long journey to his old friend he once did a favor to. He has to walk up the steep slope towards the mansion. He passes man-made canyons that the road to the mansion carves into the mountains. Finally he arrives and rings the bell.
The old friend, now a big time publisher, remembers him and gladly invites his old friend inside. He listens to his story and he listens to his plea for a title that would help his site gain a few hits. Finally he speaks and proposes such a title...
Here my dream ended. Oh, the title btw was The Witcher 2. If it's half as good as the first one, it's going to kick ass. I have no idea whether the dream is in any way connected to reality or not, but I thought it might be a nice start to today's blog. What I am sure is that the dream was most probably influenced by a shock I got yesterday when I actually bought one of the GOGs off the site.
It was a classic title and I bought it just for nostalgia and also because at the time I was playing such titles, I couldn't buy it. There was no internet and no shop accessible to me at the time and we kids would just exchange floppies. The particular title was The Settlers 2.
The shock however didn't come from the game itself, but from its manual. Let me cite a couple of lines from it:
Credits: You must be dying to know who those weirdos are that give up years of their lives just to give you a little fun (and rob you of your few remaining hours of sleep). Now at last you can meet them.
Quit program: WARNING! Use this button only in the most extreme situations. It leads to an immediate intrusion of reality into your life.
Ha, ha! Hilarious!!! When was the last time you read a manual like this? Not to mention that the manual itself was quite informative.
Today's manuals are 10 pages EULA and then a few pretty pictures of the game interface (5 pages tops) making them more like pamphlets instead of manuals. Certainly little or no helpful info in there at all.
Anyway, I really hope things get going for these guys at gog.com. They really do have some of the all time classics. Not to mention all is DRM free. The only unfortunate detail is that the newest game on stock that I saw was Far Cry. Hopefully this promo will put them on the map and allow them to pose some real competition to the likes of a certain DRM infested publisher that I purposely won't name.
May the gods of commerce allow them to sell 5 mil copies of TW2 and the DRM infested competition a paltry handful only.
