I read your post. I am fascinated by it even.  Can you give any examples of the games you buy and what system they are for (since by your own admission you are a serious gamer)?

Though I don't tend to have a problem with online activation to stop piracy, I do fully support your issue of the shadyness behind the way things are done in this case (intentionally or not).  I bought the digital d/l so I don't have a box to look at, but if the box does say that, you have every single right to be a bit peeved off to have the product say one thing and the reality being another thing. 

The fact that the game is not fully playable as advertised on the box and the gamers bill of rights is unacceptable plain and simple. If the bill or rights say that you shouldn't be forced to use a download tool to play the game as advertised, then SD really needs to reevaluate it's stated stance on this issue becuase it's clearly flawed. 

You sir, posed a very considered and accurate opinion (backed by fact) and I think you deserve a nice response from SD.  Additionally, having said all that, I'm assuming you returned the game?

Well, there are worse DRMs. Starcraft 2 uses one of them. Honestly, to support an independent developer, I would install Starforce if necessary (and I did, on more than one occasion). 

But that's not really the point of your post, and despite being a devout supporter of Stardock and many other Indie developers, I have to agree that either they screwed 90% of all potential customers or at least miscommunicated this. I would assume, considering that GalCiv 2 never gave me reason to complain, it is the latter.

Actually, this reminds me of Paradox Interactive, another great developer, who have just recently started pushing their Gamersgate platform to the forefront. Now don't get me wrong, I only buy my games online via Impulse and the like and hardly ever in the store, but since these publishing platforms account for most of PI's (and probably Stardock's) profits, they try very hard to publicize them and/or make them mandatory to play their games. Even though I can understand the reasoning behind this, I as a gamer and person am generally allergic to people forcing me to use a service I otherwise would not use. So yeah, I am skeptical, but I don't let this get in the way of my gaming enjoyment.

Also, as long as they make good games and provide honest and great community support, I couldn't care less about perceived morals. If you choose to do so, that's your problem, but I personally don't think you are going to improve your enjoyment of anything by starting a crusade here.

Good post.  I share your aversion to DRM; if I own the disk, what more should I need?  Personally, Paradox has the least offensive DRM, as Gamersgate does not require you to install software for the DRM to function; you just log in to the website and download away.  Now that I've purchased Elemental, I've been forced to acquire two DRM accounts this year (the first was Steam for Mount&Blade:Warband).  I'll accept it, if its the door I have to go through to get the games I want, but I buy boxed retail releases of games; my receipt should be all the "DRM" that is needed.

OP, my intention was not to attack, I was curious about the software you buy. I'll explain why.

I wanted to see what kind of a gamer your are.  I too have been playing games for a long time. I remember playing Nethack in 1993 or 1994 when I was in school. What a wonderful/terrible waste of time that game was/is. I've played many of the games on your list and I promise you that had you asked for a refund, sent a long winded letter or left an angry message on their answering machine...  it would all have resulted in the same thing, no answer. Many of those games came out broken and the ability to patch and update was never even a discussion. If it didn't work for you.. too bad, thanks for the cash anyways. The ability that we have today to communicate with the game designer is absolutely amazing, and yet very few of then avail themselves to this means of feedback.  For better or worse, SD is very open to us and even sometimes responds to our critisizms and needs. I do not know of any other company that is this transperant.

Anyways, back to my original point/s.

Any Console game you buy, well, almost any console game you buy ends up needing an internet connection for an immediate update upon loading/installation. Most new PC/MAC games need it as well.

Let me tell you about my experience with Starddock. My first gameof theirs was GC2. I have mutiple computers are home.  All but two or MAC's. One PC is my gaming rig. The other is my lenovo work laptop. For obvious reasons I only use my work computer for work, but the gaming PC was never connected to the net until DoW II came out and forced me to install steam. I was all kinds of angry about that. With my console (PS3 and Xbox360), I do not particularly care because there is nothing on it that matters to me.  It's a gaming machine, but with my one PC and irrational fear of viruses and all the good stuff, so I kept refusing.  So, what's the point of that...  I'll tell you right now.  Cari elf, and two other admin helped me for months when I was downloading various patches/updates to galciv 2 (using my MAC via e-mails or their website). I would then check it for viruses and such and transfer it tot he pc with a flash drive or a external HD for installation.  I still have the friendly correspondence in my g-mail account. It kept getting harder and more time consuming, and at some point I got a sincere apology letter, and they told me that all updates would be handled by Impulse Reactor in the very near future.  I got really mad and stopped playing GC2 and decided against doing business with them.  Then DoW II came out, and I tried to communicate with them, and only got a single e-mail from the tech people telling me what essentially meant.. TOO BAD.

SO yea, I know exactly what you mean. All the new games pretty much require either invasive DRM or an online connection for a passive connect.  Sure, I could pirate cracked version of the games. But I don't. Sure, I can not play any new PC games, which is what I did. Then E:Wom and Civ 5 were coming out at the same time.  My gaming PC would not be able to run Civ 5 ( I later tested it on the demo) well, and in later stages it would be a complete dog. So I decided to give Elemental a chance (based on their requirements). Because I have an older PC, I think I did okay.  I didn't crash nearly  as much as some people do, and I enjoy the game for what it is.  I didn't follow the Beta, and only really started looking into it a week before relase. Yea, I too saw the epic Dragon battle scene and was highly disappointed by it's absence. Though knowing SD the way I do, I knew they would in a few short months have the game in the shape it needs to be in. Two weeks ago I found a Complete version of GC2 for cheap.  Bought it, updated from IR and bam.. it an amazing game, though I am still baffled by the economy. I am now looking to pick up SoaSE and SotS from Impulse.

In Short, am I a fanboy? not in the deragatory sense of the word. But I am a fan. Do I believe in SD? yes, I do. Have I been burned by other game studios? YES. Burned so much that I refuse to buy console games and use gamefly (console games) to test them out before I buy anything.  By the way, those games run @ $60 a pop and very rarely get anything redone ala E:WoM, they only get tiny patches to keep major game crashes from happening.  After 2-3 patches int he life of the game, if that, you are done. My PC can't run anything new anymore, and I refuse to spend $650-$2k sprucing it up. 

To the OP and anyone else who read this.  Thanks for reading this and spending your time on this rant-like post.

Sorry.

Seriously, install Impulse, download the latest update, and then uninstall Impulse if you feel it's necessary.  It's not DRM anymore than having to register to post on a forum is DRM, so it's not a big deal.  If, however, you're paranoid and want to avoid Impulse altogether then go to anywhere.impulsedriven.com and download a full, offline version of the game that can be installed without Impulse. 

You will, of course, need to register your copy and log in to the website, but it's only reasonable that Stardock would expect you to prove that you've actually purchased the game before they let you download it.  The only downside is that you won't be able to download the incremental updates that are released about once a week and will instead have to download the entire game every time a new version is released.  Using Impulse would avoid this inconvenience.

The gamers bill of rights is just easier said than done. Making great games is alot more difficult than people realize. If I'm not mistaken, Ewom is only Stardock's second game if you count all the Galcivs as one game.

Yes you have, you're post reeks of crank and troll. You pulled all that crap out of other posts or you're one of those crank and disgruntled customers who just wants to post crap and attempt to troll the forum.

I understand what he's complaining about, but it seems an awful lot like complaining for the sake of complaining.

Well, I agree but we can't deny that he has the rigth to express his frustration because he is rigth .

Upon reading this, I understand where he is coming from. And I notice at first people were agreeing, but these posts have gradually degraded into a "You're a troll" or "I don't understand why you're against Impulse" etc etc.

So I am waiting for a response from Stardock before I post any opinion, and I'd suggest anyone wishing to merely post something about this being a troll post or the post themselves just causing trouble hold their opinions until then. This post was originally for Stardock, so let's wait for Stardock.

LMAO at having to dig through 800 pages of fanboi crap to find out which of the features advertised on the box are supposed to work "out of the box."

I don't see anybody having to do much digging since there is always one or 2 topics about the subject in the recent post section.  I do want to say that I am in the same boat too since I bought it on gold release day expecting to play it multiplayer myself.  And he did say he looked here first before reading the box in the store. That being said I am upset too that Stardock violated its own Gamer's bill of rights.   On the other hand I see games on his list that didn't work out of the box either like Arcanum.  Also games that require you to be online and update frequently to play the game.  That still doesn't give stardock an excuse but makes me wonder if he went out of his way to rant on their forums like he has here.