If Stardock fails, I'll be sad, but PC gaming will go on. 

Obstructive copy protection will be the flavor of the day and we'll all put up with incredibly intrusive DRM in order to play our games.  We're gamers.  It's what we do. 

I'll support Stardock with my money and by recommending them to everyone who cares to listen.  Some, who might not be so willing will get to hear it anyway.  GalCiv2 is destined for many a stocking come Christmas. 

In the end though, I'm a gamer.  Not gonna stop anytime soon.

I'll say this though.  If Stardock fails, buy stock in rye whiskey.  I'll be consuming much more.

Well, strictly speaking DRM is already the norm. Stardock is the odd-ball. If for some reason their game side business flops (though the way it's going, especially them looking to hire more game devs recently, it's highly unlikely), the rest of the gaming world will remain mostly unchanged, save for us no longer having access to DRM free games on Impulse, and probably being unable to look forward to more DRM-free games.

I'll take The Balvenie Doublewood please.

....and he mentions the scotch to rule them all! 

let me clarify my point with DRMs. currently the lighter DRMs are the norm however the more frustrating DRMs will become the norm if Stardock has a falling out. A smart company would use a stardock failure as a reason to create stricter DRMs, which in turn would make gamers much more frustrated posibly turning them to pirating games because without the DRMs the games are much easier to use.

If this hypothetical situation would occur the PC gameing industry could be destroyed

but thats just my opinion

Very nice! I'm patrial to Lagavulin, but I'm rather pissed off that it's jumped to 125 bucks a bottle up here (Canada) now. Recently tried Laphroaig and quite like it as well and today I picked up a bottle of Bruichladdich (never had that one before. Quite nice). That Balvenie Doublewood is damned good stuff though.

I'll drink everythign that's been listed if you force me to. 

I've been drinking the Laphraig of late.  No complaints and a good fit for my budget at the moment. 

What you have to remember is that games are only one side of Stardock's business.  They also sell a range of applications which include but aren't limited to the enhancement of the desktop.  Unless someone designs The One Desktop To Rule Them All, you can pretty safely assume that the business won't fail.

Also, just because Stardock doesn't slap copy-protection on its games, doesn't mean they are doomed to be duplicated to death.  Because you need to buy one of their games to get free updates for that game, there's quite an incentive to.... *drum roll* actually buy the game.  If someone did play an arrr'd game and liked it enough to buy it, then there's one arrr less, matey.

notMoM, I like that name.

Also keep in mind that the companies do not enfore restrictive DRM because they are evil and like to cackle in the evening reading reports from tech support about frustrated gamers not being able to play their legit copies. Restrictive DRM *will* fail, for several reasons:

1. It's totally inneffective

2. It hurts sales

3. It aggravates existing paying customers

4. It generates negative PR

Once companies realize they are losing more money because of their restrictive DRM schemes than because of piracy, you will see a change in direction. Also, PC game market will not fail. If every company on the planet decided to pull the plug on PC production today, tomorrow you would have a new company happily coding away because it suddenly has a huge market all to itself. And it wouldn't be the only one. Money is honey, and despite what panicky CEO's have to say about pircy hurting their sales, fact is PC games tend to net alot of honey. And past experiences tell us that as long as the market bears profit, it stays alive.

Stardock FTW!!

The only way to make the bean counters at companies like EA stop and take notice is to stop buying their DRM riddled games. If you bought Spore YOU are part of the problem and have no place to complain. I see quite a few saying how they're anti-DRM, yet in the same post say they bought Spore knowing about the issues. You have only yourself to blame.

I didn't buy Spore, and we all know why. I did ask for SoaSE for my birthday. No guarantees, I guess, but if I don't get it I'll probably buy it.

I still don't understand why companies waste money on copy protection. I think part of the problem with piracy is because of copy protection.

Why should I, a legitimate buy feel like a criminal? I bought the game legally. They are installing hidden software without my knowladge, how is that legal?

Also because I had some problems with copy protection, witch I bought legally and now can't play. So what did I have to do? I had to get a crack so I can play my game witch I paid $80 for. Now that I see how easy it is to get a crack why should I buy games now?

I havn't downloaded any games yet since I don't bother much with them any more, since most games that come out I find are garbage. All these new games that come out don't even play on my computer even though I exceede the minimum requirements. I get console games now, at least I know it will run without any problems on the 360. Why should I have to upgrade my computer to just play a game? *cough cough Civ

Also after spending my money lots of the games are not even playable because of game breaking bugs. Why do they think they can release an incomplete game and patch later? *cough cough Call to Power

So if I had more time in my life, I think I would be downloading free games now, because A) I know they will run, and if they don't I havn't wasted my money since I can't get a refund.

I have bought a game, and funny enough they are from Start Dock. I would have gotten Anor but I only get games in a box, so havn't gotten it yet. The only other games I get are for the 360 so it looks like my PC buying days are gone now, unless it's from Bethseda or Star Dock.