I recently read PC Gamer’s February issue and was intrigued by Andy Mahood’s article in the In Simulation section titled “People Published.” In it he talks about UK developer Slightly Mad Studios development decision to solicit regular people to raise money for a game project. This isn’t just a plea for money; depending on your level of contribution you can play monthly builds of a game up to attending developer meetings and being in charge of a sub-forum (if you have $33,000 laying around). The point is, though, this could be a great way for Indie developers to make the games gamers want to play (you know, like EA before they went all corporate and answered to stock holders).

This article also made me think about two projects I had looked at before (even purchasing two licenses from one of them). Cortex Command is a popularly modded game being developed by Data Realms. It is a side-scrolling shooter with tons of weapons and enemies and environments to play with. It is currently in beta and available for the PC and the Mac. Another game under development by Goldhawk Interactive is Xenonauts, a remake of the classic strategy game X-Com.  It is in Alpha right now and only available for the PC, but the company is implementing many user requests into the final game.

Both of these companies allow you to purchase access to their games right now for around $20, which is probably cheaper than the final products will sell for. You can also spend a little more to help the developers with their projects. These games are the labor of developers who care about their fans and supporters so check out these upcoming games.

I installed Stalker:Clear Sky yesterday because I wanted to make sure Stalker: Call of Pripyat (Loyalty Edition) that I purchased from Impulse would work with any version of Stalker of Stalker:Clear Sky. I installed Stalker:Clear Sky without issue, but when I tried to load the game, AVG kept popping up warning of a Trojan in some temp folder. So I kept removing the Trojan. Also Stalker:Clear Sky kept demanding admin privileges (I guess to install its Trojan, oh I mean DRM) and wouldn’t load.

Solution – I went to megagames.com and downloaded the fix for Stalker:Clear Sky. After patching the game and replacing the appropriate files the game loaded without incident. This is why I have always been opposed to most DRM. These companies only penalize people who actually buy the game  since there is a crack typically available before the game even ships. I am okay with Steam because so far I haven’t had any problems with it, but requiring a CD or DVD in the drive (they can be scratched, just ask my kids) or loading some crap rootkit or Starforce driver or requiring a constant connection to the Internet for an offline game is ludicrous. These big game companies need to wake up like the music industry and realize people don’t want crappy DRM screwing up their experience. Gamers also want to be able to play a game 5, 10, or more years from without a problem. Help by supporting sites like GOG.com that sell DRM-free games.

Oh and Stalker: Call of Pripyat required Stalker to install (which I also had). After installing Stalker I tried to install Stalker:CoP. When prompted I pointed it to the Stalker install location and it downloaded and installed itself. I also noticed Stalker was added to my game library on Impulse.

I have never been happy with the decline of PC games at retail stores. 10 years ago I can remember going to EB Games and Babbages where there were rows and rows of PC games, new and old for the purchasing. Today you would be lucky to find any PC games at a Gamestop store; Best Buy and CompUSA have cut there stock as well. In this age of digital downloads this is no big worry. I love going to Steam, GOG.com and GamersGate to buy my games. I am wary of Impulse since Gamestop bought it, but they haven’t managed to screw it up yet. If they could just add support for Gamestop gift cards I would be happier.

Unfortunately Gamestop doesn’t support purchasing games on Impulse with Gamestop gift cards yet (they promise support in the future though). So with some gift cards in hand I had to go to a local store because my youngest son was excited about The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim arriving on 11/11/11. On 11/12 we stopped at one Gamestop which had no copies of the game, but the saleslady was nice enough to call another store which still had one copy left. The store held the copy for us so we proceeded straight to the store to purchase the game. When we arrived at the new store, they had the copy ready for us. However, I immediately became wary because the copy had already been opened. For some reason Gamestop likes to open their copies of PC games, which causes controversies from time to time (such as with Deus Ex: Human Revolution).

When we arrived at home and my son tried to install the game, my cautiousness bore fruit: we received an error that the Steam code on a sticker on the box had already been used. Needless to say, I was pretty pissed, not the least of which because I would have to return to the store which probably had no more copies. I waited until Monday afternoon following the purchase in case the store happened to receive more copies. They had not. Then as I explained to the salesman my problem, he told me Steam had been hacked that week and that’s why the code didn’t work. He even admitted that another customer had reported the same problem. At first he wouldn’t even take the game back because “Gamestop doesn’t take PC games back because of problems with them being open and the code could have been used already.” I said you people are the ones who opened it; since the box was already open when I bought the game how do I know an employee didn’t steal the code. Finally he spoke to the manager and gave me store credit.

My son and I went immediately to Target and purchased two copies of Skyrim (and received a $20 gift card to boot). Lo and behold, there were no problems installing either of these versions when we went home (of course they were in a sealed box when we bought them).

So be very careful buying PC games from Gamestop. As more and more games register with services like Steam for copy protection, there will be a risk of the games not working. I admit, I have no proof of an employee taking codes, but I also have no other explanations either. But if we consider the simplest explanation to be the right one, popular new game + open box + opportunity = theft seems possible to me.