So better stay away from Steel Beasts dongles

[Dammit Carl!]

Don't let your dingle dongle dangle in the dirt!

[bayonetbrant]

I do enjoy Naughty Corner Biscuits.

http://tinyurl.com/zhcros9

[mirth]

I do enjoy Naughty Corner Biscuits.

http://tinyurl.com/zhcros9

That wasn't nearly as disturbing as I expected.

[RyanE]

I just want to point out I didn't even think of people posting here as "loyalists".  I was thinking of SteelBeasts.com crowd.  I am still not sure where the comments on personal attacks come from.  The quote that is posted doesn't reflect that at all.

[undercovergeek]

The biscuit crowd can get like that

On one hand there's the bourbons, on the other the custard creams, and right in the middle are the jammy dodgers

[mirth]

I just want to point out I didn't even think of people posting here as "loyalists".  I was thinking of SteelBeasts.com crowd.  I am still not sure where the comments on personal attacks come from.  The quote that is posted doesn't reflect that at all.

Ryan, I understood your  meaning (even if I may disagree with it). I didn't see it as singling anyone out.

Getting back to the topic, the dongle setup is a real disincentive to purchasing SB. Far more so than the price of the game.

[mirth]

The biscuit crowd can get like that

On one hand there's the bourbons, on the other the custard creams, and right in the middle are the jammy dodgers

Who are you calling a jammy dodger?!

[bob48]

Ignore him - he's crackers.

[mirth]

If he keeps it up, I'm going to butter his biscuit.

[BanzaiCat]

[mirth]

^hahaha!

[Con]

I read that they are planning to replace the magnets on maglev trains with the cat/butter device

[mirth]

Never happen. The risk of catastrophic failure is too great.

[Barthheart]

[Ssnake]

If I may present eSim's side of the story...

• The airline lost the stick, not eSim Games.
• The airline offers inqdequate compensation. I am very sorry about that
• The employer refuses to compensate for the loss of baggage that occurred during business travel. I am very sorry about that, too.
• Yet, eSim Games is depicted as the evil party, just because we have the temerity to demand verification.
  We have a claim, nothing else, that a stick was lost (and it wasn't us to lose it)
• While I was skeptical about the chances of success, when the customer suggested that I have the CM stick blacklisted, I immediately complied.
  That doesn't mean that the CM stick is deactivated magically already, and given the customer's claim of years of business experience in the software and computer market, I think it is reasonable to infer that the customer knows very well that blacklisting to work requires an internet communication between the CM stick and some server to send a deactivation command.
  Deactivation commands are being protocolled on the server. A deactivation entry for the stick would count as a verification of the loss claim.
  Before we had a chance to even wait for the results of that blacklisting the customer started a public campaign against us.
  Nice move.

I certainly understand the frustration on the customer's side, and that emotions can run high in such cases. I also understand that my suggestion to look at the situation from a pragmatical point of view didn't go down too well. All right, eMail communication is imporsonal, I'm sorry that it all escalated like this, but still:
Replacing the CM stick would incur a fee for the material costs of replacement, shipping, and handling, which amounts to $35.-; while I am under an NDA not to disclose the price of CM sticks that we buy from the manufacturer, what I can tell is that these CM sticks were on sale in the manufacturer's web shop for 39.- EUR a while ago, so draw your own conclusions how profitable it is for us to offer CM stick replacements.
As the costs of replacement are pretty much the same as the costs for a one-year license I think it is a valid question to ask if a time-based license isn't actually the better choice for a traveling man. The license gets installed on the computer on which it is being used, and notebooks usually go into the carry-on luggage, so the risk of loss in this case is obviously much smaller. Likewise, every other year our upgrades also cost a bit of money, $40.- in the last two cases, incidentally.
So the "switch to time-based licenses" suggestion is not a sly move to earn more money. I consider it to be almost cost neutral since, unlike with the CM stick, no upgrade fees apply. If you pause for a few months playing, you don't need to have an active license. And when the next version is out, play it for a year and put it to rest until the itch is back or the next version comes out.

So, I apologize for coming across like the cold-hearted technocrat that I might actually be, deep inside. My excuse for it is that I tried ot be pragmatic about a bad situation, and that our policy of handling cases like this is simple - and just, in that we're looking at the sole criterium that should matter:

Can the cause of a customer's claim for a replacement be verified or not?

If you can mail in a failed or damaged stick, and be it just bits and pieces, we'll offer a replacement. If you claim loss or theft: Difficult. But we can, and do, blacklist CM sticks if we can identify their serial number (you wouldn't want us to issue "arrest warrants" for any random serial number).


Maybe some agree here that we should not make a big fuss and send out a stick. But then the question is, should be do this - always, not questions asked?
Then why have license management in the first place.

Should we offer replacement without verification at least sometimes?
When exactly? Whenever a case is being presented with a plausible story?
So you'd essentially argue to reward those who can spin the best yarn. Or you're in favor of some arbitrary, whim of the moment decision. That doesn't sound very just to me. I would rather use simple rules that can be checked for consistency.