So better stay away from Steel Beasts dongles

[Ian C]

Just read mod hat bit.
Nevermind..

[Apocalypse 31]

From a player perspective, I think the biggest problem is lack of competition for eSim.

Competition drives survival.
Survival drives a sense of urgency
Urgency drives things like game development and customer service.

[Nefaro]

From a player perspective, I think the biggest problem is lack of competition for eSim.

Competition drives survival.
Survival drives a sense of urgency
Urgency drives things like game development and customer service.

Not to mention pricing and customer valuation.

[DennisS]

Here is this thread in a nutshell, thanks to Boggit.

"...It seems to me that it is your pride that is getting in the way of resolving this issue sensibly, because you keep digging yourself an ever deeper hole with the irrelevant arguments you keep relying on to make excuses for your failure to act reasonably towards a reasonable consumer..."

I have looked at purchasing games from esims for years..just haven't pulled the trigger. I spend a LOT of money on games. How valuable is customer service, and a companies' reputation? It goes far beyond the replacement cost of a single dongle.

SB Classic, the 4.0 version, with the unlimited license and hardcopy of the ruleset is just over $140. This is hella expensive..and I can only wonder what $140 would get me on this years' Steam sale.

Now, I will never know whether this $140 represents good value or not..as they have lost me as a potential customer.

[Boggit]

For the moment, I agree with Hartford688 and Bawb that we give Ssnake the opportunity to reflect on and consider what has been said so far.

It may be that on reflection he will see that there are compelling reasons to exercise his discretion in coming to an agreement with RyanE. If he can do something to amicably and fully resolve RyanE's concerns, then I think he will do much to retrieve RyanE's good faith in the company as well as restore the PR situation within the community.

[RyanE]

Look, the guy obviously isn't even reading the posts on the thread.  I don't see how a little reflection is going to happen.  He appears to not have read any of the arguements, never even considered options when asked, and has provided little in the way of compromise.

Please show me where in any posts, he has shown any amount of compromise.  Read the emails he sent me.  While he personally doesn't doubt me, the rules are in place.  He sets the rules!  Its like he is trying to separate his decision from himself, but esims and he are darned close to the same entity.  How can he say that he is not accusing me of lying, yet treat me like I am lying.  That is typical bureaucratic mealy-mouthing.  This is one of those situations where, if I was standing across a counter f2f, I bet the outcome would be different.

Again, I'll point out, financially, esims is losing more on this issue than they are gaining.  You can do the math.

[bayonetbrant]

I think at this point, pretty much every argument on either side has already been made multiple times. I think we all give it a rest for a bit and see if anything changes, however unlikely that might be. I don't think anyone has done anything wrong or illegal, but I think it sounds as though many of our Forum members would have liked to have seen a different course of action even though none was required.

In either case though, I just don't see anything changing regardless of any further discussion or point trying to be made in this thread

[BanzaiCat]

If it continues you can always move it to the Flame Wars category...

Even so, yeah, I think everyone's made their point(s) clearly.

[Ian C]

It's worth mentioning that Steel Beasts has been cracked and pirated.

The point being that in theory, people who want to obtain a dongle through deception actually don't need a dongle in the first place and wouldn't actually ask for one.

The same great logic that brought us fantastic DRM that checks to see if the software it's protecting is legitimate.



Moving along...buying an ice cream...leaving the area...

[Redwolf]

Steel Beasts can be played offline with the dongle. So there is no way to invalidate a dongle to disable gameplay. All you have to do is continue to use the dongle (or sell it). Obviously it cannot be invalidated if it is not present.  The $5000 package company was probably combining it with some online mechanism that would require the software to either be connected or check in every now and then. That way they can disable a dongle in a way that it actually prevents the software from being used.

[RyanE]

I would suggest reading the entire thread before jumping in.

[Jarhead0331]

I would suggest reading the entire thread before jumping in.

Honestly, I would suggest not jumping in at all at this point.

Two mods and two administrators have already chimed in stating that there has been enough back and forth. No amount of rehashing or restating any point is going to have any impact on the issue. The thread will remain open for now, but any further comment should be dispassionate and it should serve to elevate the discussion, rather than dragging it back down the drain.

Thanks. 

[mirth]

Dongle, dongle, dongle!!!!

[Con]

I think this elevates the discussion

[bayonetbrant]

 C:-) C:-) C:-) C:-) C:-) C:-) C:-) C:-) C:-)

{MOD HAT ON}
I'm locking this for 24 hours

This has nothing to do with stifling debate, because we've let it go, on both sides, for quite some time.

Quite frankly, this is being done out of laziness - the mod team is sick of having to keep an eye on this thread.

It's been awesome that you guys can have these kinds of discussions without devolving into a bunch of ad hominem attacks and name-calling, or demonizing people whose position is different than yours.

But we're all suffering from 'overwatch fatigue' and we're going to give people a a day to chill.

One of us will unlock this on Monday sometime, US time (i.e., not Japan time, which would be Monday in about 25 minutes or so)

{HIPSTER BERET BACK ON}