BFG '1.0' mirrored anywhere?

[papillon]

Okay, silly question, but - I don't care for the whole 'game manager' thing. I don't want to install it just to play demos, I certainly don't want to purchase new games that will be tied to it and refuse to run without it. On the other hand I have two gameclub credits sitting around, which are now going to be completely useless...

anyone know a location to obtain OLD bigfish demos, so I can blow my credits on a game I can actually run? :)

[Jack Norton]

Shame on you! You should have supported the original developers buying from them directly!
What are you facing now is just the divine punishment for your bad actions. :D

[papillon]

It was RESEARCH! I had to know how the system worked! Er. :)

I am at this point quite willing to buy games I don't even particularly like in order to get SOME portion of the remaining credits to a developer rather than sitting on BFG forever. Wonder if I can dig up old demos on fileshare...

[JoKa]

I'd also like the old versions. I'm currently doing reviews of BFG games and would prefer to install the demos on an older PC, which isn't connected to the web.

[Pyabo]

When did BFG add a game manager? God that sucks... "Hey, you know what our customers will really like? Adding a layer between them and the game that constantly reminds them that they bought it from us!" Come on guys...

[barrygamer]

ouch... I guess its similar to Realarcade game manager? Haven't tried it yet. I hate those clunky game manager things too, but there must be very solid business reasons to make such a big change -- piracy issues? and ultimately retaining customers? Still, a shame to lose the simplicity of the BF service (its main appeal, to me).
I'm surprised, but I'm not their target customer.... or business advisor ;)

[ninesquirrels]

You can still use your credits - you just have to poke around the payment options for a while and choose the "I just want to buy this one game" option, and then enter in your coupon number.

[papillon]

Yes, but if the download I obtain is tied into their Game Manager system then I have *wasted* my credits on a game I cannot/willnot play. :) I need an unlockable demo from the old system.

Not surprisingly, their customer support claims to be completely overwhelmed with questions at the moment and no idea when they'll attempt to answer...

[Pyabo]

there must be very solid business reasons to make such a big change

Why do you assume that? I assume there is a blockheaded "business" guy making the decision who never actually downloads and buys games and doesn't know dick all about what customers actually want. He just hears keywords like "customer retention" and "locked in" and says IT'S A GO! Let's SYNERGIZE, PEOPLE! Now we're thinking outside the box!

Copying other people's business plans is not usually a road to success. First the gamepass, which I can forgive them... and now the game manager? Way to innovate, BFG.

[Bad Sector]

Um, what's so wrong with game managers?

And especially the BFG game manager which, unlike some others (Steam) isn't even close to intrusive or bloat. Just a list with installed games and a small ad below for a single game which a nice one-click method to get that game (and at the end it's easy for the gamer to get the demo and the developer and BFG to potentially sell more games).

[Indiepath]

Some questions for BFG:

1) What on earth is bfggameservices.exe and why is it always running?
2) Did you know your new DRM is about as good as the one used by RealArcade? (I think most people know what I mean by this so I won't need to go into detail)

[JoKa]

2) Did you know your new DRM is about as good as the one used by RealArcade?
Cool, now I can expand the testing period, hurrying through a game to see enough details for a review isn't so much fun ;)

[barrygamer]

Why do you assume that? I assume there is a blockheaded "business" guy making the decision who never actually downloads and buys games ...

haha, yeah, I shouldn't really assume that -- in the past I've worked for some of the biggest blockheads going! :rolleyes:

BF has always been my favorite portal, I guess its the presentation and 'a new game every day' thing. The simplicity of it... hmm.

I agree there could be a problem 'copying' realarcade, since there are surely a bunch of customers who always want direct downloads, and will go find a site that does that. OTOH, BF may go for more and more exclusives now; too many competing portals offering the same games?

Its a big ask for a customer to use a separate app just to get a game. After all, its just a game, the player wants to grab it and play it, and get on with their life.

But, I am saying all this without trying it yet. No mac version :)
Back to the OP - I guess there won't be a way to get direct links? I dont see it mentioned in the help.

Edit: to me, Steam is intrusive. But, Half life 2 is just soooo good that I put up with it.

[papillon]

I don't like going somewhere to download demos, cheerfully sticking files in my download queue, and coming back later to find that instead of having my demos ready to play, I've been given tiny stubs that will launch some other program.

I like my games to be as self-contained as possible so they can be zipped up and moved around and run on different computers rather than connected to unknown external processes that they will not run without. (Portability is a problem with portals/DRM in general, alas, this is just making it a little bit more so.)

I don't like the concept of a centralised game manager *because* of the things I've heard about Steam and them being able to disable all of your games if they decide you were cheating in one of them. :)

None of these things are terrible, horrible, make-me-hate-BFG-forever issues, it just means I don't want to download any more games from them.

EDIT - BFG has resolved my issue by refunding my credits (and they didn't even take that long to do it!) So yay! Now when I finish catching up with my paperwork from my month's vacation, I can get back to buying games. :)

[Pyabo]

Re: what's wrong with download managers...

Basically, what Papillon said. And Indiegamer. Oh look, a new process running on my machine all the time.

Steam is an even worse offender due to its incredible bloat.

Now imagine what your computer will look like when everyone else jumps on this stupid bandwagon. Twenty different "game managers" and distribution services all vying for space in your tooltray and time on your network to upload the up-to-the-second data on how many miliseconds you spend watching their latest ad.

I already have a game manager... it's called an operating system. I already have a download manager... it's called a browser.

[Bad Sector]

Basically, what Papillon said. And Indiegamer. Oh look, a new process running on my machine all the time.

That's not a problem of game managers in general, but a problem of the mentioned game managers. Not all game managers have to put a process running at the background or be bloated.


Steam is an even worse offender due to its incredible bloat.

I have Steam running at the background all the time (it's around 4MB), so nothing really bloated. In fact it's more of a dedicated browser than anything else. However i like that i can check now and then what games are available there (i like some of their games) and i've already purchased five of their games.


Now imagine what your computer will look like when everyone else jumps on this stupid bandwagon. Twenty different "game managers" and distribution services all vying for space in your tooltray and time on your network to upload the up-to-the-second data on how many miliseconds you spend watching their latest ad.

If these game managers run all the time at the background and i can't close them, then this is a bad thing. But if i can close them then i don't have much of a problem. A program is as bad as you program it.

Having said that, realistically even if every portal and distributor comes out with a game manager, that doesn't mean i'll use it. In fact from all managers i've seen i only use Steam.

[tagged]

Ok, I'm lost... Can those who proclaim Steam as bloatware please explain to me exactly what's bloat about it? I've been using it for years now and it's so minimalistic that I leave it running on startup, as well as curse it for being so (I believe it needs to be injected with features, not have them taken away.. What could be taken away?? It's bare bones as is!). If you want to know the real meaning of bloat, try Nero! 2GB of space, I thought v6 was taking it a little far.
I've purchased more games from Steam in the last year than from video game stores. I love the fact they are not only easy to purchase but cheap and easy to install/uninstall and generally manage altogether. No more scratched or lost media, easy to jump to new computers and install a game without carrying your cd wallet around. I haven't tried the BFG manager, but I personally feel Steam (and other managers like it) is a big leap for games (if done right, again I haven't tried BFG manager).

[Pyabo]

Maybe it was just my experience then, but Steam constantly seemed to be bogged down... was unresponsive to my input for seconds at a time while it was checking for the latest steam news, or doing who knows what. It's also highly annoying that it's required for Half-Life 2.