Totalgaming.net suggestions

and a complaint too...

Published on February 27, 2006 By Danny Bassette In Gaming

       So Galciv2 is out (as I'm sure you've all noticed by now). This is a good thing in many ways (even if it was temporarily bad for Joeuser): fun game for gamers to play, (presumably) large piles of money for Brad to swim in, sense of accomplishment for the stardock developers, and best of all, now that it's out I can pretend they aren't busy while attempting to distract people.
       I like Totalgaming.net, I'm biased and admit it, but I think it's a great way to buy games. Even if some of the games are ones I would never want, I'm sure others would feel the same about the ones I like, the variety is nice that way. But since I do like it, I'd like to see it improved and even have some ideas to do so. Hence this article to share them...
       I really liked it before tokens, pay a once a year fee and get whatever comes out that year. Although I can understand why they had to switch, I did like it. But a zero token game would have the same effect in the current system. Not that I'm telling someone to give away their hard work, just an idea...
       Which brings me to my big gripe. To quote the about page "you'll never have to worry about losing what you buy". In other words, buy a game today and it will be there for you to download. Today, tomorrow, next year, next century (assuming of course Stardock lasts that long). This is good, I like this way of doing things, makes me happy and spending tokens. What I don't like is when it turns out to be wrong. When the transition to the token system took place two games appear to have disappeared: Stellar Frontier and Bugs 2002. By current standards neither are great games, but they were part of the service and that they are no longer available does not sit well with me. It's not that I don't still have them (I tend to backup downloaded games anyways), but if stardock says it will always be there it shouldn't vanish.
       I complained for a bit there, now what would I like to see done about this? Ideally the games come back (at least for those that already bought them), perhaps with an apology. Failing that, some sort of statement about why the games are gone and assurances that it won't happen again. And failing that, replacing the implication that games will always be available to say they may vanish on the whim of Stardock.
       And that leads me to what I think would make for a great improvement to the service: a status page. Sometimes information is hard to find, or easy to miss. But if there was one status page where you could go for information I think it would be good. How the servers are, any known problems (and estimates for repairs), planned downtime (if any), when new games are expected to be downloadable, what games might be added in the future, and anything else that might be useful information.
       How would all that work? Well a few weeks back certain things weren't downloadable for a short time (music for Lightweight Ninja, not sure what else). It got fixed before too long, but if there was a note on a common page that certain things are down (with a list) and that they are being fixed, it would be comforting for those that can't download. And for the dozen or so Topware games that are coming, how about a list of when each is expected. Say Earth 2150 is this friday, Heli Heroes next tuesday, that sort of thing. All estimates (unless Stardock wants to be more exact then that), with the understanding that things might not go quiet as planned. But the information would still be there for those that are wondering.
       As for what games are coming in the future, while I can understand not sharing that information, the more warning for a games arrival the better. Even if the deal falls through and it doesn't show up (so long as it's also taken off the list at that point), it would be nice to know that it's being worked towards. Perhaps three levels of arriving games: Those that have been arranged but aren't yet available to download, those that a deal is being worked on and might be added at some point, and those that are being looked into but might never be added. I know I'd be rather annoyed if I were to buy a game and then turn around and it's added to Totalgaming.net. I know of at least one game I'm waiting to buy because of the implication that it's going to be added to Totalgaming. I can be patient and I like the ease of the service that much.
       So those are my larger ideas, now for a few minor interface suggestions for Stardock Central. Right now Galactic Civilizations and Altarian Prophecy are seperate items. Which makes sense since they are seperate products. But since one is the expansion to the other I think it would look better if it was under the + for the core game. There would be Multimedia, PDF Manual, Altarian Prophecy. And as the number of games offered increases, some methods of sorting them becomes more important. The division between purchased and demo is good, but inside that the ability to sort on genre would be nice. The current ability to sort by name and date is useful, not sure how adding addition sorting would work though.
       The action column should be expanded. Right now it gives you either install or demo (depending on the situation). That's good, but if installed an uninstall button would be convenient. A buy button next to the demo one would be even more convenient. The current method works, but simpler is good. It would also be nice if the download size showed the size on disk after the game is installed. Let you know how much space your using up with the games from the source your likely use to uninstall them.
       And while I'm here, what is mcpstub.dll, why does it add itself to system startup, yet everything works fine if it's turned off. Anyways, Good job Stardock people, keep up the good work

Comments

Yarlen

on Mar 06, 2006

Here's TotalGaming.net's official reply.

Stellar Frontier was discontinued on the old Drengin.net/TotalGaming.net service back in July 2004, which is why it doesn't appear in Stardock Central. There's really no easy way for us to add this game back to SDC, as it's no longer for sale through our network (though is still for sale standalone via the Stardock Store). As for Bugs 2002, that title was never publically released outside of beta and has been cancelled - hence the beta version is no longer available.

So to sum up, neither game will be appearing on SDC again.

In terms of server/network status, when there's going to be a known interruption, we do post about it in advance on our forums. However, when a server goes down, this is usually impossible (since it brings down the site as well), in which case we work towards restoring service asap (and it's usually within a few minutes if it happens during the workday).

For the TopWare releases (and other upcoming games on TGN), I have been making pre-announcements on the TotalGaming.net forums, either in the PC Gaming forum or in the Open Talk forum. Doesn't get more open than that, since we're contractually not able to announce games before they're signed and we can only add signed games once their developer makes them available to us.

Certainly, when someone asks about it in the forums, we post a reply with the answer as soon as we can.

Lastly, SDC will be getting more work done to it in the future.

Thanks for your comments and glad to hear you enjoy TotalGaming.net.

Danny Bassette

on Mar 06, 2006

I thought that might be the case with Bugs. Thanks for your answers

Yarlen

on Jun 06, 2006

Anytime.

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