TheQuestionable wrote: That's simply unacceptable. I know it's not GameTap's fault but this just killed a large portion of GT's value.

Gametap excels at killing value.

TVs_Frank wrote: buster42 wrote: This is probably more on the Activision side of things than the Blizzard side. I prefer as many excuses as possible to hate Blizzard. WoW's success has pretty much stagnated the MMO industry into a bunch of hotbutton spamming clones.

I think the majority of the MMO players are hot-button spamming clones themselves and WoW's true success comes from ease of access. It'll play on millions of boxes worldwide, has bright colors, and is pretty simple to start.

There are only so many of us who would prefer a skill based combat system instead of "Tab-1-3-2-2-1...." styled combat (I'm anxiously awaiting the twitch-based combat of Jumpgate Evolution). To grow the industry as large as it is now, the bulk of players would have to be middle of the road (or more casual style) players - statistically speaking. A rough bell curve would be a decent model of what to expect .
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What we need in the future is to draw enough people into the MMO genre that we can build a strong niche community of people who prefer the skill-based combat, enough to support a decent game. Then we'll need a decently designed game properly supported by a strong company. So yeah, that's my anaysis and a wishlist tacked onto the end.

OUCH! This just gets worse day by day. I am still subscribed but that may not be for long.

Themaster032 wrote: In some other thread LC said that we were going to get some new rpg's soon . He wasn't allowed to say what they were but if that's the case they must be big. Maybe those'll make up for some of the games we lost .

Bet the new RPG's won't be the Witcher or even anything as decent as what they're losing with all the D&D titles and Planescape gone.

I've seen a few negative things said about WoW in this thread and you know what? I totally agree!

WoW drools, EVE rules!!!

Mmm, what does blizzard have to do with that ?

Quote: I could not access any of these games using the old Gametap player because I live in Canada and the rights for these games did not transfer to Canada. Then when the new web-based service came in, I could finally access these games... for a couple of months... now they are gone again.

Same here...

That's a shame. And make my gt subscription less worth it.

Are these removals temporary or more likely permanent? Is gametap going to compete with Onlive for rights? Is it going to be on one or other and not both?

This particular set of games doesnt hurt me personally but my son was interested in the baldur's gate series so i am sad to see it go. one or two games going isnt a cause for concern but when multiple publishers (midway and sierra) leave and a subscription new service preparing to launch I am very concerned.

According to the blog, it's because of the Bliz-Acti-Vendi merger more then anything else. It also says they are going to hunt down the current rights holders and try and get licensing back, so there ye go.

Between the player barely working and this, I think cancelling my service is a good thing to do.

I joined Gametap because they offered these games. You guys should get your stuff together before offering a game.

Those fun spoilers....

csenette wrote: I joined Gametap because they offered these games. You guys should get your stuff together before offering a game.

When Gametap first offered these titles over 2 years ago, they most definitely had their stuff together. Unfortunately the publisher of the titles got sold off, which is totally outside of Gametap's control.

To use a pertinent analogy, it's a lot like being a car dealer. You might be selling cars like crazy and have all your ducks in a row, but if the manufacturer goes out of business, you still have to stop selling the cars, no matter how well you were doing with them prior.

I understand the dog-eat-dog of business. Still the Balder's Gate Series was my favorite series on Gametap and at least in my cause drops Gametap's value through no fault of their own. There are still some games I want to play here that I've never played. Freespace II and the Fallout Series to name a couple. It just makes the list shorter.

Now that just ticks me off. I understand the issues involved, but those Balders Gate I and II the Icewind Dale games and especially Planescape Torment i have logged idk how many hours playing and was the main reason i first joined gametap. Those old school RPGs are hard to find and i haven't beat Torment yet That cancellation list pretty much kills my fav rpg playlist.

Aw, i love sierra! I remember way back in the day when i used to play space quest and leisure suit larry. those were the days.

I just found Lords of Magic again, I lost my original 5.25" discs (Not 3.5 mind you) and now it's going to vanish? This feels so wrong. >_<

-Sigh-

Just when I revert from 64 bit...

At least Gothic 3's still on here. My real copy refuses to read the actual CD exec, even though it'll run the autolaunch and install. Perplexing and annoying, since I played through the first two three times each.

macnbc wrote: csenette wrote: I joined Gametap because they offered these games. You guys should get your stuff together before offering a game. When Gametap first offered these titles over 2 years ago, they most definitely had their stuff together. Unfortunately the publisher of the titles got sold off, which is totally outside of Gametap's control. To use a pertinent analogy, it's a lot like being a car dealer. You might be selling cars like crazy and have all your ducks in a row, but if the manufacturer goes out of business, you still have to stop selling the cars, no matter how well you were doing with them prior.

Yeah, but the analogy also goes: If the car dealer gets new ownership and doesn't hold up prior (or even current) warranties, then suddenly all the cars stop working for their paying customers and then they turn a blind eye to the customers who attempt to contact them for a fix, well, I can only bet those manufacturers would stop providing that dealer with their products. If I were involved with a merging tri-glomerate of successful game publishers and saw how GT was screwing everything up I'd pull my association with them too.

This really sucks. There a few games in there I had on my list of have-to-try's (torment on top).

Are AB going to sell these games again? Or are they just being anal?

To clarify, Activision have lost the rights to these games themselves, so it's not like they're "refusing" to license them. They just don't have the option anymore.

simonorman wrote: Yeah, but the analogy also goes: If the car dealer gets new ownership and doesn't hold up prior (or even current) warranties, then suddenly all the cars stop working for their paying customers and then they turn a blind eye to the customers who attempt to contact them for a fix, well, I can only bet those manufacturers would stop providing that dealer with their products. If I were involved with a merging tri-glomerate of successful game publishers and saw how GT was screwing everything up I'd pull my association with them too.

You're analogy is hightly flawed. Warrenties are held up by the manufactorer not the dealers. Dealers only fix cars under warrenty insofar as their liscenced to do so. In fact should a dealer get new ownership and decide to abondon it's current manafactorer franchise (or just lose it say...to brand bankrupcy) they actually are no longer authorized to do warrenty reparis. (This is actually a current problem with franchises losing their liscences as part of the GM and Chrystler bankrupcies. Small towns are losing their liscenced dealers and no longer have repair rights.)
Actually this turns out to be a lot like car dealerships. GT has to liscence ("franchise" althought not techincally) the games, should said company revoke that, they no longer can. (Also if the games had warrenty repairs, they'd be no longer able to do that too.)

scheper wrote: This really sucks. There a few games in there I had on my list of have-to-try's (torment on top). Are AB going to sell these games again? Or are they just being anal?

It isn't really under AB's control. It's more a case of they themselves losing the license.

tsrblke2 wrote: It's worth pointing out that Sierra didn't make this call, since they're gone, owned by Activision blizzard right now. So if you want to throw out some games, I'd choose either activision or blizzard games to pitch. If that was a jibe at the anger... I think a lot of people are angry right now with regards to the way the new Actiblizzvision is acting, they've so far sued at least 2 companies over games they've dropped then realized could be profitable. In short, they're acting like buttheads.

I guess this is all my fault, then. I've been loyally paying WoW fees for four years whether or not I played, and just terminated my account about two weeks ago. This is clearly a retaliatory move by Blizzard aimed at me. Well, this and everything they've ever done to druids.

Ironically, seeing as my loathing of everything Sierra is almost as deep rooted as my feelings towards Apple Corp. (1984 vs. roughly 1981), I didn't think I'd miss much. All of the D&D licenses are more than a little upsetting, though. I missed Torment when it was current, and it was definitely one of the titles that helped me decide to give GT a shot. As for actual Sierra titles, Homeworld (or 2) was going to be my Once-A-Decade test to see if Sierra games ever got any better (Outpost and Lords of Magic both predicted six more years of winter pretty accurately).

StSathar wrote: tsrblke2 wrote: It's worth pointing out that Sierra didn't make this call, since they're gone, owned by Activision blizzard right now. So if you want to throw out some games, I'd choose either activision or blizzard games to pitch. If that was a jibe at the anger... I think a lot of people are angry right now with regards to the way the new Actiblizzvision is acting, they've so far sued at least 2 companies over games they've dropped then realized could be profitable. In short, they're acting like buttheads. I guess this is all my fault, then. I've been loyally paying WoW fees for four years whether or not I played, and just terminated my account about two weeks ago. This is clearly a retaliatory move by Blizzard aimed at me. Well, this and everything they've ever done to druids. Ironically, seeing as my loathing of everything Sierra is almost as deep rooted as my feelings towards Apple Corp. (1984 vs. roughly 1981), I didn't think I'd miss much. All of the D&D licenses are more than a little upsetting, though. I missed Torment when it was current, and it was definitely one of the titles that helped me decide to give GT a shot. As for actual Sierra titles, Homeworld (or 2) was going to be my Once-A-Decade test to see if Sierra games ever got any better (Outpost and Lords of Magic both predicted six more years of winter pretty accurately).

Well this is great news, I'll begin forwarding all the hate mail about the loss of these games to you

tsrblke2 wrote: simonorman wrote: Yeah, but the analogy also goes: If the car dealer gets new ownership and doesn't hold up prior (or even current) warranties, then suddenly all the cars stop working for their paying customers and then they turn a blind eye to the customers who attempt to contact them for a fix, well, I can only bet those manufacturers would stop providing that dealer with their products. If I were involved with a merging tri-glomerate of successful game publishers and saw how GT was screwing everything up I'd pull my association with them too. You're analogy is hightly flawed. Warrenties are held up by the manufactorer not the dealers. Dealers only fix cars under warrenty insofar as their liscenced to do so. In fact should a dealer get new ownership and decide to abondon it's current manafactorer franchise (or just lose it say...to brand bankrupcy) they actually are no longer authorized to do warrenty reparis. (This is actually a current problem with franchises losing their liscences as part of the GM and Chrystler bankrupcies. Small towns are losing their liscenced dealers and no longer have repair rights.) Actually this turns out to be a lot like car dealerships. GT has to liscence ("franchise" althought not techincally) the games, should said company revoke that, they no longer can. (Also if the games had warrenty repairs, they'd be no longer able to do that too.)

Your grammar is highly flawed. Besides I think the point sticks just as clearly. Surely if we were to compare GT to a car dealer it would be more like a car rental place, whose warranty holds up against the car falling to pieces while under the use of the renter. My point relates more to the games disappearing or becoming unusable w/o the license issues, not to the games being pulled due to mergers and license changes. This would be like a car rental place no longer issuing Chrysler vehicles because they were no longer a solo company, but rather purchased out by GM (or more realistically the govt., as they've been GM forever) and yeah I get it. So why am bothering in this thread if I'm not discussing the license loss? Because I'm correlating companies pulling out to the three-month (quarterly) turn around mark since the collapse of GT. Like, I might give a damn if I had been able to play Homeworld 2 over the last month and a half since my games disappeared due to the last update. But I'm done complaining. I'm actually sincerely grateful because you finally replied to my other thread post where others (be it mods/admins, e-mail or tech support) would not...kudos to you tsrblke2.