Suggestion before you rant and rave...

[Solo4114]

In terms of the EULA stuff, there's a few things to consider.

1.) Chances are, the EULA includes a clause that lets you get a refund of what you paid IF THE GAME DOES NOT WORK. IE: if the game is somehow defective, you can get a refund under the warranty term.

2.) A breach of contract for the EULA does NOT give you license to pirate the game. Chances are, even outside of the EULA, the game is still copyrighted. Distributing copies of a game without consent of the rights holder is a violation of section 106 of the copyright code (title 17 I believe). It violates the right to reproduce and to distribute the work. So, just because the company refuses to acknowlege the terms by which they're bound under the EULA, you are NOT allowed to copy and distribute the game.

3.) What you MIGHT be able to do, however, is bring a claim in court against the company. Either a breach of contract claim or a tort claim. If the EULA was truly violated, you might even be able to remove the claim to a local court, as opposed to whatever CA court the EULA probably requires you to file in. Failing that, you could always try for a class-action suit.

Anyway, I haven't played the game or bought the game, nor do I intend to, given the heavily mixed reviews I've seen. Galactic Civilizations seems much more interesting. While I'd love to play a true successor to the MOO legacy, it sounds like this game just ain't it. Every review I've seen has said the game is a real disappointment. Now, while some folks have said that you need to give it time, I disagree to an extent. Even complicated, in-depth games should be able to suck you in at the start. When I first got MOO2, I played it with the same "one more turn" attitude that I'd had with it's predecessor, and that I've had with the CIV games. From what I've heard, MOO3 just doesn't have that.

As far as complaining goes, I don't blame people who complain. I think the destruction of the CD and box and such was a rather pointless waste, but I don't know about this whole copy protection meaning that you can't get rid of it. What's up with that exactly? Anyway, people should complain if constructive criticism can lead to a better game.

 

[Neomega]

I think the destruction of the CD and box and such was a rather pointless waste,

Naw, it saved me from wasting more time on it.

And plus, what good would it have done had I left it in-tact.... gathered dust on my shelf.

 

[Segal]

I am terribly unimpressed with MOO3.

I dont think they had a clue who their target market was, they certainly didnt get close.

 

[Ashoka]

Originally posted by Solo4114
In terms of the EULA stuff, there's a few things to consider.

1.) Chances are, the EULA includes a clause that lets you get a refund of what you paid IF THE GAME DOES NOT WORK. IE: if the game is somehow defective, you can get a refund under the warranty term.

Hmm - would this include if it does not work on particular systems? The 800x600 resolution makes it unplayable on some LCD and large screen systems. (Mine included).

System requirements listed 800x600 resolution. However, all other system req's listed are *minimal* requirements (as is typical). Only in this case, after actually trying the software, does one discover that this is an exclusive requirement.

I'll see if Best Buy will bite.

Ashoka

 

[Bloog]

The reqs for the game are really low. And it actually works on my system ! I got a 2 CPU thingy and because of that I cannot play any game of Westwood, and more...

IMHO 600x800 is not that bad, even at 19" CRT. I've come from text-based mudding . I never played MOO1 and MOO2. I expected MOO3 to be a great management game, and so it is.

Just remember space is big, really big. If you don't like it, go try a faster paced RTS game.

 

[TheDS]

My buddy pre-ordered this thing a year ago, and finally took possession of it. He's given it a try, and doesn't hate it. He brought it over the other day and I gave it a try and man, I gotta tell ya that I can hardly stand it.

A lot of stuff is simply too onerous to want to continue to torture yourself with. Almost every aspect of the game needs a redesign. I started making a list of things that should be changed, and ways to make it better. I quit after it reached the 5th page; 15 ideas, and no feeling of accomplishment at all. I don't think there's any salvaging of the game.

I did like the concept of simplifying stuff that they touted so much, and letting the AI handle most of the micromanagement stuff, but as I feared, in practice, it didn't work. I had no sense of accomplishing anything. There were far too many details to worry about. Do I really need to choose from SEVEN different attitudes in my diplomacy? A lot of the interface was designed quite poorly too. I found it very annoying to find the information I was looking for, even when I had the proper page displayed!

They seemed to have spent too much effort on making flash than on making playability and ease of operation. Did we really need to be able to rotate the galaxy in 3 dimensions? Sure, it looks neat, but they were smart enough to make it viewable from the top without star overlap, so what's the point of 3D? It'll never get used a second time. At least moving around the map was easy. How hard would it have been to use a little standardization in the interfaces? Was it really necessary to waste the miniscule screen area with needless graphics? Sure, those planet pics were cool, but it's not like you gave us a reasonable 1600x1200 screen area. I shouldn't have to hunt for buttons to open and close important information every time I need to see them.

I could see that SOME ONE tried hard to make it an appealing game, but SOME ONE ELSE seemed to do their level best to screw it up. It was like Hollywoodizing the book Watchers (by Dean R. Koontz). They tried what, 3? 4? times, and never came remotely close to getting it right. (I think they came vaguely close the third time, but then, it's been a while since I saw any of them.)

It was like the sequels to Highlander. Even the fourth, which was arguably the best of them, had almost nothing whatsoever to do with the original movie.

I really got the feeling that there wasn't a single person in charge of MOO3 that had even HEARD OF MOO2, nevermind played it. Too bad I didn't think to try and be a playtester for it, cuz I woulda told em it sucked, and they needed to see what the heck they were doing and play the previous game once. They woulda had a better game if they'd simply cleaned up the tediousness from MOO2, and implemented all those cool concepts they'd touted the last three years on its basic framework.

They wound up with a game that could only be loved by people unwilling to believe or admit they wasted $50 on it.