Conscience

Buying The Witcher 2 from www.gog.com gives pretty much the full amount paid directly to the creators of the game, as far as I've understood. It's 49.99€ for the digital download, where some shit like maps and making-of videos come included. Bear with me, this isn't a commercial, nor a review. It's gotten pretty decent reviews, packs quite a long playtime in a well thought-out world, and comes from the company that made the first The Witcher. They were a fairly unknown Polish group, who produced one of the best RPG's of its time. GoG also recognizes that because of laws and taxes and all that funky stuff, the European digital download costs 16$ more than the US, so they give you games from their store to the same value. The Witcher team also makes a point of trusting their players, choosing to believe that if their product is good it will stand for itself: The Witcher 2, like the first, comes without any DRM. No, this is not a request for them to have my babies.

So what is it? It's a question: If I hypothetically said that I know a site that is 100% reliable and legal but possibly much less ethical (in how they acquire what they sell, but I don't know, I don't know if anyone knows), that sells The Witcher 2 for a little more than 16€, but where it's very doubtful if the developers get very much, if anything at all... how is that different from torrenting it for free? Because it feels different. If this was any other game I would probably buy it cheap, but why? Have they successfully guilt-tripped me into buying their game from being too nice? I'm extremely curious how the game sales are. Is the DRM-free way the way to go to win the war against pirating, not because you defeat the hackers, but because you win the players hearts and loyalty? Or is it the eyes full of hope of a catholic sheep on its way into the wolf's den?

Does a product that is good ever stand on its own?

Update at the End of Things

Hope all of you had a good time Thursday-Friday celebrating your new freedom. For some it won't last long, for others longer than they wished.

My brother finished 9th grade. Dunno when all this growing up happened, I sure wasn't there to see it. But it's only fair, I guess. When I turned 20 was the first birthday I actually felt a difference; it felt like I was an adult now, like I was only pretending before. Bro had his first taste of it now, I think, realizing things like that the future is a scary place, that progress is both good and bad, and that just when you start to really get to know people it's time to break up. I think he'll be okay. And he looked smashing in new jeans and a striped shirt. Been ages since I saw him in a shirt.

As for me, I won't have a job this summer. I can only pray I get into school, because I have no second choice. Otherwise my life will be pretty empty, and I can't take sitting by the sidelines another year. It already feels like the world, and the people in it, is moving along without me. This summer, however, will be pretty full anyway. I have some projects I want to finish up before getting busy with important things. Stuff like two novels and a few short stories to polish off, some drawings and illustrations, losing those three kilos I gained this winter, doing Math C unofficially just for the heck of it since I have the book, and so on. And I need to make some time for friends too. I dunno what everyone fill their summers with, but this is good enough for me.

Oh, and for those with free time and a computer; play The Witcher. Wonderful rpg, without the silly "good or evil" choices, but with choices that actually make a difference without being too obvious. I've torn my hair more than once wondering who to assume is the bad guy. And combat can be everything from a pushover to a real challenge, since there are three difficulty levels to choose from.

Tan carefully, buddies!