gamerants
Plimus
Published on June 28, 2008 By Al3xandr0s In Digital Distribution

I love independent developers' games. Or at least, I love many of them. My recent(ish) purchases include Styrateg, Depths of Peril, Noitu Love 2, Mount & Blade, Galactic Civilizations II (and expansions), Puzzle Quest, Trackmania United Forever, Noitu Love 2, Aquaria, Eschalon: Book I and Larva Mortus. My single major beef with several of these is this one.

I'm really sorry, but I'm spoiled by Steam, Impulse and other digital distribution methods like Atari's download service which was rock solid despite not being advertised almost anywhere. Given all these different advancements we've seen in digital distribution in the last few years, why on earth do some of these developers have to resort to using Plimus?

I have nothing against the company or individuals running it since they've done a good job at offering what they offer with their seemingly limited means but it's just so damn backwards. Manual activation of purchases which can obviously take several hours? Links sent to your e-mail going inactive after a certain period? Inability to login and redownload your games without first contacting Plimus themselves (are you supposed to?) or the game's developers to set up reactivation of your links? Why, when one offers something so futuristic (yay for internet distribution) they resort to such backwards measures?

I'm sorry but I need more and the next time I see a game sold via Plimus, I may just reconsider depending on my mood and how bad I want the game. Please, discover a new way to distribute your games. Use Impulse or Steam. If you don't want that, then make a trial or demo that clients unlock to the full game but are basically able to redownload the latest runtimes from any random demo website without any hassle any time they want or need to, much like Mount & Blade. Force Plimus to get up to date. Whatever works. For the love of God, just do whatever you need except use Plimus as is.

Am I wrong?


Comments
on Jun 28, 2008
If companies which, after all, are engaged in economic activity provide an inferior purchase experience to their customers then customers tend to examine their alternatives. And, they make their pleasure or displeasure known with their dollars.

I don't have any experience with Plimus but, I'm thinking if other companies offer better products and services that this will correct many of Plimus's problems. Since there is lot's of competition in computer games, either they'll change and improve or they won't be in business.
on Jun 28, 2008

Well, yeah, it's just that Plimus seemed relatively popular, I recall at least four of the indie games I bought used it. I think Aquaria and Eschalon: Book I were two of them and they're pretty big games, especially Aquaria which I'd buy even if it came with a packet of bullcrap I guess. I actually went and complained about it in their forums, haha... But I thought I'd write about it here also.