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pcristy01 -> RE: Downloading Games (6/20/2014 6:03:02 PM)
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Dear Matrix, I'm a long time hardcore war gamer. I've bought hundreds of board games and computer games over the years. My real interest is in war games but logged ten of thousand of hours in Civ. I check your site regularly for new games and lurk on the forums often.
I want to continue to support Matrix financially thru purchase of your products. Your a bastion of our games love.
Now my minute of venting. Disaster happens.... I've had a three flood over the years that took out much of my board game inventory. Many many thousands of dollar loss. I lost games worth hundreds of dollars on the resale market.
Well same is true in the high tech world we live in now. I'm quite certain many share the misfortune of losing their PC. I upgrade about every three to four years. But usually as a result of a catastrophic crash, normally the hard drive. My most resent happened last Christmas. I was unable to re-install the OS. I bought a new PC and a new drive for the old PC. Hoping to recover the data but as you know it a lot of work and I'd rather spend my time playing your games!
Being a typical lazy user. I don't always register my games. And when your PC crashes the emails and keys etc are gone. Fortunately I registered many of my games last fall with the emails I had available. I have 27 games registered. This is not the first nor the second time I've lost games due to PC crashes. I'm sure I've bought two to three times that many from Matrix. Well shame on me for not being better organized or what ever.
I'm sure this is not your first or last time you've heard this discourse. I apologize for my rant. I not uber-rich but consider myself fortunate the god has blessed me with the resources to replace my loses. Many other are not so fortunate and have to make more serious choices.
I don't understand you business model very well. I assume much is out sourced. Other than Matrix provide games that fit my interests, maybe the biggest attracts is that its sooooo easy to acquire. I can satisfy my impulses instantly (helps to have a super high speed connection). Matrix was one of the first too make this happen, very cool. I'm done with CD isn't everyone? Yes my dog ate Norm Kroger's Operational Art of War twice and I bought third maybe fourth copy from Matrix. Just the dog is a pacifist ...... but of course i lost the I think two PCs ago with a hardware failure.
Electronic games have a self life. Technology antiquates them quickly but some war games have a longer life such as Oper Art of War or War in the East or War in the Pacific. I had an urge to play Civil War II but gone and War in the East - gone.
If fact I wanted to buy the add-on for both these games but without the original games I haven't. This is true for several others. All are lost sales! And lost opportunity for me to enjoy your products.
Steam has a great model for buying and deploying games. I'm share they have a big investment in infrastructure to support this model. I've got 35 year of IT experience. I've been on both sides of the house but currently managing web development team of a dozen and half developers for a large corporation. I can imagine resource constraints. However, from a limited view as a customer, it seems there can be a cost effective way to make the consumer experience better without pouring money into a bunch of infrastructure.
You got a lot going right. The active forum and the way it's managed is great. Seem to have a grow community of development partners etc. I'll still be an active customer. I will continue to look for new tiles daily/weekly. But would love to see a better way of managing my game inventory via your site.
I'm stilling in my office on day off typing this note when I'd rather be playing Civil War II. Well back to playing Vassal or problem some game on Steam. Thanks for considering my thoughts.
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