LarryP
Posts: 3783
Joined: 5/15/2005 From: Carson City, NV Status: offline
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Bear with me, this is kind of long but well worth reading if you like to purchase and download your games. A little over a week ago I found that my PC had two Trojans and a couple of viruses. I knew then that my life for the next week was predestined for hassle. This was the second time anything like this has happened to me, the first was fifteen years ago when my PC got the Sunday virus. I am extremely careful and very leery of all web sites. My cookies are set to a bare minimum and my security settings barely allow me to do much of anything fun on any web site. After almost every surfing experience I run two spyware programs to clean up the invasive junk. I’m careful! Starting last year, I began using download services for acquiring games as it was easier than going to the stores, as I am a bit physically challenged. I used Steam, StrategyFirst, TotalGaming, and GamersGate. Of course I have used Matrix for many years before these others. It was during one of the online updates from one of the above services (I won’t mention which) that the Trojan and virus problems hit. I had to reformat and of course reinstall XP, then reinstall ALL of my programs. Then close to a hundred Windows security and program updates! Oh, and all of the Dell drivers too. What a hassle! When I got to the games install part of this journey, that’s when I found out what companies would receive any future money from me or not. Some of the games installed effortlessly. Some of them would not install until I received another authorization number from customer support. Mind you this is only the second install for these games I paid for. The customer support FAQ’s at one site said that I was allowed two installs only and after that I would need special permission! I am still waiting for that special permission to install the last two games I paid full retail for. This is day three. These two games are old classics too, not something that everyone wants to pirate. OK. My points are these. I received the Trojans and viruses from them updating their service (a download manager) on my PC. I know for a fact because I checked just before and then after. I nailed it to the wall. I have no doubt who gave it to me. Also to reinstall games that I want to play is now a major hassle and waiting game. I ended up going to Amazon last night and buying (again) the games that will release me from these companies. I will now have the boxed version at my disposal. My main reasons for writing this is to let others know that they need to be very careful when purchasing downloadable games online. Some of these services require a download manager, be careful of these. The other reason is that every Matrix game I have purchased (over 20 now) is saved along with its serial number and I can reinstall all of them with absolutely NO hassle of any kind! That’s the way it should be done by ALL of these companies. Instead of catering to their piracy paranoia. Thanks Matrix for showing me how purchasing and downloading games should be! You truly are the best when it comes to getting a game fast and being able to use it again even years later.
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