Re: [GD-General] Protecting our game

[brian h. <bri...@py...>]

> well, it depends on how 'casual' you casual player is. In my case I'd 
> think that most casual players have no idea what the registry is, so 
> I should be safe until a someone decides to put a .ref file somewhere.

Exactly.  People tend to grossly overestimate the technical 
sophistication of the average user.  There is tendency to project our 
own particular biases and proclivities onto that of the "mass market", 
and this often ends up making developers waste a lot of time.

The vast, vast majority of users have no idea what a registry is.  In 
fact, most don't even know where files are -- they click on icons.  
This is one reason why so many shareware games put an icon on the 
desktop -- if they don't, the users often can't/won't find it.  Sad, 
but true, and I speak from experience.

> Anyway, I don't think the additional download
> is a good thing. "Register and get the key" seems to be more 
> attractive to me.

This seems to be the consensus I've found with a lot of people.  The 
extra bandwidth really isn't that big a deal compared to a typical 1% 
conversion rate, but it's a hassle for many users to register, then 
click a link to an FTP site, etc. etc.  They'd much rather click, 
register and go.

Brian