This is what I posted on the Novalogic Forums, because I’m really pissed to wait for an expansion pack which is already available in USA and Germany since 2 months.
Just to make you understand: Joint Operations is my favorite videogame, and Novalogic is the software house that released it.
Read on what I posted:
28$ for an expansion pack… it’s too much, NOW.
I would have paid such an amount 2 months ago. But now I lost 2 months waiting for it…………..
I’ve waited till now for the expansion to come out in the shops of my region (Italian part of Switzerland, Europe), and now I’m really thinking that when it comes out, it’s no more worth paying for it: I would rather get it for free as bonus in a magazine after so much time. If I have to wait a lot I would like to see, at least, a discounted price.
Also to order an English copy is not an option, because the shipping and the wait time is too high.
The game has already a copy protection: the CD-KEY, so why don’t you sell an online version of the game? People need to have a fast connection to play it, so some people would be happy to buy it online, download an ISO version and burn it on their own. And play it as soon as it’s out, and not 3 months later when they finally can get it in the shop.
I understand that, some people want to have a manual and a CD-case in their language… if they want to wait… but some people like me want the game in English, even if they live in a non-English speaking country.
I understand that you want to make more profit by selling the nice manual and nice package.
I understand, but I don’t like it, it seems that you are lazy towards your international fans. You could do something for your international fans… but USA is the main revenue, so who cares about the rest of the world, right?
Why don’t you do something "innovative" (I think some serious software companies already do something like this) and sell the game online: so people can pay it via credit card, download an ISO file, burn it, install it with a valid CD-KEY and play it?
Why is there piracy? Sometimes people get a pirated copy or leech it from a peer to peer program (maybe the day after the game is officially released in USA) because they don’t want to wait 4 months to get a game they can get in a few hours of download…
Open your eyes: begin to sell ALSO online. Go on selling your packaged copies but don’t tell me that it’s too hard to create an online e-commerce facility to send an e-mail with a download link + CD-KEY.
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February 22, 2005, Category: Personal
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Today I received the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro that I purchased on ebay.
It’s nice to get something that you were waiting for a couple of days.
The shippping has been very fast. The card has bin shipped from California on February, 3rd and arrived today. It took 6 days to arrive. I calculated some swiss customs taxes to pay, but I had to pay nothing. That’s what I’m enjoying the most! 
I spent 195$ (shipping included) without additional taxes!
The trick: the seller wrote in the customs declaration: "May be opened officially - gift" - "Used ATI 9800 video card - value 40$". The package was very small, considered a letter. That’s whay I had to pay nothing: it was considered a letetr and wasn’t checked at the customs.
By the way, I hate these stupid customs: it’s a waste of time, money and it demotivates me to buy things online. Anyway, this time I’ve been lucky.
I tried the card and it really rocks!
I played Joint Operations maps which previously gave me problems, without any problem at all.
Well, to be honest I encountered some problems, caused by Skype. Skype uses a lot of processor power, thus I’ll look for another vocal chat alternative. Team Speak isn’t the best but shouldn’t create such performance problems.
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February 8, 2005, Category: Personal
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Not much to say (in reality -after writing this post- I see that there was enough to say), just that I was a little down in the beginning of my last 2 evenings, but as very often happens to me it’s better to go out when I’m in that (unexplainable) status.
On Friday evening I went to Bellinzona’s carnival. I just wanted to see the ambience, thus I didn’t prepare a real costume. Anyway I had a lot of fun: I met several people I didn’t meet since years! I stayed till 4am, if I remember well…
On Saturday evening I was waiting a friend of mine -Steve- from Lausanne coming to meet me and to party in Bellinzona together! Other AIESEC people lanned to do the same thing, thus as result we had a nice dinner in the AIESEC office (thanks Sabrina, Robin and Nader), then we went to Bellinzona together.
Saturday was a long, very crowded and funny night. I left at 5:15am in order to bring Steve directly at Lugano’s train station and Stefano at home. I went to sleep at 6:22am.
On Sunday I woke up at 09:00 and as I often do, I slept 20 more additional minutes… I had a meeting in Melano with Sabrina & friends. But as some friends were late I went with Selene -arrived just a couple of minutes after me- to Sabrina’s home. Sabrina has very hospital parents. It was a pleasure to meet them.
Anyway, the real adventure begun when we started the engine to go to Italy with Selene’s parents’ car, a big mercedes handling 6 passengers (us) without any space problems.
But in Italy the rubber brake (ND POL: "abbiamo bucato la gomma" come si dice in inglese? verifica…), so we had to change it with the reserve one. We were 2 men in the car, Lukas and me. Anyway it was nice to see a team spirit: we all helped (in particular Lukas and me, but the girls assisted us too) to fix the problem in a smooth way.
We finally arrived in Ivrea, where the funny part begun. The oranges battle begun at 2pm o’ clock. Luckily we had some impermeable jackets, but it was not enough to be fully protected against "friendly fire oranges". I’ve never seen such a big waste of fruits and something so crazy. But it’s a tradition since houndreds of years. No matter if it’s a waste: it’s a tradition and now that I’ve participated there I can understand that sometimes sustainability is "taboo" for certain activities.
I liked it very much.
I didn’t think to be a carnival fanatic, nor I think it now, but for sure I like it!
I published the carnival pictures on my personal gallery:
Ivrea’s Carnival offocial site
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February 7, 2005, Category: Personal
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