I entirely agree with you on all the points you made here. As you've stated, it applies for all digital products and services available today, not just Stardock products. Although obviously the issue is personal for you Brad, when it comes to Stardock products which you have conceived, designed, produced and updated through years of interaction with a development team and the community base. For what its worth I like the distribution model Stardock uses. Digital delivery, with free software and themes available and premium content for when you want to receive that special product polish. With this method I demonstrate that I feel a theme or product is valuable/exceptional by paying for it with money.

I think that many internet communities today are populated mostly by children, teens and young adults. Factor in that unless the language used reflects the age of the poster, it is hard to ascertain someones age from a comment or forum post. I think that these are the people who create the negative 'buzz' about products and services. I see a few reasons for this, such as: a disproportionate value on commodities they actually pay for, a desire to 'own' a complete product (everything), a difficulty in obtaining subscription services illegally... and a belief that corporate markets are inherently evil (and the consumer is naturally the wronged victim of such thieving ways) and will suck away your life essence if you let them.

I guess as always, those who are impressed by a product will recommend it to a friend or even write a review.. those for whom the product 'does what they expected' will probably never say anything either way about it, and those who feel wronged somehow or disappointed will express their opinions with eloquent vehemence on every forum they frequent....

Brad, Stardock make fantastic, quality software. I guess their are a lot of people who are unprepared or unable to purchase the software - and to make themselves feel better they try and convince themselves, and everyone else they can, that the software wasn't worth having in the first place.

I say: Their loss. If I'm reading your comments above correctly as well, it sounds like you are happy Stardock doesn't have these types as customers anyway.

I really think it's interesting when someone complains about paying $15 or $20 for an application they will use every day.  I'd really like to see how people spend their money, I mean I spent almost $20 at Dunkin Donuts the other day.

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*grin* Brad, I gotta confess you sound seriously riled up by this - if it didn't come through in your post, it certainly stands out in the comments on this article. I entirely agree with you on all the points you made here. As you've stated, it applies for all digital products and services available today, not just Stardock products. Although obviously the issue is personal for you Brad, when it comes to Stardock products which you have conceived, designed, produced and updated through years of interaction with a development team and the community base. For what its worth I like the distribution model Stardock uses. Digital delivery, with free software and themes available and premium content for when you want to receive that special product polish. With this method I demonstrate that I feel a theme or product is valuable/exceptional by paying for it with money. I think that many internet communities today are populated mostly by children, teens and young adults. Factor in that unless the language used reflects the age of the poster, it is hard to ascertain someones age from a comment or forum post. I think that these are the people who create the negative 'buzz' about products and services. I see a few reasons for this, such as: a disproportionate value on commodities they actually pay for, a desire to 'own' a complete product (everything), a difficulty in obtaining subscription services illegally... and a belief that corporate markets are inherently evil (and the consumer is naturally the wronged victim of such thieving ways) and will suck away your life essence if you let them. I guess as always, those who are impressed by a product will recommend it to a friend or even write a review.. those for whom the product 'does what they expected' will probably never say anything either way about it, and those who feel wronged somehow or disappointed will express their opinions with eloquent vehemence on every forum they frequent.... Brad, Stardock make fantastic, quality software. I guess their are a lot of people who are unprepared or unable to purchase the software - and to make themselves feel better they try and convince themselves, and everyone else they can, that the software wasn't worth having in the first place. I say: Their loss. If I'm reading your comments above correctly as well, it sounds like you are happy Stardock doesn't have these types as customers anyway.

My god the quoting on our forums stinks.  It wipes out the paragraph spaces.  Anyway...

I just want people to have choices. I am a big believer that people are smart enough to decide for themselves. They don't need someone else telling them that something is a bad idea or not.  If someone wants to give their opinion, fine.  But where I have a problem is when people decide a concept is bad and make it their business to try to quash it rather than letting people decide for themselves.  That's an over simplification I admit but that's the basic point I'm trying to make.

What is really a shame was the whole "Horse Armor" incident because it really gave people a bad taste in their mouths about the concept of micropayments for content.

I've been putting in massive hours to finish Twilight for the Arnor for GalCiv II (one reason I'm so cranky) and I think it's a real shame that other than the 2.0 update we'll be making later on, that's pretty much it for the game for many years. 

I'd love to put up a module that just changes the United Planets in GalCiv II. Or a module that adds new types of planets or new super abilities or new random events or whatever.  But I'm not doing that for free.  We'd have to be paid for it. I'd probably ask for $9.95 or something per module.  But would we get massively flamed? Probably.

MyColors themes include the software you need. The Suites are just content. If you have Object Desktop, you can get MyColors themes for $9.95 (see the Object Desktop discount on the MyColors page).