Separate MP-client / installation [Feature request to BIS]

[bensu 2]

This is the idea:

If you buy the game, you should get:

* 1 full license for the game

* several LAN-MP licenses, lets say 4 for example.

Now when you install the game there should be 2 options: normal installation and MP-client installation. With the MP-client you should only be able to join a LAN multiplayer session and maybe you could add a singleplayer Demo mission or something.

And why this?:

Because it is nearly impossible to start just a quick MP session with your friends because most of them are just casual players and don't have ArmA (2) or they have never even heard of it. Even on bigger LAN-parties you can't find a lot of ArmA players and no one is going to buy the game just for a quick MP session.

However if you have a look at which games are the most played on LANs you see: CoD series, Counterstrike (still... :rolleyes:), Vietcong (ok ok, some time ago :p), AoE2 and so on... --> games with no/little copyprotection or with a seperate MP-mode (CoD)

Now all those games got very famous and I think one of the main reason is their good LAN support. (just have a look at the "new" CoD..., I really know a lot of people who got that crap...)

So the result of such an mp client:

* A lot (!!) more ArmA MP sessions on LAN-parties (-->good for the us players)

* A lot of new customers for BIS. (People who played the game on LAN-parties) (--> good for BIS :p)

okey, so what do you think?

[An Fiach 10]

So you are asking BIS to develop a separate client to accomplish what the current client already does? Then allow it to be played by up to 3 more people for free? It is impossible to start a quick mission with anyone that doesn't have the game you are wanting to play, this doesn't make any sense.

So are you really asking that BIS develop a licensed LAN version for sale to establishments that host lan parties?

---------- Post added at 07:06 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:04 AM ----------

If that is what you are suggesting, I guess it is their call but the likelyhood of getting many additional sales from Counter Strike junkies is slim to none.

[bensu 2]

So you are asking BIS to develop a separate client to accomplish what the current client already does? Then allow it to be played by up to 3 more people for free?

Yap, why not? CoD does the same! And some time ago when the first multiplayer games were released a lot of them had similar solutions. 1 normal license and several MP licenses, this is nothing new...

It is impossible to start a quick mission with anyone that doesn't have the game you are wanting to play, this doesn't make any sense.

aha, I don't see that. why not?

If that is what you are suggesting, I guess it is their call but the likelyhood of getting many additional sales from Counter Strike junkies is slim to none.

Ehm, I think there are more than just CS kids out there who have never ever heard of ArmA :rolleyes:

[An Fiach 10]

Yap, why not? CoD does the same! And some time ago when the first multiplayer games were released a lot of them had similar solutions. 1 normal license and several MP licenses, this is nothing new...

aha, I don't see that. why not?

Ehm, I think there are more than just CS kids out there who have never ever heard of ArmA :rolleyes:

I don't know if it is new or not as I don't attend mass lan parties, they never have anything I wish to play, however I haven't seen such available outside of licenses for businesses. I'll take your word for it.

Why not? If people want to play it, they can pay for it. BIS isn't a multi million dollar a day company with the luxury of giving free handouts. It requires the client to play the game, the game streams everything in real time from the HDD, so it requires the full game to play MP as well. Other games will download map info to a temp file for the duration of the round, ArmA 2 mission content downloads directly to your PC in a permanent cache file folder.

To your last point, those are mainly the type going to these large lan parties, so, yeah....

[Inkompetent 0]

There's no point in a mutliplayer client. By removing the campaign and default missions in the game you'd save a whopping 43 megabytes of disk space. Since the rest of the game is like 10GB anyway I don't think 43MB makes a difference.

[mr_centipede 31]

No fully comprehend the post, but I think it is a good idea.

Why?

I just buy one dvd and can install on at least two PC. 1 install on my PC, and 1 other for a Guest PC. That way, if a friend come over, I can invite him to play some MP LAN. The guest PC needed to have the DVD to play SP, otherwise, it's MP LAN only. If it wanted to go to the internet, then the Serial Check will kicks in saying its duplicate or whatever

But the problem is ofcourse... it could mean less sales.

[bensu 2]

I don't know if it is new or not as I don't attend mass lan parties, they never have anything I wish to play, however I haven't seen such available outside of licenses for businesses. I'll take your word for it.

Why not? If people want to play it, they can pay for it. BIS isn't a multi million dollar a day company with the luxury of giving free handouts. It requires the client to play the game, the game streams everything in real time from the HDD, so it requires the full game to play MP as well. Other games will download map info to a temp file for the duration of the round, ArmA 2 mission content downloads directly to your PC in a permanent cache file folder.

To your last point, those are mainly the type going to these large lan parties, so, yeah....

Okey, but the MP-licenses would actually not be free. They would still belong to the one who bought the game.

And you have to think a little bit further. Of course everyone who wants to play the game should pay for it but you have to think about potential costumers not potential gamers. And with your argument no one would buy a full game because everyone could just play the demo. Someone who generally pays for games and is interested in a certain game because he played the demo or played the game at a lan party will buy the full game. And someone who is not interested will not buy the game. For BIS it makes no difference if the later played their free demo or played it at a lan party. It's no loss for them because in any way those wouldn't buy it.

There's no point in a mutliplayer client. By removing the campaign and default missions in the game you'd save a whopping 43 megabytes of disk space. Since the rest of the game is like 10GB anyway I don't think 43MB makes a difference.

Hm, but I'm absolutely not talking about discspace...

[An Fiach 10]

Okey, but the MP-licenses would actually not be free. They would still belong to the one who bought the game.

And you have to think a little bit further. Of course everyone who wants to play the game should pay for it but you have to think about potential costumers not potential gamers. And with your argument no one would buy a full game because everyone could just play the demo. Someone who generally pays for games and is interested in a certain game because he played the demo or played the game at a lan party will buy the full game. And someone who is not interested will not buy the game. For BIS it makes no difference if the later played their free demo or played it at a lan party. It's no loss for them because in any way those wouldn't buy it.

Hm, but I'm absolutely not talking about discspace...

Let me just point out that there is a reason the Demos have been becoming more and more limited, people will play them for a very long time and just move on to something else, never buying the game.

He wasn't really referring to disc space so much as the fact that it would simply include the entire game therefore you get 3 games while paying for just one. That would cause fewer copies to be sold, not more.

A wiser request would be for a demo for lan play consisting of 1 or 2 coop missions and 1 pvp mission. Something that can really showcase the game while being redundant enough that people will either buy the game or quit playing the demo. Anything larger should require a recurring fee with and only be used for lan.

[bensu 2]

Let me just point out that there is a reason the Demos have been becoming more and more limited, people will play them for a very long time and just move on to something else, never buying the game.

Indeed there are less and more limited demos out there nowadays. But I have a different explanation for this: The bad quality of the games. A lot of bugs and no really innovation. They just don't want to screw their potential costumers :p. In German you could say its about "Die Katze im Sack kaufen" (Buying the cat in a bag)

He wasn't really referring to disc space so much as the fact that it would simply include the entire game therefore you get 3 games while paying for just one. That would cause fewer copies to be sold, not more.

Sorry, but no you wouldn't get 3 games. Just because this MP-Client would need nearly all gamefiles doesn't mean you would get 3 full games. With the MP client you could do nothing else than join a LAN-Session. No SP missions, no editor, no online MP...

And now if someone played the game at a lan party for free with this MP Client and he had a lot of fun, he would surely consider to buy the game or its successor --> new costumer for BIS. Without the client he wouldn't have played it --> No new costumer for BIS.

In my eyes its clearly a win-win situation. More fun for the gamers at LAN parties & more(!) sales for BIS

And I think its one of the reasons why those games mentioned above (CoD, CS...) got so famous.

A wiser request would be for a demo for lan play consisting of 1 or 2 coop missions and 1 pvp mission. Something that can really showcase the game while being redundant enough that people will either buy the game or quit playing the demo. Anything larger should require a recurring fee with and only be used for lan.

Hm, I believe this MP-Client with full LAN-play support is still redundant enough because at the end of the lan party there is absolutely no use of it anymore. :)

[Yoma 0]

Guys I see arma2 in my local convenient store for ... 35€, they sell MW2 there for 50€...

I'm just trying to say that the game doesn't cost much at all! Especially not if you compare the fun you can have out of it to other games.

People that can spend the cash on a pc that runs it decently surely can just buy another copy of the game.

[bensu 2]

Guys I see arma2 in my local convenient store for ... 35€, they sell MW2 there for 50€...

I'm just trying to say that the game doesn't cost much at all! Especially not if you compare the fun you can have out of it to other games.

People that can spend the cash on a pc that runs it decently surely can just buy another copy of the game.

Oh, come on. Please read the thread and try to understand it. Of course everyone who wants to play it should buy it, that's no question! And of course 35€ is not too much.

But a "free" MP-client would just be additional publicity for BIS and it would simplify ArmA sessions on LAN parties. Just have a look at CoD which has a similar solution: afaik it is the game series with the most sold copies worldwide! Someone who is really interested in the game will buy it and won't stick to the MP client. And those who are not interested are just not buying the game. Those are no loss for BIS since in any way those wouldn't buy it, whether they played the game for free at a LAN party or not.

[Dwarden 1125]

afaik any of the the MW needs unique key thus need own the game license for MP ...

most likely rest of COD too ... maybe some old version allowed multiple uses of single license in MP (e.g. UT2004 allowed 4 or 6 simultaneous uses)

joining LAN session in world full of VPNs (hamachi and co) ...

would aid only these who don't want to buy the title ...

also it would mean to make and manage yet another variant of game ...

i find it unlikely to happen ...

[Yoma 0]

Someone who is really interested in the game will buy it and won't stick to the MP client. And those who are not interested are just not buying the game. Those are no loss for BIS since in any way those wouldn't buy it, whether they played the game for free at a LAN party or not.

I might be stupid in your eyes (as you think I don't understand the issue) however, I personally have several friends that just bought the game to play in in LAN. Without any real statistics we are all talking out of our behinds here.

Anyway, it's all up to BIS.

Don't think you'll ever get "every shooter player" interested in Arma, the game is too different from all the other games they know, where COD aims exactly at that kind of player.

Besides that, i think LAN parties are on a decline (well they are in my region), because of highspeed internet.

[bensu 2]

joining LAN session in world full of VPNs (hamachi and co) ...

would aid only these who don't want to buy the title ...

Hm, yap, that could be a problem. On the other side VPN's are nothing new too.

also it would mean to make and manage yet another variant of game ...

Yap, unfortunately I don't know how much additional work this would take. But couldn't you just compile the game with several options disabled? (in theory ;)) okey, I really don't know. I just learned a bit of Delphi and nothing more... ^^

I might be stupid in your eyes (as you think I don't understand the issue) however, I personally have several friends that just bought the game to play in in LAN. Without any real statistics we are all talking out of our behinds here.

Yap, that is true, statistics would be nice. And your friends really just play it in LAN? Okey, I have no real counterargument on that. I could just say that this is a minority but as you said, we have no statistics ;)

And CoD was actually just an example for a game which had such an option and was sold well. I don't think that CoD gamers would play ArmA if that is what you mean. AoE2 for example had this too.

All in all I still believe that the pros surpass the cons but yeah that's a subjective view :)

[Darkhorse 1-6 16]

All these posts with "Feature Request to BIS" in the title and almost none of them will ever happen...