[Portal of Praevus] Where is the Hexen 2 Addon? Why is it not on Steam!?!?

[FlynnUOGM]

Why is the 'Portal of Praevus' addon not on steam??

[Njã¥l]

Seems like this mod includes it:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=504304725

[FlynnUOGM]

they should tack this in the forums for members like me who might ask in the future :)

[Kailen]

It was published by ACtivision, and not Id Software. Activision has not bothered to release it for sale here.

BTW, it has never gone freeware, so downloading it yourself (even as part of the community patch) is still technically piracy.

[Rithm Fluffderg]

Originally posted by Kailen:

It was published by ACtivision, and not Id Software. Activision has not bothered to release it for sale here.

BTW, it has never gone freeware, so downloading it yourself (even as part of the community patch) is still technically piracy.

It's so silly though - a corporation actually turning down money for no good reason at all.

I mean, yeah, it'll take an investment to prepare the game for digital download, but it's not like it'd be particularly large.

I hate corporations that sit on copyrights and refuse to use them, instead letting IPs fall into obscurity and eventually the void. Makes you wanna do wrong.

[Kailen]

Here's the thing: It's an expansion pack for a game they don't have the rights to. In order to even use it, you have to buy someone else's game. They get no profit from the sale of the game at all. So they probably figure it's not worth the effort.

[gordonfreeman01]

Originally posted by Kailen:

Here's the thing: It's an expansion pack for a game they don't have the rights to. In order to even use it, you have to buy someone else's game. They get no profit from the sale of the game at all. So they probably figure it's not worth the effort.

Even if Activision thinks that (which they most likely do), they should just sell off the rights and make what little money they can off the IP or just release it for free and build some goodwill. Most likely Bethesda isn't offering an amount that is of interest to Activision and the whole thing is just sitting in limbo.

[Rithm Fluffderg]

Originally posted by gordonfreeman01:

Originally posted by Kailen:

Here's the thing: It's an expansion pack for a game they don't have the rights to. In order to even use it, you have to buy someone else's game. They get no profit from the sale of the game at all. So they probably figure it's not worth the effort.

Even if Activision thinks that (which they most likely do), they should just sell off the rights and make what little money they can off the IP or just release it for free and build some goodwill. Most likely Bethesda isn't offering an amount that is of interest to Activision and the whole thing is just sitting in limbo.

This.

[Kailen]

Yea, it would be nice if they'd do that. Until they do, however, downloading Portal of Prævus is piracy. Just because you WANT them to do something, doesn't mean they have to.

[gordonfreeman01]

Originally posted by Kailen:

Just because you WANT them to do something, doesn't mean they have to.

Whoever said that? What's being pointed out here is the blatant stupidity of whoever's involved in blocking the release of what the customer wants, thereby offering no legal way for obtaining an important part of the game.

[Kailen]

There is a legal way. Track down an old copy of the disc. Ironically, this gives Activision just as much money as downloading it would.

A lot of things go out of print. That still doesn't make it any less illegal to pirate. In a perfect world, everything would be collected into repositories. Movies, music, books, games. All of it would be archived somewhere and made legally available, some for a fee, some for free. but, sadly, we live in a very imperfect world.

[Njã¥l]

I know what you are trying to say, Kailen. I completely agree. I'm against piracy, myself. On the other hand, this is very minor. If Activision really cared they would have re-released it.

[gordonfreeman01]

Originally posted by Kailen:

There is a legal way. Track down an old copy of the disc. Ironically, this gives Activision just as much money as downloading it would.

At this point any disc on sale is very likely to be a used disc, no money to Activision whatsoever. Sure you legally obtain a license (which has a chance of being scratched or not work and many laptops don't even come with a disc drive now) but the monetary gain for Activision is zero.

Originally posted by Kailen:

A lot of things go out of print. That still doesn't make it any less illegal to pirate. In a perfect world, everything would be collected into repositories. Movies, music, books, games. All of it would be archived somewhere and made legally available, some for a fee, some for free. but, sadly, we live in a very imperfect world.

I do not deny that it is illegal to use the software without obtaining a license and I am against piracy but if we all stick to only what seems to be the legal options (more on "seems" in the next paragraph) we automatically lose access to vast swaths of culture forever behind technical limits and laws that do not serve the people or even the companies invoking them. For example, making a personal backup of a legally purchased game disc is illegal in many countries, so is using a no-CD fix and even modifying game files. Both of these are necessary to mod many games and actually serve both players and companies who get a larger market presence.

The revival of retro games in digital stores was largely driven by the rise of abandonware where no longer commercialised games were made available to people who would have no other way of playing these important artefacts. Just following the law does not make one right, sure it seems technically illegal to access such content but the spirit of the law, not its letter, is to protect the commercial use of the content which is not happening in such cases. This gray area enables fair use arguments to be invoked which are part of what allows mods to legally exist in the first place.

[Rithm Fluffderg]

^ Actually, he was pointing out that it doesn't give Activision any money to buy a used copy, as a spite benefit.

My problem with buying used is that you tend to get products with thumbprints and sticky residue all over the underside. Even when you buy from the well-rated people, it's got signs of use on it. And the prices tend to be far more than the actual value of the game.

[gordonfreeman01]

Originally posted by StarFox Fanboy:

^ Actually, he was pointing out that it doesn't give Activision any money to buy a used copy, as a spite benefit.

Correct. my bad, sorry.