I had a feeling this was a stuff up, it just seems like marketing suicide to release a near complete game to the public with only a down payment on the Gold version. It's not exactly like you guys who have the PR version are going to be falling over yourself to get the Gold version now.
Personally if I was in DA's/MS's shoes, it'd be a cold day in hell before i'd offer the PR Beta to be downloaded.

Well if they went to go as far as seeing the messages here in the forums about it, ran over to EB and got themselves a PR beta, they at least owe to the developers to buy the game.

I just told the guy at EBX i would pre-order in full to get the PR demo, he said ok, so thats what i did.

God im glad i live inthe uk,What a dilemma,i do not want to play the pr copy even if its 90% of the gold realise.I want my first experience of fl to be perfect.
But iv been waiting for fl for 4years and cant wait to get into the cockpit.
I just dont know what i would do if i lived in the us.when i first read of the pr copy being available at EB,Iwas pissed off,but now iam glad i dont have to make a decision weathere to play the pr copy or not.Anyway looks like the decisions been made for me THANK GOD ill have to wait for the official realise.

What I said, "Why the **** would you only give a demo out to employees of a software store where maybe a dozen or so employees have been waiting for this game or even know anything about this game."

What you said,"And by the way, whoever says we dont deserve or dont appreciate getting to play these games before anyone else (Fihnakis comes to mind) ?? We are gamers too, and enjoy playing games like the next person. In the end Fihnakis, I think your being overly selfish and incredibly immature."

So you tell me where I said employees didn't deserve or don't appreciate getting the game early.

In the end, you need to read more carefully what is written before pointing fingers and throwing around insults.

Well, if you check my posting on the first page of this thread you will notice that i knew from the beginning that something's not right about giving the PR Beta to (would be) customers. Even if the majority of people who got it will actually buy the final version of the game, some of them will definately leak the beta into the net, resulting into a fast spreading of it. This is something the employees of those shops should have known and should have prevented from happening. But alas... they didn't. The result will be that Freelancer will sell much worse than initially possible, in the worst case turning into a flop. I dunno about MS and DA but if i were them, i really would be pissed at all those shops who helped spreading the beta... including some severe consequences. Just my 2 cents.

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"In all likelihood you're going to die out there. We're all going to die out there, but none of us needs to be reminded of that fact. So you die, you never existed."

Edited by - Lev Arris on 16-02-2003 17:41:59

I dont think Mircosoft or DA know about this problem. How about the ADMIN for the site fire up an email. I think its his patriotic duty to MICROSOFT. haha. I got a beta. I am not gonna buy the full game. haha. J/K.

BELIVE ME DA AND MS KNOWS!!!! But as you also might realize, there is very little they can do about it now... The thing is out of the bag, the game is leaked weeks ahead of release to pirates, who allready spread the pirated copy.

This is very bad...

Best Regards
Christian "Bargib" Koerner
Editor in Chief, The Lancers Reactor

The best way to solve this problem is to "lock out" multiplayer servers hosting the 1196 version. That way when the final retail version comes around, anyone who wants to play multiplayer will be forced to buy the retail version, and anyone hanging on to the 1196 version will not be able to play online at all. I don't know if this is possible, but I sure hope so. Let's face it, multiplayer for this game is one of the selling points, and not being able to play multiplayer with the beta will force those who are hanging on to it to buy the full version.

Whats that saying???

Good things come to those who wait..

S: I bet that is one of the really easy things to hack!

Best Regards
Christian "Bargib" Koerner
Editor in Chief, The Lancers Reactor

I dont think playing around in the game is going to spoil the fun here, as long as you limit how far you go and don't play the hole thing. It's no different than playing a demo of a game (i've played many demos and the full games are just as good)

I am only playing the first story mission and flying around the NY system and that's it. I think playing the MP part of the game and visiting all of the different areas and sectors will spoil the experiance the most so I am not going any were else in the game escpecially MP. One of the big features of the game is the huge iniverse and exploration so it seems to me that the thing you want to avoid until retail is exploring all of the areas.......

I already payed the full price of the game $52.99 and am looking forward to getting it on 3/5 just as much as everyone else. I still have this feeling of anticipation to play the retail game when it comes out.

It seems like if the point was to let the sales people preview the game before it comes out then I really, really doubt that very many people got a hold of it compared to how many will buy the retail game it must be a very small amount. I mean how many discs could the shops get if the point was to let the sales people PR it? Even if gamestop didn't know it was for employees at the time I think MS would have limited the number of discs they sent out accordingly. And out of that lets hope the people that did get the PR version will at least have the balls to buy the full game.

Cypher: At least you already paid the full price for the game. There are those out there who are just putting down their "5 bucks" and then taking the beta and running home. When the game rolls into stores, the stores will call them and say "Hey, Freelancer is in." Then they'll say, "Ok" and never go back to pick up the full version and pay the remainder. Instead they'll just be satisfied with what they have, and hack their way to the rest of the missions that aren't "unlocked" in the beta.

All right, enough of my ranting. Anything I or anyone else says in the voice of reason will be ignored by those determined to cheat Digital Anvil out of their hard-earned money.

Ok, what are you guys trying to change. I think everyone on this board (except for the ocassional troll) are going to buy the game. You think anyone would wait 4 years for a game, and then be satisfied with an inferior version that wont be able to play online against people with the retail version, just because they are cheap?? No "warez monkey" is on this message board, so why are we arguing over if we will buy it or not!?

Also, if a person was going to warez Freelancer anyway, why would this PR demo change anything? Just accept that it is out, you can not change anything, and get a little practice before the full version is out.

ArcticFox: Read the "PATIENCE" thread.