This may be the dumbest official response to a potential game customer complaining about the subscription model in a game.
https://forum.maniaplanet.com/viewtopic.php?t=46629&start=100
Actually it’s not a subscription model but an access to the game for a limited time. You pay for having access to the game for one period and that’s it. When the time is over, you have to buy the game again for the time that you want to access it again.
Unfortunately this is unsurprising. I love Trackmania. I’ve bought all of them through the years and enjoyed every single one. The creators though are batshit crazy. The franchise has a ton of a potential but Nadeo (bless their hearts) just continue to drop the ball. This will probably be the first incarnation that I don’t purchase.
I wonder if they’re trying to phrase it a different way in order to skirt around certain laws (tax or otherwise) somewhere out in the world that would apply to subscription services but not whatever it is they’re pretending to do.
Edit: Ooh, and a bonus. If you subscribe two months in a row they can claim they’ve sold two units.
Did… did they just try to argue it wasn’t a subscription by giving the almost exact definition of a subscription? WTF.
“the action of making or agreeing to make an advance payment in order to receive or participate in something.”
Before Trackmania was on Steam, it was a mess to get it working because of the crazy paranoid DRM schemes that were in place. Not surprised about the continued denial of their customer’s dignity.
I hope people got to enjoy the game for the couple of years it was playable without having to bend over!
Pepperidge Farm remembers. When it was Nadeo and had StarForce.
I could never get into this series. There are far too many right angles contained in the tracks when compared to every other racing game ever. For example:
Splines on the other hand were designed to be relatively easy to use, yet the devs haven’t discovered them.
I can’t imagine posting that screenshot as a negative example. That shit is why Trackmania rules.
But, right angles, man. Right angles!
If only they were as obtuse about those as they are about their subscription model.
I’ll just play the one they gave away on Playstation Plus if I ever feel the need. That’s crazy talk.
Yeah, my kids and I love Trackmania because you can complete a race in about 90 seconds, but I’d never in a million years pay a subscription for it.
I have never played Trackmania and thought “I wish this had an iRacing-style subscription model.”
To save everybody a lot of time: the point is that
money is very important
I have worn the letters off the WASD keys on multiple keyboards playing Trackmania. I bought Canyon, Stadium and Valley when they came out, but I skipped the last one. I still have TMNF installed on two computers though.
I will be buying the new one 0 times from the looks of it.
If you’ve never played it, go download the free version TrackMania Nations Forever and give it a try. You’ll need a patch to get it running on Win10
Links:
http://trackmaniaforever.com/nations/
http://files2.trackmaniaforever.com/TmUnitedForever_Update_2010-03-15_Setup.exe
Hotwheels. On your computer.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Frogs?
Need to inform @jpinard.
[ed]
Never mind it’s TrackMania Nations Forever. Sorry JP.
There already is a Hotwheels game.
I wonder how much physics was cheated.
Jeeeezus. If you’re pitching a 50 point feature matrix for your video game subscription tiers, you fucked up somewhere.
This is Nadeo we’re talking about. If they didn’t have a 50-point feature matrix I’d be disappointed.
