This was already covered in the skin comments, but you paid Microsoft for Vista, NOT Stardock. Don't they deserve to be compensated for all their hard work in making the dream? Brad also made a post about the whole thing, so there's no point in me repeating it all.

Basically it breaks down to this: you don't HAVE to pay for the dream. If you want to purchase the master dream (or any other master skins) then that is YOUR choice. No one is forcing you to do anything.


Yes and I paid a heck of a lot for my car, does that mean free gas, insurance, and maintenance etc. should automatically come with it? No, I'd get laughed at if I went to the dealership and tried to argue that to them. Same thing applies here.

People who have spent considerable amount of time helping the community and offering skins will get promoted to Master status and will be able to sell their content. There aren't many of them and the current Masters still churn out free content as well as some premium skins here and there. There will always be much more free content than premium content. You get what you pay for.

Hi, V1P3R ....welcome to the machine...

Perhaps it was a bit of the lack of 'batteries not included' as a message in Mister Gates' Vista presentation speech.

What it was was akin to a TV advertisement showing the new, super-groovy Ghetto-Blaster from  PLastic-Noisebox-R_Us.Inc playing ACDC's Back In Black....and everyone running off to buy the big plastic box...only to find on opening it there was no Bon Scott/Angus Young inside, nor their CD/music.

The frustrating scenario here, however is that several buyers of the 'big plastic box' have rushed off to ACDC's website to complain "why must we now buy Back In Black?....it was shown on the TV in the 'big plastic box' you musicians are just greedy bastards".

When Angus replies..."shit, man, we make the rekkids, not the players, get a grip"...then ensues a debate about whether ACDC is infact music, and if it is...AND it's on the net then why can't it be free anyhow?

The above is true.  Only the names have been changed to protect the idiot...

To be fair, Bill was promoting/explaining an OS, not performing/recording a formal public-release network advertisement.  Those tend to be scrutinized by lawyers to be crystal about 'batteries not included'...

 

wow you guys are fast..thanks....lol, thnx cerebroJD for the link...
bebi bulma, i agree with you and i know im not "forced" to buy it....but lets say you go to that same dealer to get the car, and all the time hes talking about the car hes refering to a picture of a car that for example has a sat-nav....you buy it, then you recieve the car but theres no sat-nav...im not saying he told you theres one than it turns out there isnt, but he decieved you into thinking theres one...like Jafo here just hammered it RIGHT ON "batteries not included" thats exactly how it was....and Bichur again i know im not "forced" to do anything really but its not a nice tease... know what i mean? ...

  

reminds me of a story, a bit off topic.......I bought my wife a Nissan Xterra in 2002 and got the bumper to bumper extended warranty (trust me, with her I need it) before it hit 20,000 miles her rear-view mirror fell off on a very hot afternoon. Since I was at work she took it by the dealership to have it put on, they did and then gave her a bill for $65 for parts & labor. When I found out I blew a gasket and went down to talk to the Owner who is a client of mine. It seems that the bumper to bumper covers everything EXCEPT ACCESSORIES and Nissan defines rear-view mirrors as accessories. So I told the Owner to show me 1 car on the lot that comes without a rear-view mirror and I'd pay the bill. Needless to say I never paid the bill.

I could not agree with you more. It is the feeling of being duped is what I get out of it. The dollar figure isn't the cause, it is the principle behind it.

thanks jvm1 you know exactly what i mean....i dont care to pay $5, its nothing (hell...iv charged more money on things that didnt take me much to make) but like you said its the idea of getting duped also like night train said "read the fine print" kinda thing...i still bought the dream cuz i think its worth it but i just dont like the feeling of being duped really....and island dog..c'mon man obviously crysis wouldnt come with it, i mean can you imagine HOW MUCH WORK is done to create a game like that compared to a little application like dreamscape,let a lone even smaller, a little 15-20 sec movie (i know that still a lot of work is done...but comparatively think about it)...

and by the way guys.... i bought the dream "blissfull sunset" and its beautifull and worth every cent i paid

i believe i said i DID buy it and i believe i said it was WORTH it...now what are you rambling about ipsking?

I'm sorry, I'm really really sorry, but WHY OH WHY did you pay $450 for Windows Ultimate? There is absolutely NOTHING on this Earth to justify that price for any M$ OS. That's just crazy! What is wrong with people? What possesses them to spend SOOOOO much money on this OS or ANY Windows OS? Why not just spend another couple hundred dollars on a new computer? Why are you feeding the frenzy that is M$? What in Ultimate is worth $450? WHAT?

Now, I am running Ultimate. I purchased then upgraded from XPSP2 to Vista Business and then purchased and upgraded that to Ultimate. I am very fortunate and I pay education prices which are roughly $50 for a license for Business and then roughly $80 for Ultmiate. Now that is about $130 for 2 OS's NOT ONE! I know not everyone has these prices and I understand that this cannot be had by everyone but HOLY CRAP, $450????????????

Come on people!!!!!!!!!!!

the simple fact of the matter is, if u dont want to pay then dont

no one if forcing you. Stardock work hard to produce stuff and they deserve to be compensated for this and the prices are not exhorbitant