If you want to borrow a license please read ...

Sean and I (and a couple of others) offer a "try before you buy" option.

To access this you email one of the two links ("Sean" or "Gibson") on the home page:

http://www.steelbeasts.com

Once we get your email your address goes onto a centrally managed spreadsheet and we send a reply to your email when your name gets to the top of the list.

Pretty straight forward you'd think?

Well apparently no.

On average half of the people I send emails too when its their turn don't take up the offer. The delay is usually no more than a week from when they submit the request so I doubt they have changed their mind.

Often I get abusive PMs about not answering their emails when in fact it is their own SPAM filter that has diverted the email and the potential borrower hasn't looked there before their typed onslaught.

So what can we do to get you a demo license sooner?

1. Only ask for one if you want one.

Every person who is allocated a license and sent an invitation is a license "locked up" until the reservation period (usually one week of the two week loan period) expires.

So you as a genuine borrower might be delayed a week or two as we work through the "tyre kickers" in front of you that didn't really want to take up the offer.

2. When you ask please use an email topic that makes sense.

Most email clients will happily accept back an email entitled "Steel Beasts Demo" or such.

Many will block replies to "Hi ya", "Hi", "Hows it hanging?" etc.

We just hit reply to the email we receive so if you send it in with a dodgy topic it will come back with one.

3. Keep checking your SPAM filters. It causes embarrassment when you swear you haven't got a reply, I say look in the SPAM folder, you do and ...

Lastly I at least am happy to continue to offer this as a voluntary service but that doesn't mean you don't have a role to play.

I fixed #2 for you.

I can add stuff to the body of the email if you wish.

How?

The person clicks on the link and emails Sean or I directly.

Is there now some "template" type message?

Yes - thanks for this, I suspect the subject is the main reason why their email clients redirect our replies to "never never land".

Click on either name on the homepage.

It's just the old mailto protocol that was there before.

Yes except you have now added a default subject line for the mail message, where before it just opened a blank message.

Again, thanks for this.

May I ask why you do not respond immediately upon receipt of the request email? Just a simple acknowledgement reply would do. The client would not have to wait a week, wondering if his email ever reached its or not, and it would verify the route in the other direction for you. Wouldn't it be more efficient for everyone concerned to do this earlier rather than later? Or am I missing something here?

Well I at least do respond when I get an email (if only to say its in the queue - often these "acknowledgement" emails don't generate a response, which is my first indicator that it wont go well, I often then follow up with a PM but this is rapidly getting to the point where I'm doing all the work, not the person who wants to borrow it ).

I think Sean does the same thing.

I can't give out a license immediately because:

Firstly I do it in my spare time.

Secondly often the email arrives while I'm asleep (so "immediately" is a subjective term).

Thirdly we need to consolidate the requests on a central spreadsheet (often we are both asked at the same time via 2 emails). Then we need to ensure the person isn't trying to "borrow" a license for the 2nd or 3rd time (getting the milk without buying the cow).

Fourthly I only have seven to give out (hence the queue in the first place).

I spend/waste enough time already re-directing people who think a PM is an email.

Does that help?

I get it. Was just curious.

No worries.

Just trying to outline the issue, without sounding like a martyr.

Make the first post a Sticky?

I know how you feel Gibsonm.

We had a new microwave at work, one of those gucchi ones with a digital display, first thing we did was try to set the clock.

(Typical Male Reaction)

Spent 30 mins trying to figure this out, before resorting to the manual:

"This Microwave does not possess a clock function."

:biggrin:

Excuse me please. I am an Steel Beasts fan in China. I am willing to buy SB PRO PE. But in www.esimgames.com, I can not find China in the Country column. Why is this? How can I buy an SB PRO PE in China?

Excuse me please. I am an Steel Beasts fan in China. I am willing to buy SB PRO PE. But in www.esimgames.com, I can not find China in the Country column. Why is this? How can I buy an SB PRO PE in China?

Welcome,

Sorry I have no idea.

Freight?

Restricted Export for a US company?

Perhaps send Ssnake an email (ssnake"at"esimgames.com, where "at" = @) and I'm sure he can explain.

It was thanks to Mark and his "test drive" system, plus his excellent tech support in helping me get my Hamachi network access running, that I decided to "buy" SB and get back into it ...

Now, with a brand new high end MacBook Pro running Windows 7 under BootCamp which runs SB very well, if I just had more time to actually learn the intricacies of the sim and get on-line playing time, I'd be good to go...

Real life keeps getting in the way, plus I'm very reluctant to bring my obviously very weak SB inexperience to the table, and screw up a large scale match for others who know what they're doing. :frown:

Being in Canada, time zones are also a problem for me...

I've been thinking about opening up my Hamachi server at regular intervals to run some very simple one-on-one (head to head) and coop scenarios with others who are as inexperienced with SB as I am....

Regards,

Doug

Glad you are enjoying your investment.

Time zones permitting, I'd look forward to your H2H / Co-op sessions.

Or if 0830 GMT on Thursdays isn't too awkward you are welcome at "our place".

I'm very reluctant to bring my obviously very weak SB inexperience to the table,

Learn by doing, some UKA Guys have learnt sheadloads in weeks.

Seriously get online, some guys have reported learning more in a week playing online than they have learnt in a single year playing solo.

and screw up a large scale match for others who know what they're doing. :frown:

Pfft! Adds to the challenge.

So long as you can shoot straight, let the CO/Platoon leader worry about keeping you alive. :biggrin:

Learn by doing, some UKA Guys have learnt sheadloads in weeks.

Including how to spell "shed"?

The SB Newsletter always goes to my spam. Not sure why.

The SB Newsletter always goes to my spam. Not sure why.

Have you "whitelisted" the address or otherwise told your SPAM filter / email software that it is "good"?

No. I prefer pain.

Aside from certain restricted dual use technologies, China is not a US embargoed country (actually they had MFN status for awhile), if you live on the US West Coast, you're smack in the prime portal of the staggering commercial traffic moving by water and air. For everyone else, look at the bottom of your computer keyboard and/or mouse to see where it was made.

However, there's been a complete disregard by the Chinese government for intellectual property and little desire to crack down on piracy, which costs intellectual property holders big money in royalties. I don't speak for eSim, but there may be policy decisions that have more to do with ethics than it does strictly legal or monetary reasons. From a practical standpoint, even ethics is good business- think of a company which markets software used for military training to certain states which regard one another as military rivals if not economic competitors and the bad PR that would create.

Including how to spell "shed"?

Crap :decu:

:biggrin:

However, there's been a complete disregard by the Chinese government for intellectual property...

China is not the only country missing from the list. My guess would be a contractual obligation or an export law as the reason. I'm almost certain this subject had been discussed in the past before but I am unable to locate it.

Export laws aren't the only reason, there are also policy reasons. It may very well be there's no legal restriction against doing business with customers in certain jurisdictions, but eSim does not necessarily want to go there anyway.

Let's assume there is no legal restriction but eSim were bound by a restrictive covenant under a contract with a certain country not to sell copies to customers to China. As a private individual and not a party to such obligations, I on the other hand could conceivably sell my copy of Steel Beasts to fulfill a request for someone in China, or buy a new copy on their behalf. Under the scenario where it's not illegal, it's still possible that an agent of the Chinese government can still get a copy while posing as a consumer and buying my copy, but at the very least eSim is not directly implicated in the transaction. It's still possible though, which is why countries doing business with eSim supplying this information shouldn't expect that it's impossible that someone in Moscow or Beijing couldn't get a copy second hand, like through eBay or something. There's virtually no way to track and put the breaks on if I sold my copy to a customer in Hong Kong which eventually wound up passing hands to someone somewhere else. If the information supplied by these governments were so protected, it really doesn't do too much to have such terms in the contract from a practical standpoint. So strictly speaking from the point of view of not disclosing the content on the disc, there are easy ways if a certain party wanted it bad enough without going through direct channels. We've already seen a couple of Russian users turn up on this site, so without debating the wisdom of such a clause in a contract which may or may not even exist, it's probably just good policy and a good calculation from a business standpoint.

At the very least, if there are no civil or criminal sanctions per se, from a policy standpoint, it probably wouldn't look so good if eSim were 'playing both sides' from the standpoint of its business model. Since most of its revenue does not come from the consumer market but existing government contracts, there's probably not a lot of incentive to go there anyway.

No worries.

Just trying to outline the issue, without sounding like a martyr.

I forgot to mention that you are a good man. Thanks for all you do around here.