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Selling SB Pro PE has never been about maximizing the audience; I'm not against moderate growth but we couldn't handle a sudden spike in new users without changing a lot of other things in the way how we run things, but that point is rather academical. I suppose you all mean well by giving me helpful tips, but Steam (or any other option that is highly privacy-intruding) isn't one of the options I would ever consider, period. You can't sell games through steam while keeping CodeMeter encryption. That alone is reason enough to stop any serious consideration. The very nature of what we're doing means that we have to protect our IT infrastructure and the product against very potent state actors that are being embargoed for various reasons. We have positive proof of that. CodeMeter is the only reason that you can have SB Pro PE at all.

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Sent them an email. Let's see what happens. :)

This sounds nice! Let's hope 😀

 

About Steam: I also have a lot of my simulations, I bought the last years on Steam. But what always frightened me personaly is, what happens if Steam closes it's doors!? It's very unlikely that they will offer an option to get all your games you bought running again, so many things will be lost forever.

 

I was one of those people who always hatet the change from buying a game on CD or DVD to this new online method. If I have a game on DVD an all it's updates saved somewhere, I can still play it, even if the company is down since many years (assumed I have also an old hardware to run it). That's something I really do, cause I have tons of old simulators, that I really still love to play.

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9 hours ago, Viper1970 said:

This sounds nice! Let's hope 😀

 

About Steam: I also have a lot of my simulations, I bought the last years on Steam. But what always frightened me personaly is, what happens if Steam closes it's doors!? It's very unlikely that they will offer an option to get all your games you bought running again, so many things will be lost forever.

 

I was one of those people who always hatet the change from buying a game on CD or DVD to this new online method. If I have a game on DVD an all it's updates saved somewhere, I can still play it, even if the company is down since many years (assumed I have also an old hardware to run it). That's something I really do, cause I have tons of old simulators, that I really still love to play.

You can always right click on a game, and select: "Backup Game Files". 

10 hours ago, Ssnake said:

Selling SB Pro PE has never been about maximizing the audience; I'm not against moderate growth but we couldn't handle a sudden spike in new users without changing a lot of other things in the way how we run things, but that point is rather academical. I suppose you all mean well by giving me helpful tips, but Steam (or any other option that is highly privacy-intruding) isn't one of the options I would ever consider, period. You can't sell games through steam while keeping CodeMeter encryption. That alone is reason enough to stop any serious consideration. The very nature of what we're doing means that we have to protect our IT infrastructure and the product against very potent state actors that are being embargoed for various reasons. We have positive proof of that. CodeMeter is the only reason that you can have SB Pro PE at all.


Understood, and thank you for the clarification! I won't pester you guys about it anymore! 😉

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  • 3 weeks later...

For all who are concerned, and Viper as well 😉 ,

 

 

I just found and will further investigate this as an option: prepaid Visa cards that in Germany can be bought at gas stations only and that need no formal processing like an ordinary credit card would need, and that do not get linked to your bank account. You pay them once a fee (10€ for one year), during the buying you can load it up with up to 100 Euro (maximum if you want to stay anonymous and avoid socalled PostIdent proceedings), and this all happens in the gas station. You can not recharge it without further IDying yourself. The card thus can be used for payment of just-once-transactions on the web. As I see it, I could buy the card, charge the needed price and costs for eSim, pay both in one rush at the cash desk of the gas station, use the card for shopping at eSiom, and then forget about it: the card is empty then and of no further use, no further fees per years coming.

 

The total additonal cost over the pörice of eSim is 10€ when buying the card, and one or two Euros for charging it once. Acceptable if you do not need a credit card for regular use.

 

Well, I have three different bicycles but no car and have not seen the inside of a gas station since 30 years. I will keep this on mind.

 

Question to Ssnake: is this payment option valid for your shop?

 

https://www.zahlungsverkehrsfragen.de/prepaid-kreditkarte-tankstelle-kaufen

https://www.mycard2go.com/

 

Note for german users: this prepaid model is different than the classical "prepaid" cards offered by banks and credit card companies. If you do not wish further service and recharging options and do not need more than 100€, you must not link your bank account to it. Its like buying a chocolate bar, apparently.

Edited by Skybird03
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I suppose it will work (the point of the whole construction being that it actually behaves like any other VISA card, aside from the limitations WRT the payment amount).

 

What's more, I'll personally give it a try before the weekend.

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19 minutes ago, Ssnake said:

What's more, I'll personally give it a try before the weekend.

Very nice. I would be especially interested in the activation process, the info asked for in that. I could not find any information on whether they nevertheless ask for additional data, especially bank account data, during that process. First page of that process only asks for the card and charging transaction number, any subsequent pages coming I cannot access without having such a card already, so I do not know what else there is coming.

 

The queston here is whether or not the card introduces a membership fee thorugh the backdoor after one year - by booking an according fee from your bank account in case you had to give that link during the card activation procedure. IT, telephone, internet companies, banks - they all usually try something underhanded like this.

 

The simple card that cannot be recharged, should deactivate itself after one year anyway. I expect it all then to be lost and forgotten and off and over and out.

 

Edited by Skybird03
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Well, at lest my local Aral Shop said that they stopped selling these long ago, and that they would be very hard to find anywhere, if at all. Only criminals use anonymous payment options, or something. 9_9

 

 

After some more web research, it looks like they officially stopped selling them since last November. It still seems possible to get a virtual credit card though that probably requires identification with the associated hassle.

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Thanks for trying - before I started to run around. 😁

 

I did not know that things already are so bad that cash payment - which is anonymous - nowadays turns you into a criminal suspect already. But the war on cahs money certainly is hot and in full swing. So that credit card companies can dictate fees and conditions due to lacking alternatives - and state and party can profile their subjects, I mean the "citizens", more completely, and can plunder private savings and raise state debts more unscrupulously than ever before. 🙁 In our postdemocratic era, states have become the citizens' worst enemies. If they have not always been that anyway.

 

I stay around, lurking, maybe at some unknown time in the future your shop will offer unexpected new options.

 

 

Edited by Skybird03
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