By Craig Pearson on March 12th, 2012 at 6:00 pm.
If the barter system existed across the board for games this wouldn’t be worth mentioning, but until the day we’re released from the bonds of the current economic system, in about two weeks, it’s still an unusual move: Paradox Interactive is giving away a copy of the really rather decent Cities in Motion on Gamer’s Gate to the people who take the 20 or so minutes it takes to answer this survey.
Sure, it’s a couple of years old and the giveaway doesn’t include the vast amount of DLC that’s been released. It’ll take a while to be delivered: the survey ends on March 31st and the keys will be sent a few years weeks after, but it’s a good, free game. Now let’s take a look at how it all began.
12/03/2012 at 18:04 SF Legend says:
A few years after? Well, better fill this out quickly then.
12/03/2012 at 18:16 Alevice says:
There ain’t no time to waste!
And for clarification, the survey states: “The survey deadline is March 31st and codes will be sent out to all participants a few weeks after that.”
12/03/2012 at 18:17 Craig Pearson says:
That doesn’t read as amusingly now as it did when I typed it.
13/03/2012 at 04:56 Parable says:
It has changed now, it now says that..
“Thank you for completing this survey! In order to receive the reward, please input a valid email address in the box below. Within a couple of days, an email will be sent to the given address granting access to the game. “
12/03/2012 at 18:09 tgoat says:
“5. What is your current living arrangement?
* Alone
* Cohabitation (e.g., with family, spouse or friends)
* Other”
I’m trying to figure out what living arrangement falls under “other”.
12/03/2012 at 18:13 Stellar Duck says:
A cave?
12/03/2012 at 18:16 Alevice says:
A refugee camp or an orphanage I suppose would fit.
12/03/2012 at 18:16 Splynter says:
A vagrant?
12/03/2012 at 18:17 Belua says:
Hobos and wandering samurai?
12/03/2012 at 18:18 lhzr says:
With others, but deep down still alone.
12/03/2012 at 18:38 Njordsk says:
Yeah. Being schizophrenic.should do it too.
12/03/2012 at 19:18 syndrome says:
i feel ya
all in all nothing a good ol killin spree can’t fix
12/03/2012 at 18:20 GraemeL says:
Well, the bodies under the floor probably mean I’ll be picking other. Not sure that either alone or cohabiting fit properly.
12/03/2012 at 18:37 kikito says:
Imaginary friends, or multiple personality disorder.
12/03/2012 at 18:47 Unaco says:
Prison.
12/03/2012 at 18:57 squareking says:
With cats and/or cyborgs.
12/03/2012 at 18:59 diamondmx says:
Currently hiding in the shadows.
12/03/2012 at 19:00 sinister agent says:
A lot of military people would come under “other”, I’d imagine.
Because they live in spaaaaace.
12/03/2012 at 19:56 Gnoupi says:
Nope, apparently those ones play Angry Birds, that doesn’t concern Paradox.
12/03/2012 at 23:09 malkav11 says:
A couple possibilities: homelessness (how are you filling out a survey on the internet, and where will you play your free game? I don’t know!); mass housing like barracks, dorms, etc.
13/03/2012 at 10:50 P7uen says:
Not living?
12/03/2012 at 18:17 TheWhippetLord says:
While I like the idea of people giving me games for lying to them, whoever told Paradox that ‘Priceworthy’ is a word needs hunting down at once.
12/03/2012 at 18:25 Skabooga says:
Hey now, Paradox’s choice of words is not violenceworthy.
12/03/2012 at 18:31 NathanH says:
It is quite a good word that is instantly understandable. I vote that every Wot I Think ends with a Priceworthy Value. Soon, everyone will be saying it.
13/03/2012 at 07:23 luckystriker says:
Indeed. Priceworthy is a word that should exist in the English language. I shall therefore make it my mission to introduce priceworthiness to the general public.
12/03/2012 at 18:49 Fumarole says:
I find these comments replyworthy.
12/03/2012 at 18:57 lordcooper says:
This whole thread is facepalmworthy
12/03/2012 at 19:06 NathanH says:
Your mum is facepalmworthy.
12/03/2012 at 19:15 Hodge says:
If I ever write a detective novel set in a Victorian mansion then Priceworthy’s going to be the name of the long-suffering butler.
12/03/2012 at 22:42 identifierad says:
The survey was written by Swedish students in cooperation with a Swedish developer. Swedes are usually rather good at English but often figure that the relatively similar nature of the languages mean that you can translate directly. Priceworthy directly translates to “prisvärd” which is a perfectly cromulent Swedish word.
13/03/2012 at 03:41 Arglebargle says:
Cromulent! You can make up a new one every day! I am Embiggered!
13/03/2012 at 10:55 P7uen says:
Now ‘priceworthy’ and ‘cromulent’ are giving me far too much perrycombobulation.
13/03/2012 at 11:27 Khab says:
I think they’ve had someone swedish design that survey – “prisvärt” in swedish is a very real word and apparently some online dictionaries think that “priceworthy” is how it should be translated. It sounds really weird, though.
12/03/2012 at 18:31 Guest_84592 says:
Well, great. There is no free text field, so I can tell them that making the retail copy of CiM steam-forced was a retarded idea, considering the gamersgate version is not, which is the only the reason why I’m taking this stupid survey.
13/03/2012 at 09:03 markgreyam says:
They did that with Cities in Motion as well? I wanted a disc copy of CK2, assuming that it would simply install the Gamersgate files (but I’d get a swanky case and manual for my shelf) and quickly discovered that it inexplicably required Steam, which completely defeated the purpose.
12/03/2012 at 18:38 Mist says:
Filled it in honestly, but it would have been nice if the survey properly reacted to previous answers (or then again, maybe that’s a feature used to weed out the “just randomly click stuff”-users). When I already said that I haven’t bought any Paradox games, some of the game-specific questions are just weird.
Or maybe the survey was originally only aimed at Paradox customers.. oh well.
12/03/2012 at 18:51 Fumarole says:
It worked for me when I indicated that I owned several Paradox games as subsequent questions referred to those games and their various expansions/DLC.
12/03/2012 at 18:57 Danny252 says:
For me, two of the “big” three (separate questions at the start) games I own but the third I didn’t, and none of the others in its little list counted (it had CK but not CK2, annoyingly…). – so it just stuck with the big 3.
12/03/2012 at 19:06 diamondmx says:
It seemed like the first half of the survey paid attention to your answers – as soon as I answered that I had magicka, it asked me more questions about magicka. However, the second half of the survey assumed everyone had an opinion about Magicka, King Arthur, and Europa. So lots of N/As there.
12/03/2012 at 18:57 hills says:
Cities in Motion is decent.
The only negatives I can remember were not being able to zoom in super close (emphasis on super), a some what stiff camera, and not being able to lock the entire screen in on a particular vehicle, chase cam style. I mean, it’s a transport simulator, I kind of want to idle and watch after I’ve put down my track, and not just in a tiny corner window.
13/03/2012 at 14:06 Ginger Yellow says:
Other negatives include a basically broken traffic model which measn buses cause way more congestion than they relieve, and an economy in which the only really viable mode of transport is the ostensible endgame, the metro. You’re far better off taking a huge loan at the start, building a short-ish metro, and then waiting 10 years, than you are building up from humble beginnings.
12/03/2012 at 19:02 Hodge says:
Every time a question gave me the option of ‘I do not know’ I heard it in Jeff Bridges’ voice.
The survey was worth it for that alone.
13/03/2012 at 15:53 Havok9120 says:
I know exactly what you’re talking about, and now the same thing is happening to me now that you’ve mentioned it.
I already had Matt Damon telling me that whatever I am doing he “fears is rash.”
12/03/2012 at 19:02 Berzee says:
This is a bargain!
12/03/2012 at 19:05 Danny252 says:
The first question about money gave options for USD/EUR/GBP, so I actually had some clue. But then it starts asking about DLC in dollars – I don’t know how much a 3 quid DLC is for pond-hoppers. Do they use the exchange rate as of today or 3 years ago? Do they do “same number in ALL the currencies!”? Oh well, I generally ignore DLC unless it comes in a 50p sales bundle.
For Magicka, I was torn about what to put for graphics – yes, it’s pretty, but the word “optimised” was apparently not in the devteam’s dictionary. Do I rate that as a “yeah cool awesome!” or a “nice try, but I was running in 800×600 at 15fps, so I didn’t really get much out of it”?
12/03/2012 at 19:09 sinister agent says:
These questions leave rather a lot to be desired. I can either say I never play Paradox games, or play them 25% of the time. Well, it depends, doesn’t it? I might go for months without touching them, but then play them every day for a week.
Also the “what is the most important part of a game” bit is a bit simplistics. THE GRAPHICS IS GOOD AND IT HAS GOOD GAMEPLAY AND I LIKE THE FUN GAMEPLAY AND SOUND THE GAMEPLAY IS GOOD.
(I am very interested in the mouths of gift horses, yes)
12/03/2012 at 19:18 Hodge says:
I think you’re being far too fussworthy.
12/03/2012 at 19:20 sinister agent says:
Your statement is probably agreeworthy, but I am sighworthily petulant and will carry on regardless. Worthy.
12/03/2012 at 19:32 NathanH says:
This seems to be memeworthy.
12/03/2012 at 19:09 EdenCrow says:
Shame the deal isn’t on Steam. Would be much happier to do it then :/
EDIT: Still did it and that is NO WAY NEAR 20 minutes of time.
12/03/2012 at 19:16 thugnificent says:
I assume the key would work on retail copy downloaded off Gamersgate? Or will it be activated on steam and downloaded there?
Anyways whatever the case , i filled it out honestly and paradox being one of my favorite developers i’d have filled it out without even the motive of a free game :)
12/03/2012 at 19:23 RogB says:
wouldnt normally do this, and not massively arsed about CiM, but i cant help but like Paradox so thought it worthwhile (if only to voice my disapproval of overdoing the microtransactions.)
12/03/2012 at 19:55 Railan says:
I think what you mean is “worthwhileworthy”
12/03/2012 at 19:23 HardcoreGamer12 says:
Thank you guys for the heads up!
12/03/2012 at 19:25 hosndosn says:
Well, that’s a fair price.
12/03/2012 at 23:57 Mattressi says:
*priceworthy
12/03/2012 at 20:05 mmalove says:
Filled this out a week ago, now finding out I have to wait until a few weeks after the survey close to get the free game :P Oh well, free is free.
I could kick myself though. I answered most of the survey as honestly as I could, but looking back the miser in me lowballed my annual spend on computer games. I think the old subconscious responded much the same way as you do when someone asks if you want a pay raise or free stuff, but in hindsight that’s probably the question that determines whether game companies pursue more PC titles vs console titles.
12/03/2012 at 21:16 wodin says:
Never refuse a free game. Surevy done.
12/03/2012 at 21:17 wodin says:
I made sure every answer to do with Multi player was a negative. Single player please.
12/03/2012 at 21:27 Apolloin says:
Yes, me too. The addition of multiplayer at seemingly random to a single-player game concept rarely makes it playworthy. *looks at Mass Effect 3*
12/03/2012 at 21:31 yhancik says:
After answering this survey I feel bad for not owning more Paradox games :<
12/03/2012 at 22:26 Sarissofoi says:
In the end it throw me at Pradox site when I notice THE MOST SOLD GAME:
Swords of the Stars II Lords of Winter.
Oh my. How many naive people live on this world.
12/03/2012 at 22:29 Vinraith says:
I’m glad it’s doing reasonably well. Kerberos has been working furiously to patch it up after that disastrous launch, and has done a remarkable job of picking up the pieces and making it into a pretty great game.
13/03/2012 at 13:45 aldo_14 says:
So is it officially *good* now?
13/03/2012 at 15:45 Sarissofoi says:
Nope.
Still not good enough to be good enough for 1.0.
So beware.
12/03/2012 at 23:11 malkav11 says:
They had a recent sale where it was $7.50. That can’t have hurt.
12/03/2012 at 22:33 pertusaria says:
I own EU III, and I didn’t know it had a multiplayer mode. :/ There wasn’t an option for “I have no opinion” on that bit, either.
“Gameplay” is always the most important part of the game for me out of the options given, I’m nearly sure, but it’d be nice to have options reflecting different aspects of gameplay, like interface, controls, freedom within the gameworld etc.
Maybe we’re not worthy of better survey design…
12/03/2012 at 23:13 malkav11 says:
Yeah, nor an option for “um, well, I own all of these games because I am a massive consumer whore, but I haven’t actually played this one that you’re asking me about.”
12/03/2012 at 23:59 Mattressi says:
You’re saying we’re not surveyworthy?
12/03/2012 at 23:52 phenom_x8 says:
Finishing the survey! I love something for free!! Nice! (only have Mount & Blades though)
13/03/2012 at 02:16 trjp says:
I did the survey earlier on but no emails or anything like that appeared which is a slight disappointment tbh…
13/03/2012 at 11:22 sneetch says:
Kinda disappointed that there were multiple references to multiplayer and none for co-op multiplayer. Co-op is important to me the (generally speaking) competitive multiplayer is less so.
13/03/2012 at 14:11 Bhazor says:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaMzKpNC2Jk
Any mention of this game requires a link to this song. Its the law.
02/04/2012 at 13:39 Crius says:
Someone received a key?
I’m still waiting :|
edit: update from Paradox Forum
The survey ends on 31 March. So here we are, waiting…